Vanessa, our expedition leader, plotted our course through the Islas Galapagos.
The island of Santa Cruz is in the middle of the Galapagos archipelago and is the second biggest, a large but dormant volcano. Santa Cruz is home to Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galapagos, and we enjoyed a visit to this island and this town.
Zodiacs head from Endeavour II into Puerto Ayora.
Endeavour II loads up with fresh local produce at Puerto Ayora.
What better name for a tourist vessel in the Galapagos?
Santa Cruz is the home town of many of the Galapagan guides on board Endeavour II, and many of them took the opportunity to pay a quick visit to their family. The town looked very neat and tidy, and much more vibrant than sleepy Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal.
Sea lions compete with visitors for comfortable seats in the shade.
We had an opportunity to stroll around, and perhaps the most photogenic aspect of Puerto Ayora was the small but busy fish market at the port. Paying customers had to compete with herons, sea lions and pelicans which were very interested in the produce on sale, but didn't bring any money with them.
Produce on display at the Puerto Ayora fishmarket. The Endeavour II buys most of its fresh seafood from local sources like this.
A keen but impecunious customer at the fish market. He got a firm smack across the mouth when he got too interested.
This statue would suggest that the original natives of Santa Cruz were into shrunken heads.
Apart from that, the town is replete with cafes and bars, souvenir shops and hotels, not to mention the tourists which go with them. Judging from these crowds, and the sightseeing and dive boats we saw active in the harbour, Santa Cruz is an important hub for many visitors to the Galapagos.
We bumped into Cindy Manning at "The Rock" cafe in Puerto Ayora. Cindy was our L-NG expedition leader in Cuba, but she lives here, and was on leave to recover from an accident which left her with a broken eye socket.
Santa Cruz is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station which studies the unique biota of the Galapagos, but it was mostly closed for renovations, so few of us undertook a very limited visit (but we did hear a presentation from their staff that evening about National Geographic funded research into the seamounts of the Galapagos waters).
Most of this day was spent on a bus trip about 1000m up into the Santa Cruz highlands. The paved roads have wide cycleways alongside. In the hills, we visited El Trapiche, a demonstration sugar mill and refinery which also seems to specialise in cocoa, for chocolate, and coffee, not to mention merchandise sales (we notice our co-expeditioners like to buy local coffees). We got to sample everything, including their very tasty local moonshine firewater distilled from their produce.
The demonstration of sugar refining at El Trapiche did not remind us of the giant sugar mills in Queensland.
Children from the Endeavour II enjoyed pressing the freshly cut sugar cane.
Aquelarre, a beautiful restaurant and garden was the site of our lunch in the 1000m highlands of Santa Cruz.
Unidentified exotic floral delight at Aquelarre.
We had lunch in a delighful garden restaurant called Aquelarre, but the day's highlight was a visit to Rancho Manzanillo where Galapagos' famed giant tortoises roam free in great numbers. Indeed, the archipelago is named after the Spanish word for tortoise, galápago. The photos tell the tale of this memorable visit!
We saw many giant tortoises as our driver negotiated the narrow road into Rancho Manzanillo.
Some obstacles on the road were very slow to move aside.
Hundreds of giant tortoises occupied the muddy fields of Rancho Manzanillo.
Galapagos' giant tortoises weigh up to 400kg and live over 100 years. They have no natural predators, but thanks to hunting and over-exploitation, and the destruction of their habitat, five of 15 subspecies have become extinct. (Species differ from island to island, distinctions observed by Charles Darwin.) Total population was estimated at 250,000 in the 1500's when the Spanish arrived, but that had declined to 3,000 by the 1970's. Captive breeding programs have since restored the population to 19,000. Giant tortoises are still regarded as "vulnerable" overall with some surviving subspecies as "seriously endangered".
Its hard to make these old giants look good.
It was a very hot day, so some tortoises preferred this very smelly pond.
Two endemic species in the one pond. The Gapapagos pintail duck seemed quite at home with his much bulkier company.
Fellow photographers were seeking the best angles on these lumbering beasts.
Adopting a risky strategy to get a good shot, but Jonthan, the NG Photographer is fully equipped with kneepads.
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