Santa Cruz Island
Today could be well described as “Giant Tortoises’ Day!”
By eight in the morning we were already heading out to visit one of the most important institutions in the Galápagos Islands, the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS). It was here were we all learned about the efforts that year after year scientist and volunteers had developed in order to maintain the well balanced ecosystem of the Flora and Fauna’s populations in every single island.
After visiting the facilities and observing closely the giant tortoise programs (their most successful one) we headed to the main town of Puerto Ayora to lend some support to the local economy, if you know what I mean!
Our afternoon was full of excitements when searching for giant tortoises on the wild. The area chosen for the visit was a location far into the highlands, where these ancient reptiles had migrated through for millennia. Our trip became very successful when sighting dozens of tortoises wandering the lush vegetation, giving us the chance to take just as many pictures as we wanted. As any other animal in the Galápagos, its lack of fear (should I mention they were very slow, as well?) let us be very close and observe their behaviors.
Once done with our visit, we headed to an even higher location known as Los Gemelos. These couple of giant crater-like formations is nothing else but the result of collapsing material that occurred possibly millions of year ago.
As we left behind the giant tortoises’ island we could only imagine what was coming next, but that my friends… is on a different daily expedition report!
Today could be well described as “Giant Tortoises’ Day!”
By eight in the morning we were already heading out to visit one of the most important institutions in the Galápagos Islands, the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS). It was here were we all learned about the efforts that year after year scientist and volunteers had developed in order to maintain the well balanced ecosystem of the Flora and Fauna’s populations in every single island.
After visiting the facilities and observing closely the giant tortoise programs (their most successful one) we headed to the main town of Puerto Ayora to lend some support to the local economy, if you know what I mean!
Our afternoon was full of excitements when searching for giant tortoises on the wild. The area chosen for the visit was a location far into the highlands, where these ancient reptiles had migrated through for millennia. Our trip became very successful when sighting dozens of tortoises wandering the lush vegetation, giving us the chance to take just as many pictures as we wanted. As any other animal in the Galápagos, its lack of fear (should I mention they were very slow, as well?) let us be very close and observe their behaviors.
Once done with our visit, we headed to an even higher location known as Los Gemelos. These couple of giant crater-like formations is nothing else but the result of collapsing material that occurred possibly millions of year ago.
As we left behind the giant tortoises’ island we could only imagine what was coming next, but that my friends… is on a different daily expedition report!
