Santa Cruz Island
Today we experienced one of the largest tides of the year: a magnificent spring tide. So our morning began with some “rock and rolling” produced by immense waves that headed with great intensity towards the town of Puerto Ayora. It was quite an adventure, but we all managed to disembark and do the walk to the Charles Darwin Research Station.
The tortoises at the Station also seemed to be affected by the influence of last night’s full moon. We witnessed a lot of “love” encounters in the tortoise corrals. Even Lonesome George had apparently been affected by the moon; we saw him getting very close to one of his girlfriends. However, the lady tortoise was not in the mood, and left George to be all-lonesome again.
Our Audubon guests had a full bird-watching afternoon. We found all the finch species we had hoped to see. In addition we encountered the most colourful land bird of these islands, the vermilion flycatcher. The one pictured here is a female.
Santa Cruz fulfilled the expectations of birdwatchers, reptile watchers, botanists, shoppers and even the hopes of the spring tide fans.
Today we experienced one of the largest tides of the year: a magnificent spring tide. So our morning began with some “rock and rolling” produced by immense waves that headed with great intensity towards the town of Puerto Ayora. It was quite an adventure, but we all managed to disembark and do the walk to the Charles Darwin Research Station.
The tortoises at the Station also seemed to be affected by the influence of last night’s full moon. We witnessed a lot of “love” encounters in the tortoise corrals. Even Lonesome George had apparently been affected by the moon; we saw him getting very close to one of his girlfriends. However, the lady tortoise was not in the mood, and left George to be all-lonesome again.
Our Audubon guests had a full bird-watching afternoon. We found all the finch species we had hoped to see. In addition we encountered the most colourful land bird of these islands, the vermilion flycatcher. The one pictured here is a female.
Santa Cruz fulfilled the expectations of birdwatchers, reptile watchers, botanists, shoppers and even the hopes of the spring tide fans.
