A Full Day on Santa Cruz
Our last cruise day started early with our group of 13 boarding a tender for the ride over to a dock on the north end of Santa Cruz Island where we boarded a bus with our guide Maria Jose. We traveled south through the highest point on the island and down to the southern most part, to the town of Puerto Ayora, which is the most populous town in the Galapagos with a population of about 12,500 people.
Our bus dropped us off at a private road that leads to the Darwin Research Center where we walked the mile or so down the brick road to the research center. The center requires a naturalist to stay with guests as they walk through the center so Maria Jose stayed with and guided us through the center. At the research center we saw a number of giant saddleback tortoises.
We also learned about the research centers program to re-build the population of tortoises on a number of the islands in the Galapagos. They incubate newly laid eggs and once hatched, each tortoise is marked with a number and placed in a pen with all of the tortoises from the same island and species. The babies are painstakingly cared for until they can be re-introduced into heir native habitats. The program has been extremely successful in rebuilding the population of some of the many tortoise populations that were decimated by whalers who removed about 200,000 tortoises from the islands. Of the 13 Galapagos tortoise species, 2 are now extinct. Since 1970, more than 2,000 tortoises have been hatched, raised and released by the research center.
We also stopped at the Darwin Exhibition Hall Visitor Center at the exit and viewed some of the exhibits. There was a lot of information and displays about the things Darwin observed and how he determined that natural selection had caused the variation the species from one island to another.
From the Visitor Center we walked along the road into the town where we saw a number of pelicans and iguanas. We also had a little time for shopping before boarding our bus for the next stop of the day.
Celebrity Cruiseline participates in a Galapagos program to help restore some of the natural habitat that has been destroyed by invasive plants and animals brought into the islands. Guests on our ship, the Celebrity Flora participate in the program by helping to re-plant trees in the highlands. When we arrived at the site everyone was provided with boots, a shovel and 2 trees to plant.
The program is aimed to help restore the Vermillion Flycatcher’s environment that was devastated by wild blackberries introduced by farmers.causing the bird to come close to extinction. The program has resulted in tens of thousands of trees to be planted over the past 10 years. As a result, the Vermillion Flycatcher population has started to increase.
After returning to our bus we headed to a local ranch where we had lunch, were treated to an Ecuadorian dance performance and a walk through an area where giant tortoises roam freely.
When we arrived at the restaurant we were offered a choice of papaya or lemongrass juice with an optional shot of moonshine produced on the ranch. I had the papaya with passionfruit moonshine. It was pretty tasty. The Ecuadorian lunch buffet was tasty. I really enjoy the roasted plantains and get them whenever I see them.
The dance performance was really enjoyable. The dancers are all young people from the area who have been taking dance lessons since they were pre-schoolers.
Following lunch we had a walk with Charly, one of the naturalist we’ve had for many of our walks. In the area around the restaurant we saw giant tortoises roaming freely and were able to get up fairly close to them. The tortoises here eat from the ground and have a round, domed shell vs the saddleback tortoises we saw at the research center who had developed their long necks and high front shell to reach food. In the saddleback habitat there is insufficient food at ground level so they evolved to eat cactus and other plants high off of the ground.
Following our walk with the tortoises we haded back to the dock area to board our tender back to the ship. It was a pretty full day and everyone was ready to return to the ship to start packing for the trip home.
When we boarded the tender, the naturalist on board said that our driver had been experiencing some rough waves in the afternoon. Our ride back gave new meaning to rough waves on a tender. Everyone held on for dear life as we slammed into waves and sea water sprayed most everyone on the tender. We were all quite happy to step back on the ship.
Once back on board we had time to pack our checked bags before meeting everyone for one last cocktail hour before dinner. Marvie, the head naturalist showed a slideshow of the beautiful photos taken by the naturalists during the week. They also captured a number of group photos, some of which are below. Everyone was thrilled when he announced that everyone would get a flash drive containing the slide show and the photos.
We all enjoyed one last dinner together and chatted about what a great experience we’d all had during the week. The head chef and the Maître d' both stopped by to talk and to wish us well.
Following dinner we headed back to our cabins to pack up our carry-on bags and get some rest.
We need to vacate our rooms by 7:30AM in the morning.