Santa Cruz
This morning we awoke to find warm, sunny skies over the central island of Santa Cruz, home to the National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station headquarters. We were anchored in Academy Bay and rode the Zodiacs to shore, then buses through the town of Puerto Ayora. Our first stop today was at the CDRS where we visited the captive tortoise breeding corrals and photographed the hatchlings and the huge ancient adult tortoises. We were delighted to see both famous “Lonesome George” – the sole surviving tortoise from the northern island of Pinta – and “Super Diego” – who was returned to the Galápagos from the San Diego Zoo and has since made a huge contribution to the Española Island captive breeding program. From a total population of just 12 females and 3 males on the very brink of extinction, there are now over 1600 tortoises once again roaming Española, wild and free.
We walked down through town shopping as we went, and enjoyed perhaps best of all, the scene at the fish market. Here, while the sailors cleaned their catch, four sea lions begged and competed for scraps with pelicans and surprisingly, a non-vegetarian marine iguana! We clicked off countless photos and had to laugh at the aggressive and insistent tricks of the hungry sea lions.
I was waiting at the main town park, gathered up our guests as they made their way down town, and soon we boarded three brightly painted buses for a half-hour drive to the slightly cooler highlands. We found our first wild tortoise, a medium size female, en route to the entrance to a lava tunnel. We descended rough, slippery steps and followed it underground for about a quarter-mile. Climbing out and back into the sunlight, we joined the rest of our group for a delicious and bounteous buffet lunch.
The “do-it-all group,” which was the majority of us, spent the afternoon searching for and then photographing a handful of tortoises that they spied around a small rainwater pool and hidden in the lush vegetation. Then travelling further into the interior of the island, we visited “Los Gemelos” – twin pit craters that are surrounded by a beautiful endemic Scalesia forest. Darwin’s finches and yellow warblers sang and fluttered among the lush green branches of these unique giant daisy trees.
Back on the ship during Recap we enjoyed a short and rather amazing video about the tool-using woodpecker finch, which Naturalist Celso shared with us. I gave the evening briefing about tomorrow’s activities and everyone is looking forward to the morning hikes, swimming from the ship and afternoon snorkeling and hikes. To end this full and gratifying day with something special, we invited a local group of musicians and dancers and had a rousing “fiesta” in the Lounge.
