Friday, April 11. Overnight we sailed to santa Cruz Island, the second largest in the archipelago. A unique feature of this island is that it actually had a town and was inhabited by humans. The town is Puerto Ayora and we disembarked there early in the morning. We went to the Charles Darwin Research center and saw how they were breeding tortoises and re-introducing them to the wild. To me it looked like they were doing a fine job breeding themselves.
We then wandered into town, which was very nice. Kind of like Lahina (Maui). We came across the local fish market and found that the most enthusiastic customers were sealions and Pelicans.
Yes, that sealion is not fake. It has evolved, Darwin style, to stand upright to get the best chance of a tasty snack.
From there we took a bus ride to a local restaurant for lunch then on to a local farm to see how they grew sugar cane, coffee and all sorts of other stuff. One vital advantage of growing sugar cane is that it can be fermented and distilled into a fiery, alcoholic moonshine which we happily tasted. Healtha and safety had no room in this farm.
From there some folks went off to see more tortoises. We had already over-heated in the equatorial sun so we went back to the ship to cool off. That evening we were entertained by a local troupe of dancers and musicians in the lounge of the ship.
