Santa Cruz Island
Today we had another fabulous adventure in the living paradise of the Galápagos Islands. Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station. As we arrived at the giant tortoise corral, we found these walking giants very active. The magnificence of their sizes was very impressive, and the Darwin finch’s calling was the perfect natural music for wonderful morning.
As we continued the hike at the research station, it was time to visit our very old tortoise friend Diego. He was surrounded with females that were placed along with him in order to reproduce. Diego was very quiet, but suddenly he started chasing one of the females in a seducing routine inside the corral. Farther along the trail, we stopped to visit the Galápagos’ celebrity Lonesome George. The solitude of this emblematic individual was perceived as soon as we arrived. His slow movements looked as if he was waiting for a female to come a little closer. Suddenly, he started taking his neck out of the carapace as if he was posing for the cameras that were surrounding him. At the end of the visit, it was time to see the giant tortoise kindergarten section. The delightfulness of the baby tortoises impressed us very much. Right in the middle of the explanation, a baby tortoise accidentally flipped upside-down. It started pushing its head against the ground in order to flip back over, and after several attempts, it finally achieved its goal.
In the afternoon we had the opportunity to explore the inside of a lava tunnel. The charm of the rocks made us feel connected to ancient times. After a fantastic buffet lunch, we moved onto the most attractive part of the adventure: seeing giant tortoises in the wild. As soon as we arrived we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Giant Tortoise Reserve. These walking giants were everywhere in the area. Some of them were inside a green water pool, some others, feeding on the grassy plants that nature offered them. We continued the adventure into the scalesia forest located a little farther up the highlands. Right at the middle of the forest, we found ourselves surrounded by the sound of the birds and the existence of two amazing pit craters. The vegetation was the perfect contrast in an astonishing landscape. The Galápagos paradise couldn’t have been better for today’s adventure.
