January 25, 2026, Day 5 of the Cruise
This was the last day of the cruise for about 15 of the people we started out with. We were sad that Kristin and Rich, and Sara and Kathryn were all leaving today. Kristin and Rich live in Brighton England and I hope we will see them again, either there or here in Toronto or maybe on a shared trip somewhere. Sara and Kathryn live in BC. I hope we can go out there to see them. Anyway, we still had a bit of time with the original group. The Guides showed us all this video that they made of our time together!
So this was our schedule for the day…. An extra early wakeup call – 6am, so that we could be separated into our groups and taken to different locations depending on if we were staying or leaving. We also had an injury on the boat. One of the guests slipped on the stairs and had to get to a hospital, so there was a lot of organization that had to take place. And hats off to the staff on the boat. THEY ARE ALL AMAZING.
First stop Santa Cruz Island and to the El Chato Ecological Reserve to learn about the giant tortoises and see them just basking in the mud. After that we went to Darwin Station.
At the Charles Darwin Research Station, we learned all about Darwin’s travels, his arrival here, and about his theories and how he came to them observing the various species on the Island, and we looked at several of the Darwin’s Finches. We also learned about how in the 1800’s people who came to the Island not only left behind their farm animals who ate too much of their food, but replaced those farm animals with the Islands giant tortoises. They took them for food because the tortoises can go without food and water for 6 months. They hunted some species to extinction.
Lonesome George was a Pinta Island Tortoise. Actually he was the LAST Pinta Island Tortoise. They never found a female for him to mate with and he died in 2012, the last of his species. Lonesome George was mummified and is kept here in the Darwin Station in a temperature controlled room, behind glass to serve as a reminder…
In the early afternoon, we had free time to walk around the town in Santa Cruz. This is the touristy spot. It’s all tourist shops and restaurants. It was lively and fun. We went for a snack at a restaurant and managed to connect to Kristen, Rich, Sara, and Kathryn again before they left for the airport and we left to go back to the Coral 1 to meet the new arrivals on that ship. Rich may have got food poisoning or picked up something from the food in the restaurant because he stared not feeling well and had to miss the next days activities.
After a late lunch back on the ship, we went… snorkeling again!
I love that we snorkeled twice a day almost every day!
I saw my first shark! He was just a baby…