Santa Cruz Island
As we disembarked at the National Park Service dock, the temperature was already on the rise, which is normal for this time of the year. The green vegetation on the path as we entered the Charles Darwin Research Station gave us a chance to stop and talk about how the rainy season increases the food supply for giant tortoises.
A nice quite walk through the tortoises’ pens did offer a wonderful photo opportunity for most of our guest who were eager to take their pictures: babies in the cages and of course Lonesome George who, as usual, got all the credit!
Looking forward to a cooler afternoon in the highlands we started our bus ride at half past eleven. A walk through an incredibly interesting Lava Tunnel especially surprised our younger guest that made jokes about being in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
During our walk after lunch, 7 or 8 giant tortoises were found, most of them juveniles or immature individuals that had stayed around the lagoon area and were mostly napping in the shade of their vegetation homes. The adult tortoises, at this particular time of the year, are busy reproducing and looking for suitable places to make their nests.
Tortoises were not the only species found during our hike in the upper lands of Santa Cruz. White cheek pintail ducks were happily feeding in the lagoon, and finches, yellow warblers and flycatchers kept us busy looking around in all directions…
As we started our ride down to town, we stopped for the last interesting surprise of our busy day in Santa Cruz: Los Gemelos. After all, the Enchanted Islands have a reputation to maintain!
As we disembarked at the National Park Service dock, the temperature was already on the rise, which is normal for this time of the year. The green vegetation on the path as we entered the Charles Darwin Research Station gave us a chance to stop and talk about how the rainy season increases the food supply for giant tortoises.
A nice quite walk through the tortoises’ pens did offer a wonderful photo opportunity for most of our guest who were eager to take their pictures: babies in the cages and of course Lonesome George who, as usual, got all the credit!
Looking forward to a cooler afternoon in the highlands we started our bus ride at half past eleven. A walk through an incredibly interesting Lava Tunnel especially surprised our younger guest that made jokes about being in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
During our walk after lunch, 7 or 8 giant tortoises were found, most of them juveniles or immature individuals that had stayed around the lagoon area and were mostly napping in the shade of their vegetation homes. The adult tortoises, at this particular time of the year, are busy reproducing and looking for suitable places to make their nests.
Tortoises were not the only species found during our hike in the upper lands of Santa Cruz. White cheek pintail ducks were happily feeding in the lagoon, and finches, yellow warblers and flycatchers kept us busy looking around in all directions…
As we started our ride down to town, we stopped for the last interesting surprise of our busy day in Santa Cruz: Los Gemelos. After all, the Enchanted Islands have a reputation to maintain!
