Santa Cruz Island
Wednesdays are our day for Santa Cruz Island: a day for tortoises, for flourishing vegetation, a place for using rubber boots and getting in contact with civilization again.
This island, which looks so desolated on its northern side, is steaming with life on the southern side.
It is here that the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station have their headquarters.
It is here that about 10,000 people live, making this island the most inhabited of the Galapagos. This is the place where many children are growing up with love for nature; where the future of a whole archipelago is being planned.
Santa Cruz Island is the heart of Galapagos itself. It is in the middle of everything. In between the oldest islands to the east, and the youngest to the west. It is in the middle of most of the research going on in the islands, and in the middle of most of the conservation programs for the archipelago.
And we were right in the middle of Santa Cruz today: we saw its tortoises, its many species of Darwin's finches, the spectacular vermilion flycatcher and the wonderful people that are building a brighter future for Galapagos.
Wednesdays are our day for Santa Cruz Island: a day for tortoises, for flourishing vegetation, a place for using rubber boots and getting in contact with civilization again.
This island, which looks so desolated on its northern side, is steaming with life on the southern side.
It is here that the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station have their headquarters.
It is here that about 10,000 people live, making this island the most inhabited of the Galapagos. This is the place where many children are growing up with love for nature; where the future of a whole archipelago is being planned.
Santa Cruz Island is the heart of Galapagos itself. It is in the middle of everything. In between the oldest islands to the east, and the youngest to the west. It is in the middle of most of the research going on in the islands, and in the middle of most of the conservation programs for the archipelago.
And we were right in the middle of Santa Cruz today: we saw its tortoises, its many species of Darwin's finches, the spectacular vermilion flycatcher and the wonderful people that are building a brighter future for Galapagos.
