Charles Darwin Research Station
Today we finished our shorter-than normal expedition with a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station where we met up with several key figures involved in the conservation efforts on-going here in the islands. The Director of the Galapagos National Park, Eliecer Cruz, greeted our guests from the WWF, but had to dash off to the inauguration of a new addition to the recycling program “Fabricio Valverde” here in town. Soon we shall be able to recycle plastic bottles and other items into small pieces, which will be then used in construction materials, especially bricks! We then visited the tortoise raising installations of the CDRS where Lonesome George showed us just why he’s so lonesome these days…chasing off his two girlfriends to get first dibs on the food supply laid down. Howard Snell, the station’s leading herpetologist accompanied us as we walked the boardwalk. It makes walking over sharp blocks of lava a breeze (which we could have used). The rough blocks are mostly hidden at this time of year by the lush vegetation, which includes sharp thorn bushes, prickly-pear cacti, and candelabra cacti among many other both native and endemic species. All these plants are appropriate background for the enclosures, which are home to our endemic giant tortoises and land iguanas living here.
A bus ride on the main road of the island took us through the two highland villages and past farmlands homesteaded decades ago before the park was formed. Once at the top, we glimpsed in passing the pit craters surrounded by the endemic Scalesia forest, an important part of the National Park on this island of Santa Cruz. Over the top, where during the dry, cool season one can see the rain shadow effect, an incredibly abrupt change of lush to bone dry, we saw instead green, green, green, all the way down to the coast. A short passenger-ferry ride took us over to the island of Baltra, where we ended this adventure at the airport. However, before going our separate ways, we got many promises of return journeys in the future. We’ll be waiting for you.
Today we finished our shorter-than normal expedition with a visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station where we met up with several key figures involved in the conservation efforts on-going here in the islands. The Director of the Galapagos National Park, Eliecer Cruz, greeted our guests from the WWF, but had to dash off to the inauguration of a new addition to the recycling program “Fabricio Valverde” here in town. Soon we shall be able to recycle plastic bottles and other items into small pieces, which will be then used in construction materials, especially bricks! We then visited the tortoise raising installations of the CDRS where Lonesome George showed us just why he’s so lonesome these days…chasing off his two girlfriends to get first dibs on the food supply laid down. Howard Snell, the station’s leading herpetologist accompanied us as we walked the boardwalk. It makes walking over sharp blocks of lava a breeze (which we could have used). The rough blocks are mostly hidden at this time of year by the lush vegetation, which includes sharp thorn bushes, prickly-pear cacti, and candelabra cacti among many other both native and endemic species. All these plants are appropriate background for the enclosures, which are home to our endemic giant tortoises and land iguanas living here.
A bus ride on the main road of the island took us through the two highland villages and past farmlands homesteaded decades ago before the park was formed. Once at the top, we glimpsed in passing the pit craters surrounded by the endemic Scalesia forest, an important part of the National Park on this island of Santa Cruz. Over the top, where during the dry, cool season one can see the rain shadow effect, an incredibly abrupt change of lush to bone dry, we saw instead green, green, green, all the way down to the coast. A short passenger-ferry ride took us over to the island of Baltra, where we ended this adventure at the airport. However, before going our separate ways, we got many promises of return journeys in the future. We’ll be waiting for you.
