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DAY 6, Friday

Darwin Station / Highlands, Santa Cruz

Today we wake up in Academy Bay, at Puerto Ayora Harbor! The nicest town in the Islands.

We start visiting the worldwide famous Charles Darwin Research Station.

Its name comes after the great Scientist Charles Darwin, who developed the “Theory of the Evolution of the Species”

The tortoises are fed on Fridays, we saw the medium-size turtles eating leaves, they are so cute.

Then we headed to watch the bigger turtles…

Turtle “race”…

The Elephantopus tortoises are put apart from the Geochelone Elephantopus tortoises, this last one is characterized for its upper saddle back.

The tortoises are also separated according to their age & size, and they are numbered. They stay at the Care Center until ready to be put in the wild. People really do a great job with them.

Scientists from all over the globe work at the station and conduct biological research from anatomy to zoology.  We also visited the Van Straelen Hall where there are exhibits and a short video presentation.  

Visitors can see Lonesome George, the last surviving member of the Pinta Island subspecies. He is the logo of the National Park and the Research Station.

Galapagos is a very interesting place to visit for those nature lovers, its volcanic origins made possible that the islands are different one from another, that the animals of the same specie are different from island to island; they have different ways of eating and surviving. Plants and sand are different too.

After this instructive visit in the morning, we are set free too to go downtown Puerto Ayora, the village is absolutely safe and you can take the chance to buy some souvenirs for your family and friends home, to send them postcards or to use internet.

We meet with the group again later at the harbor to pick up the boat; lunch is served on board.

After lunch we travel by bus to the highlands. The scenery gradually changes as we wind our way through all seven vegetation zones found in Galapagos. From June to January, we can find giant tortoises on a private farm in the highlands.  We visit Los Gemelos, Spanish for “The Twins”, a pair of large pit craters where we find the bright red male vermilion flycatcher.  There is the belief that if you see this bird your next years will be full of luck.

We stop at "the tunnels", the largest lava tubes found in Galapagos.

Puerto Ayora is the coziest place if you plan to stay some extra days on the islands, you can do visits to the closest beaches, enjoy delicious local plates, or enjoy of the night life.

These beautiful islands can be visited all year round, the weather variates not too much; the temperatures are between 23 to 35o C.

The worthy cruise takes 8 days, but on board the Eric if you would like to disembark on day #6, it is possible so you can relax some days off the sea at Puerto Ayora.

There are great restaurants and hotels.

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