Santa Cruz Island
Puerto Ayora is the biggest and most developed town of the Galápagos archipelago, with somewhere around 25,000 people who dedicate themselves to tourism or tourism-related activities, making this place one of the busiest ports in Ecuador.
The word Galápagos translates into “saddlebacks” and it’s the official name of this enchanted group of islands, located 600 nautical miles off the coast of Ecuador. The giant tortoises that inhabit this place are divided into 11 different subspecies. One is the saddlebacks, which live in very arid ecosystems; not having enough to eat at ground level, they raise their heads to be able to reach the vegetation on trees. This practice has deformed the carapace or shell, giving them this particular shape that is actually the name of the seats that Spaniards use to go horseback riding.
Then there are tortoises with dome-shaped shells, opposite to saddlebacks. These creatures live on islands that have a higher altitude, more rain water and lush vegetation; tortoises here forage the ground without having to raise their heads while feeding. As a result, the individuals here are much bigger in size and have a grand round shape.
At this time of the year, the hot, rainy season, the giant tortoises have already mated and have migrated to the lowlands looking for suitable places to nest. Some old males, tired of following the females around, have decided to stay and surprised us as we did our hike up in the highlands today; we walked slowly and admired three big individuals that for different reasons have remained in the area.
Santa Cruz is the home of the Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station, which has established a breeding center to save the giant tortoises from going extinct; these gentle creatures have been and still are at risk due to human-related activities and most of all due to the presence of introduced species that are considered today the major threat to the island ecosystems.
As we returned back to the ship after having a close encounter with the giant tortoises of the Galápagos, we clearly understand that these precious islands need to be conserved not only for us humans to see but for the magnificent creatures that own them!!!
