Today had us in Academy Bay, on the southeastern corner of the fairly large island of Santa Cruz. The bay is named after the ship "Academy", of the California Academy of Sciences who visited the archipelago for over a year in 1905-6.
The island itself can take on a brooding look at this time of year. The cloud layer known as "garua" can cover the top, or drop down to sea-level. Today it stayed up high, making the visit actually quite comfortable, both morning and afternoon. When the sun shines, our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station (shown in the photograph) can be quite warm due to the high humidity in this southeastern corner, but we always cool off when we head on up to the higher altitudes for lunch. At around 1000 feet, the restaurant we visit for lunch (way up there behind the buildings in the photo) shows a perennially lush face, soothing spirits and souls which have up to now become accustomed to the crystalline sharpness of the seemingly brittle coastline. Excursions offered for the afternoon take place even further up the island, but despite the threats of an overcast sky, the walks among the highland forest and fields stayed dry today.
The island of Santa Cruz is frequently used as the textbook example of vegetational zonation in the Galapagos. On this side, the trade winds come straight from the southeast, consequently building up the humidity (to the point of heavy mist, sometimes semantically argued as rain). This has allowed human settlements to develop, where a thin soil layer allows for the plant growth on which both humans and domestic animals are dependent. However on the northwestern side of the island, the rain shadow effect is dramatic, where only native and endemic species can survive with any consistency. Without the consistent trade winds, the villages on this side of the island wouldn't exist. Even so, the surrounding desert conditions act as a constant reminder that life is always a delicate balancing act, here as everywhere.
