Ecuador - Galapagos Islands - Santa Cruz Island and Eden Islet


Santa Cruz is the second largest of the Galapagos Islands and the home of its largest town, Puerto Ayora, which is also the hub for tourism in the Galapagos. Here we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and its breeding program for giant tortoises. We also visited the tortoises in the wild in the highlands of Santa Cruz. Some of us took advantage of the opportunity for a hot and sweaty bicycle ride on an up and down (mostly up, it felt like) stretch of country road that ended at a rustic complex where they process sugar cane into various confections and near-pure alcohol. I'm also including here a few photos from a panga ride we took along the shore of Santa Cruz and nearby Eden Islet.


Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island


Saddleback Tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Station. Their shell shape, long necks and long legs allow them to raise their heads higher, all the better for feeding in the dry lowlands where you find them. Their cousins in the humid highlands have more dome-shaped shells and shorter necks.


Does this shell make me look fat?
(photo by Deborah)



Tortoise in the Santa Cruz highlands





Guava. Yummmm.


Deborah helps demonstrate sugar cane processing.



Moon face owl in the rafters of the sugar cane processing structure.






A sea lion is very interested in the local fish market


Pelican


Heron


Cliffside Pelicans (and their poo)


Sea Lions waiting for the ferry.




Your moment of zen: a tortoise eating grass.

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