Santa Cruz
Today was spent entirely on Santa Cruz Island, known for having the second largest population in Galápagos and the main breading center for young tortoises.
In the morning we visited the Charles Darwin Station. We got to see some of the youngest tortoises that were born this year and the really big ones that no one knows exactly how old they are. Not to mention famous Lonesome George, who was also present in our expedition. As we walked among these amazing creatures we were fascinated by the innocence of the Darwin finches that hopped all over the area looking for food, the Galapagos mocking birds that sang all along the trail, and last but not least the giant prickly pear cacti that can grow more than 9 feet.
The stroll along the main street of Puerto Ayora was quite interesting, especially the fish market where a group of pelicans were gathered around the fresh fish.
At mid-day we boarded a bus that took us to the highlands of Santa Cruz in order to see the tortoises in the wild. This was a different experience since we did not return to ship at mid-day but we had lunch at a local farm in the highlands.
After lunch we boarded the buses once again, and we traveled along a road inside the farm in order to reach the area where the tortoises spend a good part of their long lives. Everywhere we looked we could find a tortoise, there were so many of them that after a while we stopped counting them, some of them were walking around, other were grazing on the vegetation and other were taking their afternoon nap. This was one of the places where one can easily pick a tortoise and sit close by to observe it, snap photos, or simply walk along the field counting them.
After this exceptional experience we boarded the buses once more to go to the Gemelos, or twin craters. We were amazed at the sight of these huge chambers covered with native plants and home to Darwin finches, owls, mockingbirds, doves and many others.
