During the night Captain Jaramillo and his officers brought the National Geographic Islander into the relatively calm waters of Academy Bay, off Santa Cruz Island. When we came up on deck in the morning we found that we were anchored off the town of Puerto Ayora. This is by far the largest town in the archipelago and is home to almost 25,000 Ecuadorian and international inhabitants, some of whom work for the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station, both of which have their headquarters here. Today was a holiday in Puerto Ayora and the day of the annual triathlon! We disembarked on the main town dock, found our buses and drove to the entrance of the Park and Station. From these gates it was a half mile walk along a paved road to visit the Darwin Research Station. Our naturalists showed us charming gardens and explained about the native nursery and the insect containment lab. We visited the lava rock corral enclosure where a very active male giant tortoise, affectionately named Super Diego, lives with 14 other adult tortoises from the southern island of Espanola. Diego was taken from Galapagos many decades ago, and returned to the islands by the San Diego Zoo in the mid 70s when the scientists realized that he was from the nearly extinct population of Española. Since the 70s he has been an important part of the captive breeding program. From a dangerously low and close to extinct population of 15 adult Española tortoises, we now have over 1500 juvenile tortoise in the wild on that island again!
We walked through town, dodging the sporting events, shopping in the many tiny stores and boutiques, and gathered in The Rock Café for a cool drink. The bikers with naturalist Antonio left the Rock Café first and - once we got around the road blocks that were allowing the triathlon bikers to race into town – they got onto their own bikes and pedaled three miles along a hilly street to El Trapiche sugar cane and coffee farm. The rest of us arrived by bus and our naturalists showed us around this family-run farm where coffee and sugar cane are processed. We sampled their coffee, the strong cane liquor and sweet cane juice.
We boarded the buses and drove west and higher into the lush green highlands to a restaurant where we enjoyed a buffet lunch. Then we went in search of giant tortoises in the wild. We found many of these ancient reptiles – some huge old males who were surely over a century old! We greatly enjoyed taking pictures in this lush setting and some of us found our own tortoises and spent a long time taking close up photos! Those who desired to explored a double decker lava tube and then returned by bus to Puerto Ayora where the celebrations were still going strong.
In the evening, just after dinner and before we fell into our beds after another very full and enjoyable day, EcoArte folkloric music and dance group entertained us with Andean and Galapagean songs and dance. Great day in the magical “Islas Encantadas!”
