Santa Cruz Island
Today we arrived to the town of Puerto Ayora, which is the operational center of small tour boats. Our own local office is found here, too. The anchorage site is in a bay known as Academy Bay, after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences that came here in 1905-1906. This was one of the most important scientific expeditions to the islands in the early part of the century.
This morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park Headquarters. At the Station, tortoises were eating and iguanas were basking in the sun. These species are the centerpieces of the joint conservation efforts being carried out in the islands. Later local buses took us up to the highlands where we had a delicious lunch. After the meal our guests enjoyed exploring the lush grasslands and sharing time with the local celebrities, the giant tortoises. It was a treat to watch them in their natural habitat. Of course tortoises live on many of the islands, after all, the Archipelago was named for them. However, because their populations have been drastically reduced, this is the only place on our trip where we have easy access to them.
Today we arrived to the town of Puerto Ayora, which is the operational center of small tour boats. Our own local office is found here, too. The anchorage site is in a bay known as Academy Bay, after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences that came here in 1905-1906. This was one of the most important scientific expeditions to the islands in the early part of the century.
This morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park Headquarters. At the Station, tortoises were eating and iguanas were basking in the sun. These species are the centerpieces of the joint conservation efforts being carried out in the islands. Later local buses took us up to the highlands where we had a delicious lunch. After the meal our guests enjoyed exploring the lush grasslands and sharing time with the local celebrities, the giant tortoises. It was a treat to watch them in their natural habitat. Of course tortoises live on many of the islands, after all, the Archipelago was named for them. However, because their populations have been drastically reduced, this is the only place on our trip where we have easy access to them.
