Santa Cruz and North Seymour Islands
When people come to the Galápagos Islands, they expect to see a few tortoises along the week. After all, it was the tortoises that gave the name to the islands ever since Fray Tomas de Berlanga landed on this archipelago in 1535. He saw these creatures and described them as “Galápagos,” which meant saddle. Now Galápagos has different connotations, such as “giant tortoise,” “saddle” (a specific kind), and it is the name of this enchanted group of islands. But one can never image that an encounter with tortoises would mean a walk among several of these gigantic monsters (in the good sense), freely roaring around, peacefully resting in mud pools. The walk this morning brought us to one of the best areas to spot tortoises in the wild, El Chato, in the highlands of Santa Cruz. We saw males that could easily weigh four hundred pounds and could easily be a hundred years old. We walked through dense vegetation and heard warblers and finches singing along, while tortoises kept doing their thing, oblivious to our presence.
North Seymour, in the afternoon, exposed us to a different kind of wildlife. We enjoyed the world of sea birds and sea lions. There were blue-footed boobies and frigate birds, both breeding and nesting, swallow-tailed gulls and lava gulls, all in a perfect volcanic setting. We fully enjoyed our Tuesday in the Galápagos, and at six in the afternoon, towards the setting sun, the view of the eruption once more…Paula Tagle, Naturalist; Photo: Daniel Sanchez, Naturalist
When people come to the Galápagos Islands, they expect to see a few tortoises along the week. After all, it was the tortoises that gave the name to the islands ever since Fray Tomas de Berlanga landed on this archipelago in 1535. He saw these creatures and described them as “Galápagos,” which meant saddle. Now Galápagos has different connotations, such as “giant tortoise,” “saddle” (a specific kind), and it is the name of this enchanted group of islands. But one can never image that an encounter with tortoises would mean a walk among several of these gigantic monsters (in the good sense), freely roaring around, peacefully resting in mud pools. The walk this morning brought us to one of the best areas to spot tortoises in the wild, El Chato, in the highlands of Santa Cruz. We saw males that could easily weigh four hundred pounds and could easily be a hundred years old. We walked through dense vegetation and heard warblers and finches singing along, while tortoises kept doing their thing, oblivious to our presence.
North Seymour, in the afternoon, exposed us to a different kind of wildlife. We enjoyed the world of sea birds and sea lions. There were blue-footed boobies and frigate birds, both breeding and nesting, swallow-tailed gulls and lava gulls, all in a perfect volcanic setting. We fully enjoyed our Tuesday in the Galápagos, and at six in the afternoon, towards the setting sun, the view of the eruption once more…Paula Tagle, Naturalist; Photo: Daniel Sanchez, Naturalist
