Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the archipelago, and Puerto Ayora is the largest settlement in Galápagos, with a total population of about 18,000 spread between the port and the agricultural zone in the highlands. The island, home to the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park Service (SPNG) and the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS), is the nerve-center of both conservation and tourism.
We began our day by finding some beautiful male marine iguanas while landing at the National Park dock. We witnessed one of the most significant and successful programs in the ecological restoration of the islands: the giant tortoise captive breeding program. At the CDRS we could see massive adult tortoises and one of the most famous giant tortoises on Earth, Lonesome George, who is the only survivor from Pinta Island and happened to be very active and looking good. We also had the chance to see baby tortoises from different islands, therefore different races. These animals were born in captivity with the objective of protecting them from predation of introduced animals such as rats, cats or feral pigs; the latter were decimating the young populations. Once the babies are 4 to 5 years old, they are repatriated to their islands of origin, thus ensuring the continuity of these unique animals.
The highlands of Santa Cruz support a healthy population of wild giant tortoises that migrate seasonally between the highlands and the lowlands as they have been doing for millennia. After our visit to the tortoise breeding center, we took a 40 minute ride to the highlands, passing through different vegetation zones and farming areas. Before lunch some of us had the chance to go into a lava tunnel. We witnessed the force of nature thousands of years ago, when these tunnels were created from huge lava flows. Once we had crossed the lava tunnels, we ended at a beautiful open-air restaurant with a magnificent view of the highlands and the coastline of Santa Cruz.
Having replenished our energy with a very healthy lunch, we walked through pastureland and under trees to the edge of a small pond where we found many giant tortoises. Some of them were eating, other resting and others enjoying the water and the mud to refresh and protect their skin from insects. Once we were satisfied with our tortoise search, we re-boarded our buses and after skirting a few tortoises in the middle of the road, we arrived to an area known as the pit craters or Los Gemelos. These small craters, once collapsed magma chambers, are surrounded by the last remnant of the endemic Scalesia forest, covered by a lush, epiphyte-laden, where ferns, orchids and several species of Darwin’s finches can be seen.
After our visit to the highlands, we returned to Puerto Ayora. We walked the main square in town, where a typical Ecuadorian volleyball game was taking place. While enjoying the game, we watched locals doing their daily activities and some of us did some last minute shopping. It was a perfect day; a mixture of nature, conservation, education and local flavor.
