We took a short bus ride to the small Canal de Itabaca which separates Baltra from Isla Santa Cruz. We took a very short ferry ride and were picked up on the other side by Angel in a pick-up truck with mountain bikes in the back. He drove us for a while and then we got onto our bikes and pedaled down some dirt roads. Sebastian directed our attention to a giant tortoise poised on the road's shoulder. It was amazing to see a tortoise while on a casual mountain bike ride. Then, after turning a corner, an even bigger tortoise was laying in the center of the road. Although tortoises can go for a year without food or water, this one was apparently making up for lost time. He seemed not to know whether to eat or drink first, as he had a clump of vegetation in his mouth while trying to drink from a puddle. When he raised his head a bit he was drooling. We approached him slowly and quietly on our bikes, and he didn't seem to care about our presence one way or the other. It was truly surreal.
We then reached a lava tube which we entered on foot. It was much taller than lava tube caves we had seen before. It almost looked like a subway tunnel. Next we rode our bikes to Primicias Farm. Farmers in Santa Cruz are encouraged to let tortoises live on their farms. The farmers keep watch over the tortoises' safety, and in return, the farmers charge an admission fee to tourists (in this case, $3 per person) to wander around the land and view the tortoises. We walked around and found very large male tortoise in a small pond. He made a noise that Sebastian said he had never heard a tortoise make before. As we marveled at his size and pre-historic presence, Craig saw something move out of the corner of his eye. It was another very large tortoise lumbering into our view. After walking a few steps, it collapsed to take a rest and started eating grass. He looked at us with his mouth full, and we could really see the details of his face. His nostrils were two little round holes between his eyes, and it was very cute.
Angel drove us up to the paved roads and then we rode the bikes into the town of Puerto Ayora. We had a nice lunch in town and then walked down a very nice 3 km trail through the vegetation and popping out at Tortuga Bay, a gorgeously pristine beach with white sand as fine and soft as flour.
We walked the length of the beach admiring the scenery and the wildlife: marine iguanas (the only iguanas which are adapted to dive for food in salt water) and Sally Lightfoot crabs (whose appearance changes depending on their age - juveniles are black, as they age they develop spots, and then as they mature they become bright shades of yellow, orange, and red). We swam in a peaceful lagoon and then hurried back down the path before the beach closed at 6 pm.
While eating dinner, it started to rain. We hoped that the rain would stop before we had to walk back to the hotel, but it kept going for hours. By 11 pm, we decided we had to brave the weather, and we were drenched within one minute. We splashed our way down the streets, laughing the entire way.
The next day we kayaked in Puerto Ayora. We saw mangroves, sea lions, turtles, and rays, as well as pelicans, blue-footed boobies and common noddies. The noddies were standing as sentinels on the rocks and we could hear babies chirping from inside a nest, though the parents blocked our view. The noddies then displayed their habit of going to another bird's nest and stealing materials to use in their own. It was quite interesting to watch their antics. Of course, the new underwater camera decided not to work at this moment, so we have no photos.
We paddled to the only-accessible-by-boat Finch Bay resort for a lunch of fresh ceviche, and then paddled back to the pier at Puerto Ayora. After cleaning up, we walked to the Charles Darwin Research Station. We observed more baby tortoises here, and overlooked the pen of Lonesome George, the last of his subspecies from Pinta Island. George is not social, and stays at the far end of his pen so that it is pretty difficult to get a good look at him.
But we were able to wander within the corrals of some of the other large tortoises. Males and females were kept in separate corrals. In the male corral we crouched down right next to a big guy who was in the process of scraping vegetation off of the rocks with his mouth. He was as big as Craig and I (crouching down) combined. We got a good look at his scaly legs and the large claws on his feet.
We went back to town and browsed in the shops. I found one shop which sold T-shirts with a picture of Darwin in a Che Guevara hat which is captioned "Evolution Revolution: Galapagos". I had to have it, and I had Craig take a picture of me in front of the sign.
We enjoyed our last night in Santa Cruz by eating a nice meal at an Italian Restaurant, and then having dessert and drinks at another restaurant before heading back to the hotel.
Santa Cruz was a gorgeous island, but we definitely preferred Puerto Baquerizo on San Cristobal to Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz. Puerto Baquerizo is much quieter and less developed. It has a few restaurants, shops, and hotels, but by far the best attraction in town is the beach where the sea lions sleep. Puerto Ayora is much more commercialized, with many shops, galleries, and restaurants, as well as bars which tout body shots and karaoke. It seems like it wants to be a Caribbean resort town, which seemed a bit out of character with the archipelago's focus on eco-tourism. It was interesting how these two islands have different personalities, and we were very excited to see our third and final island, the least-developed of the three, Isla Isabela.
One of the worlds most famous adventures took place on the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin.
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