Santa Cruz Island
It is Day Three on our expedition and this time we have anchored very early in the morning at Academy Bay, in the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island. This island is home to approximately 18,000 inhabitants, mostly Ecuadorians who live in Puerto Ayora, its major town. In 1964 a group of scientists and Ecuadorian authorities founded here the Charles Darwin Research Station, in order to restore the dynasty of the endemic Galápagos giant tortoises, severely endangered at the time. This enterprise has proved a major success with most of the tortoise species of this archipelago, and visiting this important center was a must.
At the Research Station we followed a very informative circuit that took us through various tortoise corrals, from the months-old baby tortoise pens to the world-famous ‘Lonesome George’, a single male from the island of Pinta, the last survivor of his own species. Here we heard his amazing and sad story, while this singular guest preferred to relax in his corral.
After the visit to the Darwin center our guests had an opportunity to explore the town of Puerto Ayora at their own pace, and walked through its colorful main street: the Charles Darwin Avenue.
In the afternoon, a change of scenery was in line. Buses transported us to the humid highlands of Santa Cruz, where a delicious meal awaited us. It is in this zone, the moist uplands of this island, where we were to experience close encounters with the endemic Santa Cruz giant tortoises in the wild. This is a relatively healthy population of approximately 4,000 tortoises, and we found several of them grazing in the area, including a large male! A young tortoise was spotted while wandering along the road, which really was everyone’s delight.
After this visit, we got back on the buses and hit the road again, this time to stop at a new visitor’s site called Los Gemelos, or The Twins. These are two sink holes located on either side of the road which, surrounded by the lush vegetation of the area, mainly composed by the endemic giant Scalesia trees, made a stunning landscape. During our exploration of the area, we also enjoyed the presence of several species of land birds, like the ground and tree finches, all of which were very busy searching for seeds and food amidst the Scalesia forest.
As the afternoon died out, we headed back to Puerto Ayora. This has been another successful day, but it was time to go back on board. A new, distant destination awaits us tomorrow, and we cannot wait to experience new adventures in the Galápagos Islands.
It is Day Three on our expedition and this time we have anchored very early in the morning at Academy Bay, in the southern coast of Santa Cruz Island. This island is home to approximately 18,000 inhabitants, mostly Ecuadorians who live in Puerto Ayora, its major town. In 1964 a group of scientists and Ecuadorian authorities founded here the Charles Darwin Research Station, in order to restore the dynasty of the endemic Galápagos giant tortoises, severely endangered at the time. This enterprise has proved a major success with most of the tortoise species of this archipelago, and visiting this important center was a must.
At the Research Station we followed a very informative circuit that took us through various tortoise corrals, from the months-old baby tortoise pens to the world-famous ‘Lonesome George’, a single male from the island of Pinta, the last survivor of his own species. Here we heard his amazing and sad story, while this singular guest preferred to relax in his corral.
After the visit to the Darwin center our guests had an opportunity to explore the town of Puerto Ayora at their own pace, and walked through its colorful main street: the Charles Darwin Avenue.
In the afternoon, a change of scenery was in line. Buses transported us to the humid highlands of Santa Cruz, where a delicious meal awaited us. It is in this zone, the moist uplands of this island, where we were to experience close encounters with the endemic Santa Cruz giant tortoises in the wild. This is a relatively healthy population of approximately 4,000 tortoises, and we found several of them grazing in the area, including a large male! A young tortoise was spotted while wandering along the road, which really was everyone’s delight.
After this visit, we got back on the buses and hit the road again, this time to stop at a new visitor’s site called Los Gemelos, or The Twins. These are two sink holes located on either side of the road which, surrounded by the lush vegetation of the area, mainly composed by the endemic giant Scalesia trees, made a stunning landscape. During our exploration of the area, we also enjoyed the presence of several species of land birds, like the ground and tree finches, all of which were very busy searching for seeds and food amidst the Scalesia forest.
As the afternoon died out, we headed back to Puerto Ayora. This has been another successful day, but it was time to go back on board. A new, distant destination awaits us tomorrow, and we cannot wait to experience new adventures in the Galápagos Islands.
