Ecuador and the Galapagos – Day 13 can be found here.
The day dawned cool and hazy on Santa Cruz this morning:
Another leisurely start this morning – we had the choice of either heading to a combined coffee experience and tortoise reserve or visiting the El Manzanillo Giant Tortoise Reserve instead. As Option B gave us both a chance to sleep in and to see more tortoises, we opted for that.
Breakfast was again delicious this morning. Here are some of the alternative items on the buffet:
Though I also opted to change it up this morning, and had waffles with Ecuadorian chocolate sauce, cacao nips and banana crumble:
Some interesting ships in the harbour this morning:
Along with some unexpected guests blocking the boardwalk:
Though we didn’t know it at the time, this was going to be a recurrent theme to our adventures today.
Santa Cruz is considerably older than many of the other islands we’ve visited – roughly 5 million years old, compared to Fernandina at 1 million years old. This is immediately evident in the lushness of the countryside, particularly in the highlands:
It wasn’t long until we were turning off down the road to El Manzanillo, though the journey would take somewhat longer than expected.
Yes, this process is as slow as it looks.
But the tortoise did eventually clear the path, and we made it to the reserve.
And – as promised – there were plenty of huge, beautiful Galapagos tortoises to admire:
And some ducks:
They also offered the chance to try the local sugarcane spirit – aguardiente.
I’m a huge fan of agricole rums and similar liquors, like Guaro in Costa Rica, so I picked up a bottle to take home.
Then it was time to head back to the ship for a while.
Interestingly, they seem to have buoys specifically designed to warn of tsunamis:
We then went off to the Restaurant for lunch:
My wife made herself a nice salad:
While I had the crab and shrimp ceviche:
I had the wiener schnitzel:
While my wife had the farfalle pasta:
And then both the rum baba and the meillefeuille for dessert:
There was time enough for a brief nap and some downtime before we returned to Puerto Ayora to visit the Galapagos Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre:
The tortoises are segregated by age. Once they reach the age of 5, they can be reintroduced to the wild:
But the under-twos need special care, lest they be destroyed by rats or other pests:
They need to be numered so they don’t get mixed up.
They also host saddleback tortoises. These tortoises were native to Floreana, but went extinct – thankfully, they were able to be reintroduced from samples of the breed that were found in Isabella.
For those curious – yes, the tortoises regularly manage to flip themselves over onto their backs. This is a daily occurrence at the centre, and there are some tortoises that repeatedly manage to flip themselves over in the same spot.
And then – the moment we’ve all been waiting for – adorable baby tortoises:
After, we went to visit the remains of Lonesome George. He was the last surviving Pinta Island tortoise. Despite extensive efforts, he was not able to reproduce. His death in 2012 marked the end of his species.
George represents a cautionary tale about the risks of exintction should we not take adequate care to preserve endangered species.
We had the chance to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station, but elected to head back to town instead. The kids had done a tremendous job paying attention to the expedition guides, but we thought it best not to push our luck – particularly when we had another target in mind.
Namely – ice cream:
Regular readers will know of our fondness for finding new and novel ice cream stops whenever we travel, and we didn’t want the Galapagos to be an exception. Thankfully our guide, Karla, was kind enough to recommend an ice cream shop named Kuthu to visit:
It also gave us a good excuse to travel through Puerto Ayora, which is quite a beautiful town:
There were also countless bars, shops, and restaurants. It reminded me a lot of Costa Rica when I first started visiting in the early 2000s. I’d like to come back and stay here some time.
But not today, because we had another stop to make – the local playground:
But the sky was starting to look threatening, so it was time to head back to the ship:
Back to the room, where our butler had kindly left octopus tarts as an appetizer:
Very tasty.
I then went to the Explorer’s Lounge to do a bit of writing and await the evening briefing on the rise of human activity in the Galapagos.
I ordered a Fancy Free as my evening cocktail:
Then it was time for the evening briefing. We’ll be heading to Espanola tomorrow, and the focus will be on water sports – there will be a beach trip, an open water snorkeling trip, and then the Silver Origin Plunge.
There are rumours that we might have the chance to snorkel with sea lions, but we don’t want to get our hopes up. But we are excited about the Plunge, particularly after having done the Polar Plunge on the Cloud in Greenland last summer. We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to go tomorrow so that we can then round out the trio with an Antarctic plunge during our cruise in March 2025.
Later in the afternoon, we’ll be heading to Punta Suarez for a long, challenging hike over uneven terrain – it’ll be a tall order after a long day, but with the potential to see the Galapagos giant albatross and perhaps even a close encounter with the Galapagos hawk.
Off to dinner at the Restaurant:
My wife and I both started with the traditional shrimp and plantain dumpling soup:
While I had the asparagus with Iberico ham as an appetizer:
My wife had the snapper:
While I had the pork sirloin, albeit with the cassava puree instead of the sweet potato:
And for dessert, the chocolate marquis:
The waters were calmer this evening, so my wife and I once again returned to our verandah to enjoy a bottle of Prosecco and bid goodbye to Santa Cruz:
Continue reading Ecuador and the Galapagos – Day 15.