Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island - Galapagos 2011

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island

This is the only other town that we visited on this cruise. The morning was devoted to seeing the Charles Darwin Station, giant tortoise breeding center. We were lucky enough to see Lonesome George (Saddleback tortoise that is the last of his species and has been unable to reproduce.) Lonesome George may be an inappropriate nickname for him as he has 2 females and we saw him mating with one of them. We saw a couple earlier that appeared to be mating, but the naturalist said it was 2 males and they were confused. One was trying to get somewhere and the other one was in the way and he was attempting to walk over it?! I say they weren’t confused….they were “out” and proud! 

It was interesting to see the different types of tortoises and the incubating of the eggs and lots of baby tortoises. We then opted to walk back to town instead of taking the tour bus. Many great sites and shops along the way. We came upon a fish station where they were cutting up the daily catch of fish with lots of pelicans hanging around for scraps. We shopped for a while in the town and caught one of the last pangas back to the ship for lunch.

another beautiful sunrise

more deliveries to the ship

panga ride to town

arrival in town

walk to Darwin center

Ani

mockingbird

Saddleback tortoise

"Lonesome George" mating

baby tortoises

Ani on the walk back to town

chair in a tree?

back at the port

this sign is composed of small pictures

this is for you Jim & Jennifer

panga ride back to ship

Our last lunch on the ship was an Ecuadorian buffet. The food throughout the trip has been quite good and varied.

Puerto Ayora Highlands

Our afternoon excursion was a visit to the same island and we took a bus to the highlands in search of giant tortoises. It had rained most of the night and it was steamy out. They provided boots to walk in the mud one we arrived. We were quite lucky and saw quite a few there. They are huge!

arrival at the dock

eel in the water

bus ride to the highlands....

getting our mud boots on

it may look like we are really close or touching him, but we were the required distance and not touching

sour fruit

one lone chili pepper

Restaurant

we said goodbye to our mud boots...

back on the bus to the lava tube

going down into the lava tube

back in the bus to town

we just missed getting rained on....

back in town

another sign made from small photos

our panga awaits....

That evening before dinner there was a slide show of the “best pictures” of the cruise. Some of the naturalists have cameras and take photos and many passengers submitted their photos. A copy of the CD is given to everyone. 

Tomorrow, we leave the Galapagos behind and fly back to Quito.

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz https://photos.app.goo.gl/KfzRF4PJaDazUaFR6

Puerto Ayoras, Santa Cruz Highlands https://photos.app.goo.gl/9Yzfj1NoQ6BNhZe7A