Happy new year everybody! We spent our first day of the year on Puerto Ayora; this town is located in the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island, which is the second largest island in the archipelago.
After breakfast, we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Station; there we learnt about some of the different scientific projects developed here. One of the main projects has been to raise Galapagos giant tortoises in captivity in order to save them from extinction. After some decades of running this project, the station handed it to the Galapagos National Park Service, and this institution is still in charge of the breeding center for these emblematic reptiles. This morning we got to see Galapagos giant tortoises, as well as Galapagos land iguanas in their enclosures, and we also had a great opportunity to observe the baby tortoises. At the age of four years old, those babies will be released back into the wild, on the same island where their parents came from.
As we left the station, we all headed to the highlands to visit a local farm, where we learned about the way that sugar cane is processed into alcohol and brown sugar. We also learnt about the way that coffee is produced, from the beginning of the process when the beans are collected until the final product reaches the local market. After a very entertaining morning, we got onto our local buses and went to a local restaurant for lunch, from where we departed in the early afternoon to “El Manzanillo”. Here we looked for Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild, and we encountered many of them grazing and walking around, while others were sleeping after eating lots of vegetation.
At the end of the afternoon we returned aboard and had a great evening with the visit of local musicians and dancers to end our day.
