Santa Cruz Island
Today, as we disembarked at the Galápagos National Park dock, we were greeted by Galápagos marine iguanas—several males in full mating season colors, several females literally hanging around their legs, and others climbing to the uppermost branches.
We came to see the Charles Darwin Research Station, home of the tortoise breeding program; this is also the place where we saw the famous Lonesome George, the last of his kind in the whole world. Not only did we see him, but we also saw his female companions; we are hoping these females lay eggs next year, and hopefully those eggs will hatch. In some of the other corrals we found juveniles ready to be repatriated to the islands of their parent’s origin.
After we left the breeding center behind, we drove on local buses to the highlands, where we went bike riding and had lunch. The weather conditions were great; we are in the middle of the transition month—no rain, mild temperature and a pleasant breeze.
After lunch we headed further up into the highlands to look for Galápagos giant tortoises in the wild. As we arrived at “Butterfly Ranch,” we got off the buses and began our hike through an area dominated by elephant grass and avocado trees. We then found our first wild tortoise, then a second, a third, and as we got to an open field we saw more than 20 grazing, and we could hear them breathing. The moment they noticed us, some slowly moved inside their massive shells, while others just ignored us.
On our way back to Puerto Ayora, we stopped at the pit craters and looked for giant daisies.
It was a very successful day in Galápagos.
