Santa Cruz Island

Early in the morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, one of Galápagos Island’s most famous places because of its giant tortoise breeding and repatriation programs. Today, we saw the babies and the adults of this program. They are the emblematic creatures of Galápagos.

After breakfast, we disembarked at the main dock and started our visit at the interpretation center, where we saw the different morphotypes of the tortoise species. Then we visited the corrals for both the baby and the giant tortoises. It was there that we saw just how successful the breeding program in Galápagos is.

Lonesome George was the most famous tortoise among our guests. News of one of Lonesome George’s mates laying 5 eggs, months ago, made the news internationally. The other famous giant tortoise we visited was Diego, who was taken from Hood Island to San Diego Zoo in 1905, and came back to Galapagos in 1971. All our guests heard his story about being the father of a thousand.

When we finished the visit in the Darwin Station, we boarded a bus that took us to the highlands. Once there, we crossed the lava tunnel, which is about a 300 meters long. In the often scary inside, we saw stalactite and stalagmite formations. Just afterwards, we had lunch and felt better.

We discovered the giant daisy forest and the woodpecker finch, one of the highlights of the day. What a wonderful day in paradise!!!