Santa Cruz the Indefatigable
It was early in the morning and the sound of the anchor dropping woke us up. We took a curious look at the outside to find out where our new arrival was. Academy Bay gets its name after the visit of the California Academy of Science which came several times to the Galápagos in the early 1900’s. Many sailboats, fishing boats, some private yachts and a cargo ship were in the harbor swaying in the waves. The Charles Darwin Research Station was our number one priority on our activity list. There we would find Lonesome George, the famous Galápagos tortoise from Pinta Island, and many other tortoises from various islands. We learned about the longest project running at the station: the rearing program in captivity for the giant tortoises.
On our walk back to pick up the bus to go to the highlands, we had the opportunity to shop and explore the town. What a surprise to see jewelry stores, art galleries, internet cafes and best of all, the fish market. The pelicans, sea lions and clients were after the same fish. Everything happened in a very harmonious way. The fisherman were cleaning the fish, feeding the entrails to the pelicans and the heads to the sea lion .When one lives in an area where the animals have no fear, one learns to share the space only to realize it’s them that are sharing their own habitat with us; and we wait for our turn.
The lava tunnel crossing had some of us a bit worried. How high would it be? Would I be able to cross it? Are there any bats? We took our flashlights with us as a back up however the tunnel was lit. The water dripping inside it created an atmosphere that was unknown to us. Clearly lava rock is very porous where there is water filtering in the form of crystal drops; even when it’s not raining outside it still filters down to the floor of the tunnel also.
After lunch we fitted ourselves with rubber boots. This was required if we wanted to search for the giant tortoises in their natural habitat. We saw the cattle and the tortoises in the same pasture land and that was unexpected. Again we saw different animals sharing the same area. We were very happy to have found four tortoises and several finches. Our day had not finished yet as we were taken to see two large sink holes where an endemic sunflower plant lives.
When we came back on board, we could not believe all the wonderful things we had seen and done.
