Santa Cruz Island
This is the second largest island of the Galápagos Archipelago, and with about 16,000 people, it has the largest human population. This morning we anchored in Academy Bay. The Bay was named after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, which brought on of the most important scientific expeditions to Galápagos during 1905 and 1906.
Today we visited the installations of the Galápagos National Park Service and Darwin Station. The rock walled corrals of the famous giant tortoises (see today’s photo) captured our attention. There are individual tortoises from many of the islands here; each one is a separate subspecies, and all of them have a different carapace shape and size. We enjoyed watching dozens of the youngest of these giants, some less than a year-old, which are being raised at the Station for repatriation to the islands of their origin. It was immediately evident that all island races look alike when they are small and we learned that only once they reach sexual maturity, at around 18 to 25 years of age, can they be distinguished.
At noon we boarded the local buses for a drive into the interior of the island. After lunch we continued exploring the lush and evergreen highlands of Santa Cruz. Here the land birds were abundant and active. This did not surprise us, as we know that the rainy months are their breeding season. We spotted the brilliant vermilion flycatcher and some of us saw the elusive woodpecker finch. This is one of the thirteen Darwin finches and is a tool user. These birds break off a twig or cactus spine to probe for insects under bark and in holes.
In the evening we enjoyed a colorful show by musicians from the town of Puerto Ayora, and danced to the rhythm of Galápagos music.
This is the second largest island of the Galápagos Archipelago, and with about 16,000 people, it has the largest human population. This morning we anchored in Academy Bay. The Bay was named after the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, which brought on of the most important scientific expeditions to Galápagos during 1905 and 1906.
Today we visited the installations of the Galápagos National Park Service and Darwin Station. The rock walled corrals of the famous giant tortoises (see today’s photo) captured our attention. There are individual tortoises from many of the islands here; each one is a separate subspecies, and all of them have a different carapace shape and size. We enjoyed watching dozens of the youngest of these giants, some less than a year-old, which are being raised at the Station for repatriation to the islands of their origin. It was immediately evident that all island races look alike when they are small and we learned that only once they reach sexual maturity, at around 18 to 25 years of age, can they be distinguished.
At noon we boarded the local buses for a drive into the interior of the island. After lunch we continued exploring the lush and evergreen highlands of Santa Cruz. Here the land birds were abundant and active. This did not surprise us, as we know that the rainy months are their breeding season. We spotted the brilliant vermilion flycatcher and some of us saw the elusive woodpecker finch. This is one of the thirteen Darwin finches and is a tool user. These birds break off a twig or cactus spine to probe for insects under bark and in holes.
In the evening we enjoyed a colorful show by musicians from the town of Puerto Ayora, and danced to the rhythm of Galápagos music.
