Day 5 - Tuesday, March 14

Santa Cruz Island: Highlands and Puerto Ayora

Today we visited the island of Santa Cruz (Indefatigable). This island is located near the center of the archipelago, & the town of Puerto Ayora is the home of the Charles Darwin Research Institute. The Institute is the operations center for all Galapagos wildlife conservation and preservation programs. We anchored in Academy Bay, where our ship took on fuel and provisions while we explored the island.

After a short panga ride and a dry landing at a real dock,we boarded a small bus and rode toward the center of the island. As the bus left Puerto Ayora, the scenery changed continuously as we ascended through all seven vegetation zones of the Galapagos – from arid zone vegetation into the lush highlands.

We stopped at Los Gemelos (‘The Twins’) – a pair of deep pit it craters (or sinkholes) formed by the collapse of the ground located over a subsurface fissure.

Walking the trail around one of the craters,we caught sight of the elusive vermillion flycatcher.

From Los Gemelos, we headed into the Tortoise Reserve. We spotted a few tortoises from the bus – first one in a waterhole, and then a pair of them completing an amazing act of splendor in the grass.

We headed into El Chato, a private farm adjoining the Reserve. Here the farm owner joined us and directed us toward areas where we’d be most likely to find tortoises.

Many of the giant tortoises were hard to spot, well hidden behind trees and under bushes.

We were pleased to find one old fellow right out on the trail and he was kind enough to have his picture taken with us.

Of all the wildlife found here, it is the giant tortoise that symbolizes the Galapagos Islands. The word ‘galapagos’ is Spanish for ‘shape of a saddle,’ which is what some tortoise shells resemble. There is only one species of giant tortoise, but there are 14 sub-species, each in some way distinctive to the island of its residence.

The differences in the shapes of their shells were described by Charles Darwin and contributed to the development of his theory of evolution. Of the 14 varieties, 3 are extinct and others are endangered. Tortoises are vegetarian and can fast for long periods of time. Their life span is around 150 years, so we may have seen some of the same tortoises that Darwin saw in 1835.

After working hard in search of tortoises, we went to the El Chato Ranch and hiked about a mile in the dark through huge lava tubes (Los Tuneles). We were glad we had a flashlight – pretty seriously dark down there. After that cooling hike, we headed back to the ranch house, where our ship’s kitchen crew had magically appeared with a feast.

After lunch, we rode the bus back to Puerto Ayora, the largest human settlement in the Galapagos archipelago and home to about 10,000 people. We hiked a long, hot and dusty mile to the Charles Darwin Research Station.

It was hot, hot, hot - with not much sign of shade until we got inside the station, where Whitman told us all about tortoises.

The research center was founded over 20 years ago to assist the National Park Service in its efforts to save the Galapagos wildlife. We saw several grand specimens of giant tortoise at the Research Station.

We also saw 1-year olds, 2-year olds, and 5-year olds being raised to re-populate islands where the species has been eliminated.

We had a peek at Lonesome George, the last survivor of the Pinta Island subspecies. He’s young by tortoise standards (about 50-60 years) and scientists are trying to interest him in breeding with a couple of females from a closely related species; so far, no luck.

After touring the research center, we walked the 1.5 miles into town, checking out some shops and stopping at the post office to buy stamps ($.90 each). We mailed some postcards there, and still wonder where they went – not a one has been received as intended.

We also visited a grocery store to get an idea of the foods available – lots of interesting boxes and cans; too bad it was all in Spanish.

We walked along the harbor, enjoying the view and the breeze.

We finally met up with the whole thirsty gang at the Santa Fe Bar – a tall cold drink was pure joy. Back to the boat for a special dinner to celebrate the 50^th birthday of one of our travelers and to collapse in bed by 9:00 p.m. Another long, but glorious day.