Santa Cruz Island
This is the day when we learn about the lives of the emblem of the Galápagos archipelago, the creature that gave its name to this magical place.
The Galápagos Giant Land Tortoises were first mentioned in a written report in the chronicles of one of the Bishops of Spain when, by accident, travelling from Panama to Peru, his vessel was blown off route and ended up in this archipelago where he wrote: “we arrived to the islands of the ‘galopegos’ meaning the land of the saddle backs.”
The shell of the giant land tortoises reminded Fray Tomas de Berlanga of the saddles for horseback riding which in ancient Spanish language were not called saddles but "Galapagos."
Just like that, the islands were baptised as “Las Islas Galápagos” and since then, these gentle giant reptiles became the natural emblem of these remote islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Back in the times of pirates, buccaneers and early settlers, unfortunately, the meat and blubber of the Galápagos tortoises was very much appreciated and many thousands of them were killed.
After this archipelago was declared a National Park in 1959, the Park Service started (with the help of the CDF) a Rearing Centre to grow land tortoises in captivity and start to replenish the islands that have been depleted because of human predation and the impact of introduced animals like rats, dogs, goats, donkeys, feral pigs, cats, etc.
Now, after years of very hard work, many thousands of Galápagos Giant Land Tortoises are living and reproducing well in their islands of Origin. This is one of the most successful programs to grow tortoises in captivity. We learned about success stories for the conservation of the species and a lot more today on the island of Santa Cruz.
The afternoon was full of exciting surprises. After a great lunch at a local farm, we saw tortoises in the wild. Mountain biking, hiking, swimming in a local swimming pool, and a lot more were offered to us as ways to spend one more fabulous day in paradise.
