Santa Cruz Island
Exhausted! God we are exhausted...but it has been a great day and we have seen everything we had to during our visit to this wonderful island.
We had such a great time during the morning at the Charles Darwin Research Station that we simply lost track of it. We found ourselves deep into the giant tortoises' world that we arrived somehow late for lunch.
Our meal was exquisite and took place over a nice restaurant located way into the highlands of Santa Cruz. We were totally satisfied with the food (also somehow sleepy, too) but we rallied ourselves and off we went for our next encounter with the giant tortoises, this time in the wild. Certainly we were prepared for these big reptiles but all of the sudden our attention was deviated by many other surprises; there were woodpecker finches, tree finches, vermillion fly-catchers just at the same area were several tortoises were found. These endemic reptiles were also found in a nice pool formed by natural fresh water under the good company of white cheeked pintail ducks and moorhens.
We also enjoyed a walk among the intricate vegetation of the highlands; Giant Daisy’s trees were found surrounding two immense sink holes known as “Los Gemelos.” A sacrifice was scheduled once we saw the magnificence of such formations, but nobody seemed to be interested in the offer! The sacrifice never took place (of course) but we manage to continue our exploration into the woods and learn more about the endemic ecosystems of the Galápagos Islands.
Exhausted! God we are exhausted...but it has been a great day and we have seen everything we had to during our visit to this wonderful island.
We had such a great time during the morning at the Charles Darwin Research Station that we simply lost track of it. We found ourselves deep into the giant tortoises' world that we arrived somehow late for lunch.
Our meal was exquisite and took place over a nice restaurant located way into the highlands of Santa Cruz. We were totally satisfied with the food (also somehow sleepy, too) but we rallied ourselves and off we went for our next encounter with the giant tortoises, this time in the wild. Certainly we were prepared for these big reptiles but all of the sudden our attention was deviated by many other surprises; there were woodpecker finches, tree finches, vermillion fly-catchers just at the same area were several tortoises were found. These endemic reptiles were also found in a nice pool formed by natural fresh water under the good company of white cheeked pintail ducks and moorhens.
We also enjoyed a walk among the intricate vegetation of the highlands; Giant Daisy’s trees were found surrounding two immense sink holes known as “Los Gemelos.” A sacrifice was scheduled once we saw the magnificence of such formations, but nobody seemed to be interested in the offer! The sacrifice never took place (of course) but we manage to continue our exploration into the woods and learn more about the endemic ecosystems of the Galápagos Islands.
