Santa Cruz Island
It always comes as a surprise to visit one of the inhabited islands of the archipelago after having spent several days away from civilization – it can sometimes be hard to believe that the islands are not just the home of incredible wild life. However, our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station brought the truth alive for us: the Galapagos are more than just incredible nature, they are also home to a human population. Puerto Ayora is the largest of the human settlements in the islands (just four of the islands are inhabited) and is a thriving port town numbering around ten thousand inhabitants. Here one can find Internet cafés, restaurants, cell phone places, a bank, high schools, shops etc.
Certainly the main reason for visiting this particular place is to go to the world-famous Charles Darwin Research Station, the institution that has been trusted with the important task of safeguarding this amazing part of the world, opened in 1964. The greatest attraction of the visit is our first glimpse of the most emblematic of the Galapagos species, the ones that gave the islands their name and made them so famous, the giant tortoises. Amongst the longest-running and most important of the conservation programs run here are the captive breeding programs of two of our great reptiles, the giant tortoise and the land iguana.
Santa Cruz in the second largest island of the group and has much more to offer, being home to its own population of wild giant tortoises, endemic cloud forests that form where the highlands intercept the low cloud cover and many land bird species, including ten of Darwin’s finches! This afternoon we had a very different experience as we took buses into this very different environment, where the opportunity to photograph these tortoises in the wild was astonishing.
For those among us who are plant lovers, of which we have a great many this week, the highlands offered a wonderful opportunity to see bromeliads, orchids, and many endemic plants, including forests formed by a giant member of the sunflower family – an astonishing contrast to the arid zone vegetation that has surrounded us so far.
And as for bird lovers, the outing was truly unforgettable and included such exciting sightings as the woodpecker finch using a tool to get at food and the vermilion flycatcher in full courtship display, dive bombing the forest canopy before making a last minute recovery. Yet another memorable outing during a very special trip.
It always comes as a surprise to visit one of the inhabited islands of the archipelago after having spent several days away from civilization – it can sometimes be hard to believe that the islands are not just the home of incredible wild life. However, our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station brought the truth alive for us: the Galapagos are more than just incredible nature, they are also home to a human population. Puerto Ayora is the largest of the human settlements in the islands (just four of the islands are inhabited) and is a thriving port town numbering around ten thousand inhabitants. Here one can find Internet cafés, restaurants, cell phone places, a bank, high schools, shops etc.
Certainly the main reason for visiting this particular place is to go to the world-famous Charles Darwin Research Station, the institution that has been trusted with the important task of safeguarding this amazing part of the world, opened in 1964. The greatest attraction of the visit is our first glimpse of the most emblematic of the Galapagos species, the ones that gave the islands their name and made them so famous, the giant tortoises. Amongst the longest-running and most important of the conservation programs run here are the captive breeding programs of two of our great reptiles, the giant tortoise and the land iguana.
Santa Cruz in the second largest island of the group and has much more to offer, being home to its own population of wild giant tortoises, endemic cloud forests that form where the highlands intercept the low cloud cover and many land bird species, including ten of Darwin’s finches! This afternoon we had a very different experience as we took buses into this very different environment, where the opportunity to photograph these tortoises in the wild was astonishing.
For those among us who are plant lovers, of which we have a great many this week, the highlands offered a wonderful opportunity to see bromeliads, orchids, and many endemic plants, including forests formed by a giant member of the sunflower family – an astonishing contrast to the arid zone vegetation that has surrounded us so far.
And as for bird lovers, the outing was truly unforgettable and included such exciting sightings as the woodpecker finch using a tool to get at food and the vermilion flycatcher in full courtship display, dive bombing the forest canopy before making a last minute recovery. Yet another memorable outing during a very special trip.
