From the Islander in Galápagos, 7/3/2007, National Geographic Islander

Santa Cruz, the second largest island in the Galápagos, is the most populated with about 20,000 thousand people living here. It was the last one to be inhabited, but the large size and height of the island accumulates moisture in the form of both garua and actual rain from the clouds as they rise on the wind to cross the island. This precipitation has resulted in a lush green zone in the highlands which is fertile for agriculture and has attracted many colonists. In addition, being the central island of the Archipelago, and near the airport on Baltra, it is easy to move around, closer and faster to get back to the mainland. The United States set up an air force base on Baltra in 1940 and built this first airport in Galápagos making it easy for future airplanes with colonists and tourists alike to arrive to the islands.

Santa Cruz is one of the few islands in Galápagos that has a healthy population of giant tortoises. In the 17 and1800’s pirates and sailors who came here to harvest whales and fur seals took hundreds of tortoises to their ships and carried them in the holds to use as fresh meat on their long journeys. The sailors claimed that the tortoises from each island not only looked different but even had a different taste; this is a lesson that Darwin and Fitzroy on the HMS Beagle heard when they arrived to San Cristobal Island in the 1830’s. They were invited to eat a tortoise from Santiago Island, claimed to be the tastiest of them all.

Captain Fitzroy wrote in his journal that during his trips around the world he had tasted many different animals, but there was nothing that compared to the taste of the tortoises from Galápagos Islands. Unfortunately for these giant reptiles, they have another very useful quality, their ability to survive for two to three years without food and water. Hence in the days before refrigeration they were a perfect source of meat for long trips.