We dropped anchor on the island that holds the largest town in the Galapagos, called Puerto Ayora. Not only is the economic capitol of the islands found here, but also the headquarters of the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station. Both entities work hand in hand for the conservation of these fragile islands. During the morning we visited the breeding center of the National Park, which is being run with the help of the Charles Darwin Research Station. We learned about the conservation programs that are being implemented to restore the dynasty of the Galapagos giant tortoises. Our goal is to increase their numbers after their population had been devastated by human impact and the introduction of certain animals. Some characters of the station were seen today, such as Super Diego! Diego is a saddle back tortoise brought from San Diego Zoo in California and is the male who helped save the species from Espanola Island. Now many babies are reproducing naturally within their home island. The tourist industry is the main source of income in this economy. Here we have schools, high schools and universities for the education of the local people. Puerto Ayora is a nice, quaint town we visited today. We spent some time exploring the shops and art galleries.
We then headed to the highlands, where we visited a local sugar cane press. We learned about the processing of brown sugar, coffee and sugar cane alcohol.
We explored the highlands in the afternoon. The Galápagos giant tortoises are distributed across a large part of the humid zone on Santa Cruz. There is a population of more than five thousand tortoises on this island alone. Today we spotted several, both females and many large males. Some tortoises were cooling off in the rain water ponds where pintail ducks were also seen. We finished our highlands expedition by going on an underground exploration into a double decker lava tube. The geological features within the tube were just breathtaking with striations and ripples on a roof of pure basaltic lava. It was a fun day full of exploration and meeting 100 year-old giants.
