Things to Do in Puerto Ayora, Ecuador

Quick facts: The giant tortoises here can live for more than a century, with adult males weighing up to 250 kilograms, about the same as a small car. The breeding program running since 1965 has hatched and released thousands of tortoises back into the wild.

Highlights: The story of Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island tortoise who died in 2012, is displayed in full here as a conservation reminder. George refused to mate with females from Wolf Volcano for 40 years, and visitors can stand right in front of the enclosure where that drama once unfolded.

Quick facts: Its white sand is formed from coral crushed by the waves, so dazzling that visitors need sunglasses. Along the 2.5-kilometer trail from the town center, people often cross paths with marine iguanas and red-orange Sally Lightfoot crabs.

Highlights: At the southern end of the beach lies a calm lagoon sheltered by mangrove forest, where baby blacktip reef sharks swim in knee-deep water while green turtles glide beneath the surface. Boats are banned from this area, so swimming alongside the wildlife feels like having your own giant private pool.

Quick facts: Its water blends freshwater springs from the coral rock and seawater seeping through underground cracks, creating two distinct layers of salinity. At the bottom of the crack nearly 12 meters deep, sunlight penetrates to a visibility of about 10 meters, revealing the steep volcanic cliffs from top to bottom.

Highlights: The crack, about 10 meters wide, splits a lava cliff eight meters high, and the water is so clear that two different colors are visible from the surface to the bottom. The strong current seeping through the reef gap on the northern side feels like the ocean's breath, and experienced swimmers can trace that dark passage for hundreds of meters toward the open sea.

Quick facts: Giant tortoises in this area can live more than 150 years and weigh up to 250 kilograms. The breeding center releases dozens of individuals each year to reinforce populations that nearly disappeared.

Highlights: When you approach the enclosures, a long, powerful hiss escapes from every shell as a warning signal. A centenarian male with a shell polished by the years can stretch its nearly one-meter neck toward your hand to check what you're holding.

Quick facts: At low tide the sea recedes far back, leaving a wide strip of basalt sand where seals rest with their pups, less than fifty meters from the first houses. More than a hundred and fifty iguanas crawl onto the same black boulders every day to warm their dark bodies in the morning sun.

Highlights: The special part lies underwater: a white sandy bottom stands out sharply against the dark beach and deep water glows turquoise in the afternoon sun. Snorkelers come within arm's length of young seals, which curiously stare back with their whiskers and dark eyes.

Quick facts: As the outer crust of the molten magma quickly cooled and hardened, the flow inside continued, leaving behind hollow tunnels over a kilometer long. Inside, the temperature drops noticeably from the surface, and the air stays cool and humid.

Highlights: The most impressive detail is the stalactite-like shapes hanging from the ceiling, formed not by water but by drops of lava. In places the ceiling is only a few centimeters thick, and sunlight filters through thin cracks, drawing bright beams of light in the darkness.

Quick facts: This volcanic hill is home to hundreds of land iguanas that once nearly went extinct because of predators such as feral dogs and cats. The saltwater lagoon at its foot is often a stopover for flamingos that filter small shrimp from the shallow mud.

Highlights: After the iguana population plummeted drastically, dozens of individuals were moved from a neighboring island in the 1980s, and now those distinctive lizards have returned to crowd the lava rocks. At the summit, they sit calmly gazing at the sea while chewing prickly pear cactus, with heads that turn reddish during mating season.