Santa Cruz Island
The day started overcast, fresh breeze blowing, and civilization in view with the appearance of the small town of Puerto Ayora bordering the inside edges of what is officially known as Academy Bay. However, as the morning wore on, the clouds cleared, and by the time we were boarding buses to drive up into the highlands for lunch, the sun was shining. What perfect timing, as the earlier hours had been spent visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station where the paths are all outside in order to see one of their most prestigious programs, the conservation and restoration of giant tortoise populations from the various islands here in the archipelago.
Small ones, medium ones, tall ones, round ones, saddle-backed ones, enormous ones, we saw them all. The main activity for all the tortoises at the raising center this particular morning was to anxiously (seemingly) await feeding time, an important moment for them which takes place three times a week. To keep them slim and trim, over-feeding is not advised as experience has shown this to make them lethargic and listless (not particularly helpful when we want them to develop good reflexes and muscles for tackling the rough terrain of their home islands, never mind getting busy producing more eggs. The Española tortoises have done very well on this diet). As we watched the slow, hungry, deliberate pacing of the little ones over their feeding platform, a caretaker came by, and in each enclosure quickly sliced off chunks from the stem from the taro plant. Talk about action-packed! All kinds of aggressive displays over sumptuous, juicy, plant segments took place. Head to head, necks out-stretched, large and small took advantage to the max of every last piece.
We did the same (without the aggression), a little bit later up in the highlands. Well-deserved after walks and a competitive volleyball game, lunch was deliciously filling. The afternoon explorations in the highlands were also successful, with sightings of vermillion flycatchers, barn owl, Galápagos rail, doves and even tortoises, free in the wild, foraging at will. The sunlit colors filtering through the canopy were described to me as silvery-olive, with epiphytic accents of russet and gray.
