Today we return to “civilization” by visiting Santa Cruz and docking outside of Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galapagos.  Whereas Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal is the political capital of the islands (and has the airport), Puerto Ayora is the tourism capital.  We still took Zodiacs to the actual pier.  During my 2019 World Cruise such transportation was done using the ship’s lifeboats as tenders to transport passengers.  But since we are used to the Zodiacs it makes sense to keep using them.

Puerto Ayora is like any other tourist beach town, full of restaurants, tour offices and dive shops.  But in ten minutes we drove up 1000 ft (300 meters) and moved from cactus and dryness into a rain forest.  Our destination is a coffee plantation owned by a retired naturalist.  There was a constant drizzle.  Seems the geology of Santa Cruz allows many different ecological “zones”.  The presentation on the ship said a 40-minute drive will take you thru seven zones.

The plantation is also dead center of the giant tortoise range on Santa Cruz.  They are in the middle of making some artificial ponds, but the tortoises beat them to it.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to get into the mud to get closer.

As we walked along the path, we passed others.  They are fully allowed to roam.  Cattle fences are constructed to have the bottom meter open to allow for tortoise movement.  On the plantation there are areas where they burrow to help maintain their body temperature.

The owner has built several bungalows for the tortoise tourist.  Even has a tortoise in their back yard.

After the walked we visited a souvenir shop and the were treated to a coffee testing class.  Which brought up one, teensy little problem.

I don’t drink coffee.

Now, I know I just lost half of you.  I spent 10 years in the Army and I don’t drink coffee.  But I enjoy learning new things.

Our class did not go into depth on the different way to categorize coffee, but there are three things:

• Fragrance – how the ground beans smell before water is added
• Smell – how the coffee smells after water is added
• Taste – how the coffee tastes (duh)

The example presented showed how the smell changes after you add the hot water.  We then used two spoons to “break” the coffee’s crust.  See steps 6 & 7 here: Step-by-Step Guide to Cupping Coffee.  We also tasted several local brands of chocolate.  I really like the citrus taste of the lemongrass version.