Human Side to the Galapagos Islands

From our Santa Cruz camp site, we go to the Tomas de Berlanga Model School. A leader in environmental education, the school was founded with the idea that protecting the Galapagos depended on educating the population. Since the mid-1990’s the school has offered bi-lingual education for grades K through 12 and served as a training ground for educators.  
 

Guide Roberto & Instructor (who happens to be his wife) from Tomas de Berlanga Model School

We move on to the Lava Java Coffee Plantation.  The first coffee seeds may have arrived about 150 years ago, but the plantation owes its origins to the environmental focus of its owners.  They didn’t initially plan to establish a coffee plantation, but when they found some struggling coffee bushes on their land, they found an opportunity.  The proceeds of organic coffee cultivation go towards protecting and revitalizing the native plants, which, in turn, promote the suvival of indigenous birds and insects.  http://lavajavagal.com/ 

Lava Java Coffee Plantation

Coffee Plant

Lunch is at the elegant Altair Farm in the highlands. Our camping may not have been ‘roughing it’ and the Letty’s crew, accommodations, and meals are excellent.   But as we seat ourselves at the table for lunch, I am struck by the difference between traveling 'hotel to hotel' (as I have often done) and living on a small ship.  This is  a nice interlude in our trip, and the grounds are lovely. But seeing the life of the Galapagos as I have been--I wouldn't give that up for anything.
 

Altair Farm

 

Altair Farm Grounds

It's a little disconcerting to be surrounded by groomed grounds and elegant rooms after walking with the iguanas, talking with the blue-footed boobies, sleeping among the giant tortoises. This is quite a change from our last few days.

I have been aware throughout the island visits that protecting indigenous life and the ecology is critical.  Most islands have no regular human population.  Strict rules specify where we intruders can walk.  (I’m pretty sure I omitted telling you about the time that I went to the right of a rope along a beach and was quickly guided to the left -- there’s the animals’ terrain, which is most of the land, and then the areas we can visit, which is very carefully controlled.)  I appreciate the value placed on native life, on restoring and maintaining the habitat.

Learning about the coffee plantation and the school emphasizes the importance of protecting the environment.  It’s a little ironic that two human-run places highlight that significance.
 

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Next: Charles Darwin Research Center