Santa Cruz Island
We arrived at seven in the morning to the southern side of Santa Cruz Island. It was a nice navigation. At our arrival, it was surprising to see so many boats anchored in the bay. After being for a few days totally alone in the Galápagos waters we got to the biggest populated town of Santa Cruz, called Puerto Ayora.
At this site we had the great chance to visit the facilities of the Charles Darwin Station. The rearing center of tortoises was the highlight of the morning. We encountered many hatchlings that will be repatriated in the future to their Islands of origin; we found lots of adult giant tortoises, as well as the two famous tortoises of Galápagos, Lonesome George and Diego.
Later in the morning we headed in buses to a local restaurant located in a very nice site of Santa Cruz, far away from the coast with a cool breeze and lush vegetation. After our lunch we continued with our activities on the island of Santa Cruz. We took the buses and some of us went to two different visitor’s sites. Some others decided to go just to one in order to have some time to go shopping in town.
The first site we visited is known as the twins; these are two giant pit craters located inside a beautiful local forest composed by Scalecias. Besides the geology we could also find some bird species which are endemics to Galápagos. The small tree finch and the Galápagos dove were very close to us.
Shortly afterwards we went on a search for Giant tortoises in the wild. The endemic species of tortoise that inhabits the Island of Santa Cruz is the Geochelone porteri, one of the largest kinds we find in this archipelago. Walking through the woods and over big open fields with grass we found many tortoises. We counted 28, and most of them were feeding on the vegetation of the area. Some others were drinking water in a fresh water pond. It was nice to see them in their natural state, staring at us while we were taking pictures. The very big ones could have been about one hundred years old!
