Santa Cruz Island
Located at the center part of the archipelago, Santa Cruz is the center of tourism activities in the Galápagos; it is because of its strategic location that the first settlers preferred this place to create a new town a long time ago, and today this place is Puerto Ayora, the largest one in Galápagos.
In the morning we started by visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) where we found Lonesome George, the most famous giant tortoise in the world, lying into his private swimming pool while a group of finches cleaned his skin eating small insects on it. But George was not alone, he shared his corral with two females from the Wolf volcano on Isabela Island. His nickname was acquired because he is the last survivor of a group of giant tortoises from Pinta Island. We looked at the last picture of George just before he moved from Pinta to Santa Cruz and we understood how destructive the goats can be, because all the vegetation surrounding him looked completely destroyed.
Another very famous giant tortoise at CDRS is Diego, and his name is because he came from the San Diego, CA Zoo in the 1960’s. Compared with George, Diego is much smaller and has another very different story. All his life, this giant tortoise has lived in captivity, but thanks to him the population of Española Island’s tortoises has increased considerably, from fourteen to more than two thousand nowadays. Well done, Super Diego!
When we finished our visit to the giant tortoises, we enjoyed identifying many different species of finches. It always reminds me of Darwin’s first impressions when he noticed that those small birds are completely different from each other. We saw large ground finches, tree finches and cactus finches on trees and in the corrals. When we finished our visit we noticed that the highlands were not cloudy and Victor, our bus driver, told us it has not been raining for more than three days. Of course we didn’t need raincoats for our next part of the day.
In the afternoon we began our visit in the highlands, crossing a lava tunnel that finished just beside the restaurant whose owner is Mr. Miguel Angel Arias. That geological formation is incredible. Some parts were very narrow and other very high. We were witnesses of how big the eruption was thousands of years ago when Santa Cruz was active, and we imagined the thickness of the lava flow, at least 50 feet.
After lunch we had time to explore another face of Galápagos. We encountered a completely different ecosystem. The lush and green highlands is the habitat for many different species, mostly land birds such as several species of finches, cattle egrets, owls, flight catchers and mockingbirds. It is also here where giant tortoises have a paradise with perfect weather and abundant food. We were following their tracks to find them deep in the forest. Afterwards we drove up to Los Gemelos, two sunken craters on both sides of the road. Surrounding the craters, a small forest of umbrella shaped Scalesia Pedunculata trees, hide all the signs of volcanic activities.
On the bus while we were coming back, we saw how little by little the highland’s landscape was changing. All the bananas tree, elephant grass and farms disappeared and again, in front of us, cactus and palo santo trees told us we were arriving back to the arid zone. Nature needed millions of years to make this incredible place that we crossed in only 30 minutes.
Today was a great day, we finished tired but very happy.
