Explore Santa Cruz Island.

In the morning we had breakfast, packed our belongings, put on our life vests, and climbed into the panga for the last time as we headed to the pier in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island.

After a brief stop at a fish market near the pier, it was on to the Darwin Research Center… not on a bus, but about a mile walk up a brick road from the pier. It was the hottest and most humid day of our trip. We saw some more giant tortoises and iguanas in rock pens designed to compliment the research process in preserving the unique archipelago of the Galapagos Islands. Then it was a walk back to the pier to catch a bus to the Santa Cruz highlands to… see more giant tortoises.

This trip was different. We would be seeing tortoises in the wild. As we were driving, the huge shells could be seen frequently in the passing fields and along the road. We stopped at the Manzanillo Ranch to take a short hike through a wooded area and next to a watering hole to see the large, slow-moving reptiles (top speed of a giant tortoise: about a 1,000 yards an hour). The highlight of the hike was watching a large male following a small female out of the watering hole and into some bushes and mount her from behind in his attempt to mate. Beto told us that the process can take hours. So our tour group left the tortoises to their business and headed to a restaurant on the premises for some lunch.

After lunch, we stopped to see a gentleman making what Sofy called 'moonshine' from sugar cane. Juice is squeezed out of the cane by feeding the stalks into a press propelled by a donkey pulling a long handle in a circle. From the press, the juice cooked down to a sort of molasses... and then is poured into a barrel to sit for three days. Next, pour into a still and cook it. The resulting drops from steam are collected to make the potent alcohol. He also showed us how he makes coffee from beans grown on his land.

Dinner that evening was in the very touristy part of Puerto Ayora near the pier. But first, we had to check into our hotel for the night, located about five miles away. Taxis were provided to take us back to town to shop and hang out before dinner. Peggy and I decided to forestall the taxis and walk back to town. We wanted the excercise… very cool tour we were on, but a lot of sitting. Took some pictures along the way and met up with our tour group about an hour and forty minutes later.

Quick note about the the Casa Natura, our hotel down a dirt road in the jungle. Lots of reports of spiders and bugs in our rooms (including a large spider in our shower), but Sofy had warned us that this hotel's lack of amenities compared to other hotels where we had stayed. We all survived and would head back to mainland Ecuador the following day.