Santa Cruz Island
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VISITOR SITES
BELLAVISTA
A good choice for the visitors, who want to know Santa Cruz, is Bellavista, a village located near Puerto Ayora, in the highlands. The community is inhabited by settlers, cattlemen and farmers which works in the livestock breeding, sows of agricultural products as coffee, banana tree, fruits and vegetables for the self-consumption and to supply the population and local tourist enterprises.
At the present time a cooperative has been created for the tourist development, determined to offer services of the highest quality. Bellavista offers beautiful views of the landscape of the island, and it has attractive visitor sites to be discovered.
Sundays are very special occasion for the people of Bellavista: these are holidays in which you can taste some delicious typical meals from Ecuador or Galapagos, and of course, some candies and natural fruit jam from the farms.
INTERPRETATION AND BREEDING CENTRE
Located within the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Research Station, and a 10-15 minute walk from the municipal dock, its main point of interest is the tortoise breeding centre, where you will find Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta island tortoise species.
This is probably also the only place where one can actually compare the different species’ shells. The Galapagos National Park also manages a breeding centre for land Iguanas.
EL MIRADOR (THE VIEWPOINT)
This site is located to the north of Puerto Ayora, a few metros off the road to Bellavista. It consists of a small partially collapsed lava tunnel, surrounded by vegetation typical of the arid zone.
TORTUGA BAY
Tortuga Bay is a beautiful beach of fine white sand. From your hotel, for $1, toke a taxi to where the path to this unique beach begins. A 2.5 km cobblestone path was built in order to reach the paradisiacal beach of Tortuga Bay by foot. A mysterious forest of the tall Opuntia Cactus and volcanic rock surrounds the path, the view is overwhelming.
Throughout your walk you will observe finches, yellow warblers, mockingbirds, lava lizards, Feel transported to the time when the adventurers and pirates of the XVIII and XIX century visited these enchanted islands. Once your reach Tortuga Bay, you walk into what seems an infinite and desolate beach of white sand.
Every now and then you encounter marine iguanas on their way in or out of the water. There are other interesting sites to visit such as the lava tunnels, the twin craters, tortoises in their natural environment (all in the highlands), the grottos, or the Garrapatero beach. Be sure to ask you hotel about facilities to visit these sites.
PLAYA GARRAPATERO (GARRAPATERO BEACH)
To the east of Bellavista, at the end of a gentle path you wil be confronted by beautiful scenery, a beach of whitish sand surrounded by mangroves, at the end of which emerges a small hill covered in ‘Palo Santo’ trees. Behind the beach lies a pool where flamingos, terns, stilts, sanderlings and other coastal birds feed.
LOS GEMELOS (THE TWIN CRATERS)
These are a pair of natural depressions located on either side of the road to Baltra, north of Puerto Ayora. Their size and depth can be related to the collapse of a superficial magma chamber’s ceiling which caused the sinking of its upper crust. There are other craters nearby which are believed to be part of the same fissure. The greenness of the surrounding Scalesia woods is characteristic of the area.
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