Santa Cruz Island: Indefatigable
The town of Puerto Ayora is the busiest of all the towns in Galápagos. It is six in the morning as we look out on to Academy Bay and can only wonder what new adventures we will have in this paradise where a human population lives.
Many sailboats are anchored and soon we realize that they are from sailors traveling around the world. The Zodiacs take us through the smooth rolling waves, the sun is shining, and the sky above the highlands of Santa Cruz becomes more and more clear as we get close to the main dock.
With our backpacks ready for the whole day outing, we step on to the dock and ride on Charles Darwin Avenue to visit the famous scientific station. Early in the morning the shops are closed as we pass many T-shirt shops, art galleries, the bank and the fish market. Only a five minutes road trip and we arrive to the Station where the tortoise-rearing and breeding program takes place. Mangroves, saltbushes, and cacti surround our path.
We stop for a short moment under the poison apple tree trying to take advantage of the shade and remember not to eat its fruits. It is all very exciting. The baby tortoises are separated in corrals by their islands of origin and their years of birth and the care that their handlers give to them until they are returned to their true home. Lonesome George is in our viewfinder and many of us admit that he is there to teach us a lesson; when he dies his kind will vanish with him. Our mood changes when we see the Espanola saddle back tortoises and understand the great success that they have achieved in their reproduction in captivity, due to the commitment of the scientists and park rangers who have been working arduously in the most successful restoration project ever conducted in the world.
In the highlands, a heavy rain fell over us at lunchtime. We were uncertain – would we would find tortoises in the wild even with the tall grass growing during this wet season? The answer came soon. There were not many, but a few tortoises showed themselves.
Today we learned that no matter what nature displays, it always go forward even if we think or feel the world would stop because of our uncertainties. We should fight them and catch up to the grandeur of this world. Life is indefatigable in all of its wonder.
