Early in the morning after a great breakfast, our explorers prepared themselves to depart to Santa Cruz island. We visited two breathtaking locations, one at the top of the highlands in a very lush and green forest surrounding two impressive volcanic formations known as The Twins. These are massive pit craters that formed out of the ceiling collapse of shallow magma reservoirs close to the surface. Later, we moved to another location on the southern slopes of Santa Cruz, to search for the Galapagos giant tortoises in their natural habitat.

In the afternoon we disembarked at Bowditch Beach, dipping our toes in the fine coralline sand with the beautiful golden light of the equatorial sun upon us. As if the day couldn’t get any better, one of the young Global Explorers called me and showed me a sea turtle nest that had just opened. Plenty beautiful baby sea turtles were coming out of it. Our guests had the rare opportunity to witness this spectacular show of nature in such beautiful scenery. What a great way to finish a fantastic day!