Santa Cruz Island
Today we woke up early in the morning at Academy Bay. Our next adventure in our expedition today was a visit to one of the most historic places of the Galapagos: The Charles Darwin Research Station. We began the visit with the tortoise babies’ pens. As the environmental temperature was high, these babies were very active in the morning. As this tender age they looked so small and fragile, that is why it is so amazing to think that these babies will get to be giants as they age in time. The next stop was a Galapagos Islands’ celebrity: Lonesome George. He looked as relaxed as usual, being surrounded by his two companions: two female tortoises, from Wolf Volcano, which were placed inside its area in order to encourage him to reproduce. As we continued the visit it was time to see our very old friend Diego from Española Island. Toady Diego seemed to be very active inside that corral with so many females around him. Farther into the visit, we came inside the giant tortoises’ corral in order to enjoy their presence from a closer view. As soon as we came in, they came to us as if they were asking for food. It was so amazing how they moved so slowly everywhere in an attempt to find fresh leaves that fell from the trees. At the end, we enjoyed the visit to the Galapagos Land iguanas’ corral. At this moment, we were surprised by the male iguana that tried to come into the female’s corral as if he was asking her for a date.
The next part of the adventure continued with a confortable bus ride to the highlands. The first stop was a spectacular lava tube that ended up right next to the restaurant where we had a fantastic buffet lunch. After this meal we went to see the giant tortoises in natural conditions, in the wild! We felt as if we were back in time as we walked among these giants. They were found everywhere in the area. As we reached to a fresh water pool, it was spectacular to see how the tortoises were inside regulating their body temperatures. After the visit, it was time to go to the pit craters that are found farther up inside a charming cloud forest. Right at the entrance, the big surprise was the colorful endemic Vermilion flycatcher that was chasing flies out of the trees. As we reached the first crater, we were amazed how similar it was to a little grand canyon. Darwin’s finches were singing all over us, just like the perfect sound of Nature to our ears. At the end of a fantastic journey, we had a smooth ride back into town in order to get onboard the National Geographic Islander. Today, our dreams came true at the living paradise of the Galapagos Islands.
