This morning we are greeted by a lovely sunrise as we look forward to our onshore visit to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. Puerto Ayora is the most populated city of the Galapagos, home to 18,000 inhabitants, and the economic hub of the archipelago. We will spend our entire day visiting the island which is home to the Darwin Research Center, the Galapagos National Park Visitor Center and the Galapagos tortoises. We will also visit the Tomas de Berlanga school.
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| Arriving in Puerto Ayora |
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| Boarding the bus to the Darwin Research Center |
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| Our naturalist this morning is Enrique |
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| Entrance to the Darwin Research Center |
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| Lonesome George was the last of his particular species on one of the islands. He lived out his life here at the center and died in 2012. |
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| These tortoises are part of the captive breeding program. Their offspring are returned to the islands of their parents |
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| a land iguana |
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| a lava lizard |
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| A picture of Charles Darwin composed by strategically placing small photos of wildlife in the Galapagos.. See below |
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| This is the right cheek and neck of the Darwin picture |
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| Luke pointing to where we were. |
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| Walking back into the city |
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| We stopped at a small fish market and watched the fishermen unload their catch |
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| A sea lion checking to see if anything was left behind |
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| Lobsters are all caught by hand by divers that free dive 20-30 feet. |
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| "Sorry, this is my bench!" |
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| a Marine Iguana |
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| A male Frigate bird |
After our tour of the Research Center we met back in town at the Rock, a cafe, and got on a bus that took us to a bilingual K-12 school that is supported by Lindblad and National Geographic. We were going to donate books to the library.
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| Naturalist Benjamin accompanied us to the Tomas de Berlanga School |
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| PE Class - Futbol on the basketball court |
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| All of the classrooms were open air buildings |
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| Jose, a senior this year, was our guide today. This was an opportunity for him to practice his English. He did a wonderful job and plans to attend a university in Ecuador next year. |
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| This was the Art Room and below you can see some of their projects |
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| Luke donating our books, 2 Captain Underpants books written in Spanish and a Batman book in English. |
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| Books in this environment don't have a very long shelf life. |
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| A 3rd grade classroom |
After a lovely lunch at the Aquelarre Restaurant we continued into the highlands where we saw the Galapagos tortoises in the wild.
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| Lunch at Restaurant Aquelarre |
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| Luke and Ari photographing their 1st wild tortoise |
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| The road to the highlands of Santa Cruz |
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| Yep, that's a Galapagos tortoise in the middle of the road |
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| Enrique, our tortoise whisperer |
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| my first Whimbrel |
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| Yellow warbler |
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| Another Dispatch Travel section photo |
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| tortoises at the watering hole |
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| Smooth-billed Ani |
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| Luke's photo |
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| Luke's photo |
We returned to town and were given some free time to shop or sight see. I wanted to check out a church that Enrique suggested because of their stain glass windows. Luke and I got a few photos of the church and when we came out we made the decision to catch an early zodiac back to our ship and relax before dinner. After dinner we were entertained by several students from the school we had visited and a local musical group. A cultural treat!
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| The band was really good and the dancers were so colorful and fun to watch. |
They even had an audience participation dance and one of the pretty young dancers had Luke up and dancing! Luke was such a good sport about everything.
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