Santa Cruz Island
Apprehension! That was what everyone felt when informed about our next destination. Lucho, our Expedition Leader, had to change the approach given to the guests during the briefing since they were not ready to go back to visit a city. So, we promised them giant tortoises! Now it was different. Everybody was ready to commit theirselves to giant tortoises, not to human inhabitations.
However, there is no way to separate (and we should not) the humans inhabitants of the Galápagos with the natural inhabitants of the archipelago. Puerto Ayora is a big town where people are still learning to mingle with nature. Tourist activities such as ours are of great importance for local people to learn that they can make a good living offering products that, without harming the environment, are representative from the region; and our guests are eager to purchase “this or that souvenir” from the enchanted islands, hence invigorating the local economy.
The visit to the tortoise’s corrals however was excellent. We discussed everything and more about the life, passion and death of the giant tortoises. We even found a really tiny tortoise that somehow had escaped the always-scrutinizing eyes of the park rangers posted there. It was fabulous to see a tortoise just emerged from the nest. So tiny, yet so impressive, we were marveled.
Going to the highlands of Santa Cruz was very special. Even though there were not many tortoises in the wild, we had a good encounter with five of them. Most of the tortoises are still in the lowlands where they nest. We are expecting to have them back to the highlands pretty soon, since the rainy season is about to be over.
At least that is what we thought. All of a sudden, coming from nowhere, the rain fell upon us. It was refreshing considering how hot it was in the morning, but certainly it was not expected. So we came to the realization that no one is a good forecaster here in the Galápagos. There is still so much to learn.
As the afternoon continued, we looked for finches and whatever else happened to be there; and we were not disappointed. Once more the lesson was delivered. Shall we progress enough to be ready to intake all of what nature has for us? We hoped so.
Apprehension! That was what everyone felt when informed about our next destination. Lucho, our Expedition Leader, had to change the approach given to the guests during the briefing since they were not ready to go back to visit a city. So, we promised them giant tortoises! Now it was different. Everybody was ready to commit theirselves to giant tortoises, not to human inhabitations.
However, there is no way to separate (and we should not) the humans inhabitants of the Galápagos with the natural inhabitants of the archipelago. Puerto Ayora is a big town where people are still learning to mingle with nature. Tourist activities such as ours are of great importance for local people to learn that they can make a good living offering products that, without harming the environment, are representative from the region; and our guests are eager to purchase “this or that souvenir” from the enchanted islands, hence invigorating the local economy.
The visit to the tortoise’s corrals however was excellent. We discussed everything and more about the life, passion and death of the giant tortoises. We even found a really tiny tortoise that somehow had escaped the always-scrutinizing eyes of the park rangers posted there. It was fabulous to see a tortoise just emerged from the nest. So tiny, yet so impressive, we were marveled.
Going to the highlands of Santa Cruz was very special. Even though there were not many tortoises in the wild, we had a good encounter with five of them. Most of the tortoises are still in the lowlands where they nest. We are expecting to have them back to the highlands pretty soon, since the rainy season is about to be over.
At least that is what we thought. All of a sudden, coming from nowhere, the rain fell upon us. It was refreshing considering how hot it was in the morning, but certainly it was not expected. So we came to the realization that no one is a good forecaster here in the Galápagos. There is still so much to learn.
As the afternoon continued, we looked for finches and whatever else happened to be there; and we were not disappointed. Once more the lesson was delivered. Shall we progress enough to be ready to intake all of what nature has for us? We hoped so.
