This morning we woke up anchored in Academy Bay on the southern side of Santa Cruz Island. Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station where we learned about the captive breeding program of giant tortoises. We then had a couple of hours to explore Puerto Ayora, the biggest settlement of the Galapagos Archipelago. Our guests had many options such as shopping, wandering amongst the locals, visiting an angler’s market, traveling to a private school in the highlands, walking through a lava tunnel and/or seeing how coffee and sugar cane is grown and processed.
For lunch we went to a restaurant next to a tortoise reserve and walked alongside these giant herbivores. It was a tranquil moment with scenery that took you back in time. As a final touch to our active day, we had musicians, and dancing onboard National Geographic Islander.
