Santa Cruz Island
Today we started our expedition anchoring in Academy Bay, on the southern end of Santa Cruz Island, right in front of Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galápagos. About 20,000 people are living here due to tourism and the local fisheries. The Charles Darwin Research Station and Galápagos National Park Headquarters are also located here and employ a fair number of the population.
During the morning we visited the giant tortoise rearing center managed by the Galápagos National Park. Here we learned about on-going conservation projects to preserve and restore the population of this enigmatic and legendary reptile, the Galápagos Giant Tortoise. There was a lot to learn also about the current threats to the Galápagos ecosystems. The Charles Darwin Research Station is located in an area to the east of the town and during our circuit viewing tortoises there was the opportunity to see just a fraction of what the research station and their personnel are working on: a laboratory to study the introduced terrestrial invertebrates, the shade house where native and endemic plants are grown to encourage locals to use for decoration instead of colorful introduced ornamentals plants. Of course they are involved in much, much more, but other projects are out of sight of the visitor spending just a couple of hours in the area.
The afternoon was spent in the highlands, escaping for a short while the heat and humidity of the warm season which has just begun. We visited the pit craters, where we found a woodpecker finch showing us its skills with the twig. Then we moved to the tortoise territory, where the giant tortoises in the wild were wandering the fields, enjoying the abundant vegetation of the area.
It was another wonderful day in paradise!
Today we started our expedition anchoring in Academy Bay, on the southern end of Santa Cruz Island, right in front of Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galápagos. About 20,000 people are living here due to tourism and the local fisheries. The Charles Darwin Research Station and Galápagos National Park Headquarters are also located here and employ a fair number of the population.
During the morning we visited the giant tortoise rearing center managed by the Galápagos National Park. Here we learned about on-going conservation projects to preserve and restore the population of this enigmatic and legendary reptile, the Galápagos Giant Tortoise. There was a lot to learn also about the current threats to the Galápagos ecosystems. The Charles Darwin Research Station is located in an area to the east of the town and during our circuit viewing tortoises there was the opportunity to see just a fraction of what the research station and their personnel are working on: a laboratory to study the introduced terrestrial invertebrates, the shade house where native and endemic plants are grown to encourage locals to use for decoration instead of colorful introduced ornamentals plants. Of course they are involved in much, much more, but other projects are out of sight of the visitor spending just a couple of hours in the area.
The afternoon was spent in the highlands, escaping for a short while the heat and humidity of the warm season which has just begun. We visited the pit craters, where we found a woodpecker finch showing us its skills with the twig. Then we moved to the tortoise territory, where the giant tortoises in the wild were wandering the fields, enjoying the abundant vegetation of the area.
It was another wonderful day in paradise!
