Santa Cruz Island
Overcast skies and a cool breeze over Santa Cruz Island, made our walk to the Charles Darwin Research Station very pleasant. Puerto Ayora, the biggest town in all the inhabited islands is where the headquarters of both, the National Park and the Charles Darwin Station are located.
Walking in the rearing center of tortoises we came across small new born hatchlings the size of a bagel and the adults, with average weights of four hundred pounds.
In the morning we discovered and learned about the conservation side of the Galápagos. After our visit to the rearing center, everyone had some time to walk through the town, and mingle with the local people.
Later in the morning we boarded buses to go to the highlands, it was quite impressive for our guests to see how vegetation changes with the altitude in the same island. Before going to the local restaurant for lunch, we stopped at a lava tunnel, and had the chance to walk through it. Although it did have some illumination inside, the dimmed lights and the atmosphere of this site, made the visit one of a kind.
After our lunch, we took the buses and went to an open field to look for giant tortoises in the wild, the species we were looking for is called chelonoides porteri and happens to be the second largest species of tortoise after the ones that live on Isabela Island; successfully our guests found many!
At the end of the day, we came back on board very happy to have seen the symbol of the Galápagos, which is the giant tortoise. Now we are ready to continue exploring more islands in the National Park.
