Santa Cruz Island
Today we spent the day on Santa Cruz Island, headquarters of the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Station.
Our visit started early in the town of Puerto Ayora, the largest town in Galápagos, with the Giant tortoise breeding centre where several subspecies of tortoises are bred in captivity. Eggs from Santiago tortoises, Pinzon, Espanola and Santa Cruz are incubated artificially here, and baby tortoises are kept in captivity until they reach a certain age and size to be released into their original habitats. This breeding program started many years ago when populations of giant tortoises were too low or at the border of extinction.
Since the islands were discovered in 1835, tortoises became a very attractive source of fresh meat for the pirates, whalers and fur seal hunters. Thousands of tortoises were captured alive and stocked on board the ships. Their incredible capacity to survive longs periods without food and water was their curse. Thousands of them where also killed in place to produce tortoise oil, as valuable as whale oil in those times. Early settlers not only ate them but also introduced to the islands alien animals such as goats, donkeys, and pigs that not only compete for food, but also prey on them.
The breeding centre not only has baby tortoises, but also the entire adult population of Hood Island (kept for reproductive purposes), various large dome shaped males, and a famous individual: Lonesome George, the only living tortoise from Pinta Island. Transferred to the Breeding Centre in 1972, George now is desperately trying to produce descendants, but his future and the future of his race remains uncertain.
After learning about the restoration program of the Giant Tortoises, we walk back to town, a good place for shopping and discovering how local people live here.
A short bus ride took us to the highlands of Santa Cruz, where giant tortoises roam free between the National Park area and the farming zone. A drastic change of vegetation could be observed on the way up, form the dry arid coast to the lush and verdant vegetation highlands. We had the opportunity to go across a lava tunnel and walk around the area where we encountered more than 30 tortoises of different ages and sizes. Some were feeding, others were drinking water, sleeping or just observing some strange creatures taking pictures, us!
We continue this journey higher, encountering Los Gemelos (twin craters formations), and a cloud forest of Scalesia trees, ferns, orchids and bromeliads where some Darwin finches where flying around.
It is hard to leave this magical encounter with the most incredible and peaceful creatures!
