We made our way into Puerto Ayora and it was a cute little town. We were back to civilization for a day. Here is a yellow warbler, the same species that visits our house in Los Alamos, sitting on a sign for a cafe. It is the only warbler that makes it out to the Galapagos.

We visited the Darwin Center at Puerto Ayora. Here they had numerous tortoises of the different types found on the island for conservation and study. They also had other wildlife found on the islands like this Land Iguana. We would later see wild tortoises and land iguanas. This land iguana was very colorful since he was in his mating colors.

We visited one of the massive lava tubes that formed on the island.

We made it into the forested area of Santa Cruz and saw wild Galapagos Tortoises. It was mating season and we were lucky to see a mating pair! If we arrived a few weeks later we wouldn't have seen any tortoises here since they move to another part of the island.

We also saw a few of these enormous tortoises in a pool. They are about 1/3 the size of a Volkswagen bug!

Here's Gowri admiring one of the smaller tortoises up close.

Santa Cruz was a good midway stop before returning to life on the ship. Since we got some good food, we were ready to put up with a few more days of ship food to see more of the Galapagos!