We woke up early for breakfast since it ended at 7:30.  My husband went to a discussion about taking better pictures and I relaxed. At 8:30 the Zodiacs left for the island.  When we were walking off the dock, we saw this cool spotted eagle ray with these fish following it. 

Santa Cruz is the island with the highest population of people, about 20.000. We drove up into the highlands. We were on a bus with two naturalists.  They both grew up on the island so they told us all about it and answered any questions we had, whether it was about school, health care, cost of owning land, or animals on the island.  It was very informative.  As they talked, I watched the side of the road to see if I could find any Galapagos tortoises because we were on the same route as their migration.  I saw one or two, which was really cool. 

We arrived at Los Gemelos, which are two craters that were formed when magma flowed through as a tube, but then collapsed.  One is wider than the other.  

The guide told us a story about how once two kids visited with their parents aged 8 and 10.  The 10 year old pushed his brother into the crater.  The child survived, but broke both his shoulder bones.  He warned us if we had a fight with our spouse or roommate to stay away from the edge. 

We walked to the other side of the crater, which had a nice view of the little mountain top. 

This area is part of the park and you are only supposed to go in with a naturalist (who is legitimately registered to show people around), but we saw at least three groups of people in the forest that did not have a guide.  We were looking for certain birds, but did not see them, which was a bummer. We did  see a Darwin Finch, which was exciting.  

We crossed the street to see the bigger crater.  

This time when we walked through the forest, our guide asked us to be quiet so we could hear the birds.  We did see two finches, a male (black one) and female (gray one) hang out on a branch like they wanted us to take their pictures. He also recognized a cuckoo call, but we did not see it. He said it was usually an omen for rain when you heard or saw that cuckoo.  (This afternoon there was a big rain cloud over the island…coincidence?)

Our next stop was Rancho El Manzanillo.  On the way, I saw nine tortoises. Then the guides said we would have a contest to see which side saw more tortoises on their side of the bus.  Everyone started calling out numbers and I was like, I didn’t see that many.  I think we ended up with 28, but I think it was more like 20.  

We even had to wait while one walked down the road. 

The Ranch has been there for sixty years.  They started as a normal farm, then they had to move to the mainland for 20 years. They returned with their grandkids and really made this farm a money maker!  They were lucky enough to be located right in the midst of the tortoise migration.  The ranch is where most of them gather to breed, then the females make the trek to lay the eggs.  

The farm has lots of different fruit trees, including avocado. We had that fresh at lunch and it was delicious. 

They also had pineapples, which look very fake to me. 

They have a lot of sugar cane, which allowed them to pivot during 2020 and start making moonshine in different flavors (using the fruits from their land) as well as hand sanitizer.  They also make their own beer.  

We had a demonstration of the old machines that we used to pull the sugar juice out of the sugar cane.  They gave us a piece of sugar cane to bite out the juice.  You can’t eat it, but you can suck on it and bite it to get all the flavor. It was good. They gave us a shot glass with the juice and we tasted that. Then they added sour orange, which was delicious, and then they added the moonshine, which was also good. 

They demonstrated the modern way to make the moonshine.  We were also shown how they make candy from the sugar cane and were given a piece to try.  It was like taffy and quite good. 

Lastly, they had us try this fried dough (I can’t remember the name) that they drizzle molasses on (made from the sugar cane) and that is what they used to eat for breakfast.  It was very traditional.  

We then walked over to the other area of the ranch. This area had a restaurant and a small store with items made on the ranch as well as souvenirs and art made by local artists. This was also where we went to see the tortoises. 

I love turtles and I have loved them since college.  I have a collection of turtles that were gifts.  I think I was in a haze as we walked around.  I just could not believe how many tortoises we were seeing, right next to us, in the wild.  There were so many that I couldn’t keep a count.  

I was also thinking about the time we paid for an encounter with tortoises at Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park.  Instead of the Aldabra tortoises, which they normally have people meet, they were doing trial sessions with the Galapagos tortoises.  We fed and petted the tortoises. They LOVED being pet.  The keepers said in the wild, birds often remove parasites from them and it feels like petting. Since they take care of any parasites at the zoo, the petting was welcome. I really wanted to pet the tortoises today, but I stayed the required six feet away at all times. 

There is no real reason to stay six feet away except for stressing them out. They will just hide if you make them nervous.  They do make a noise if you are close and the guide said it’s just like an exhale.  It’s what they do before they retreat.  None of them actually retreated on us today. 

Our guide said that the bigger the tortoise, the older they will be. We saw a very large one chasing a female (yes, he caught up) and the guide estimated him to be around 90 years old.  

I was surprised that there were so many tortoises in the water.  It was a hot day, though and it makes sense. They can hold their breath up to 30-40 minutes.  This explains why I have seen the tortoise at Busch Gardens hiding in the water and not resurfacing so that made me feel better. 

They don’t actually swim. They were walking on the bottom, but the guide said that they do float. 

I took this picture to see if you could count how many were around and in the water.  I counted 12. 

I love how this one is resting. It’s like someone who sleeps at a weird angle. 

I  think their old man faces are the best. 

There were a few smaller ones. 

They really enjoyed the shade, which I totally understood. 

I think they look so impressive when they stretch their necks and start walking. 

After hanging out with the tortoises, we had lunch provided at the ranch.  We tried their Boobie beer.  It was pretty good. They also had some tasty passion fruit slushies.  

During lunch they had a band play traditional music and dancers doing traditional dances.  It was really fun. 

We decided not to go to the Darwin Center to look at the breeding program.  It was quite hot at this point and they said we would be in an area of no shade.  The only thing I missed were baby tortoises.  You can’t do everything!

Instead we got a ride back to town.  We had the option of getting right back to the boat or waiting until 4 (which was about an hour and a half). We decided to do some shopping.  We also stopped for a coffee.  I found a t shirt, but not one I like as much as the one at the ranch (they didn’t have my size). 

We also stopped at a chocolate shop (it smelled divine inside) and bought some turtle chocolates. 

On our walk around town we saw a bunch of crabs on the rocks.  They really stand out!

We stopped at a supermarket and found a sea lion lying at the front door with her pup!

At the dock there were several sea lions lying together and making racket. Apparently they climb all the way up the ramp and hang out.  We watched them dive over the railing, which was very cool. 

There were a couple people taking pictures with big lenses so I went to see and there was a large sea turtle surfacing! 

We had some free time when we got back to the boat because our pre dinner meeting did not start until 6:45.  They had some local artisans on board whose work they sell in the gift shop.  I spoke with a few of them, but did not buy anything.

At 6:45 we went to the lounge and they had a presentation by a woman from the Darwin research center.  We also had an appetizer of sushi!  Delicious! 

Felipe, one of the naturalists, outlined our day tomorrow which is jam packed with things to do.  We are working on picking and choosing carefully because we don’t want to be exhausted.  

Today was such an amazing day and it’s only the first full day of the expedition!