Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz is the primary inhabited island in the Galapagos. It's main town is Puerto Ayora and the airport is located on Baltra which is just across a small channel. We started our trip using Santa Cruz as a home base and we took day trips to North Seymour Island and South Plaza Island. (The web pages for those islands are mostly birds and animals, while the pics on this page are more of a Pullam travelog.)
Around Puerto Ayaro - Puerto Ayaro has a population of around 18,000 people and it is the largest town on the Galapagos Islands. It has many stores, businesses, etc. and seems to be the main hub of activity in the Islands. We stayed at the Hotel Mainao in Puerto Ayora for the first half of our trip, and these pictures were from our travels around the town.
Santa Cruz Fish Market - The Fish Market is located on Avenida Charles Darwin (the main street). It's interesting to watch the women clean and sell their fish while the sea lions and pelicans hover nearby waiting for the entrails.
Darwin Research Station - After a blazing hot half hour walk we found out that most of the Research Station is closed for renovations. Here are a few pics of the station and the nearby beach where we cooled down after.
Santa Cruz Highlands - This set of pictures combines three activities that are usually part of a half day tour. The main event is to see the giant tortoises at a local farm; being a very hot day, the tortoises were there but they were sitting in the water or hiding in the shade to keep cool. The second segment is to see a gigantic lava tube and the third is to visit the twin craters of Los Gemelos.
