Santa Cruz Island
The Galápagos Islands form one of the last remaining most pristine archipelagos on Earth, and though its biodiversity is rather limited by its youth, it doesn’t stop to amaze us. Every day, the National Geographic Islander brings us to a new and exciting site, and today we are visiting Santa Cruz Island, at the heart of the archipelago. This island is the home to one of the 14 races of giant tortoises that still exist in the Galápagos, Geochelone nigra porteri.
In order to see these amazing animals, we set off to visit the Charles Darwin Research Station. Since 1964, this institute, together with the Galápagos National Park Service, has jointly been making huge efforts to restore the giant tortoise dynasty, with quite a lot of success. We learned all about this breeding program while visiting the various tortoise corrals, including that of the ‘baby’ tortoises, which will eventually be repatriated back in their original habitats. We also stopped by Lonesome George’s corral. He has become a worldwide celebrity being the last survivor of the Pinta tortoise species and, true to his name, George decided to avoid the public eye by hiding behind some bushes today.
After a visit to the very picturesque town of Puerto Ayora and its many t-shirt and souvenir shops, we boarded some buses that drove us to the highlands of Santa Cruz. This is quite a contrast to the other areas that we’ve visited so far. Being at a certain elevation, this zone receives more moisture, therefore it is green and lush, perfect for the survival of wild giant tortoises. To our joy, we managed to see many of them this afternoon. What a bizarre scene it was to see these archaic creatures grazing together with cows on the pastures around us.
The Santa Cruz highlands are not only rich in giant tortoises but in land birds too. Since there is an abundance of seeds and insects, species like the Galápagos flycatcher, yellow warblers and small tree finches came quite close to us. Other birds like Galápagos doves, Galápagos mockingbirds and ground finches are also found here. To make the most of this wonderful afternoon, we stopped at an amazing geological formation called ‘Los Gemelos’, Spanish for ‘the twins’. These are two sink holes on either side of the road, right in the middle of the endemic Scalesia forest. A short-eared owl, a native species of the Galápagos Islands, showed up in the forest as our last group was leaving ‘Los Gemelos’, making this an unforgettable afternoon.
