Santa Cruz Island
Puerto Ayora is a charming town located in the southeastern part of Santa Cruz Island, where eighteen thousand people live. Many of them are involved in tourism, giving their service to visitors of all around the world with a big smile, which characterizes Galápageans. Today we arrived at six o’clock in the morning, and the town was involved in a magical calm mist. Some of the guests did some yoga led by our masseuse Isabel, and right after breakfast we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station to visit the most enigmatic creatures that might live over a hundred of years and are the symbol of the Galápagos Islands.
The word Galápagos came from old Spanish that means saddle and when the islands were discovered by accident, these giants dominated the landscape. In the Station there are around seven hundred tortoises from different islands: Santa Cruz, Española, Pinzon, Santiago, Isabela and Pinta. Around five hundred of them are babies. The most famous among them are Lonesome George and Dieguito.
Lonesome George is the result of a very sad story. The over catching of tortoises served as food for sailors passing by the Enchanted Islands of the Galápagos. Pinta island remained destroyed because aggression was introduced to these species, and only a male has been found so far. Nowadays they are trying to mate George with two females from Isabela island. We still keep hope to find a female from George's species, and a reward of ten thousand dollars is offered for finding a mate. Interest is rising to find one.
On the other hand Dieguito has been absent from Galápagos since the early thirties of last century and was found in San Diego zoo in the eighties. That is why its name comes from a small group of tortoises from Española that survived from the edge of extinction and were taken to the Darwin Station. After twenty years of breeding in captivity, George is the proud father of over half of fourteen hundred baby tortoises that have been repatriated successfully to the island of Española.
We observed giant tortoises in the wild like whalers did, and it was a wonderful experience.
Back onboard, after recap and dinner, we were delighted by musicians from Galápagos.
Puerto Ayora is a charming town located in the southeastern part of Santa Cruz Island, where eighteen thousand people live. Many of them are involved in tourism, giving their service to visitors of all around the world with a big smile, which characterizes Galápageans. Today we arrived at six o’clock in the morning, and the town was involved in a magical calm mist. Some of the guests did some yoga led by our masseuse Isabel, and right after breakfast we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station to visit the most enigmatic creatures that might live over a hundred of years and are the symbol of the Galápagos Islands.
The word Galápagos came from old Spanish that means saddle and when the islands were discovered by accident, these giants dominated the landscape. In the Station there are around seven hundred tortoises from different islands: Santa Cruz, Española, Pinzon, Santiago, Isabela and Pinta. Around five hundred of them are babies. The most famous among them are Lonesome George and Dieguito.
Lonesome George is the result of a very sad story. The over catching of tortoises served as food for sailors passing by the Enchanted Islands of the Galápagos. Pinta island remained destroyed because aggression was introduced to these species, and only a male has been found so far. Nowadays they are trying to mate George with two females from Isabela island. We still keep hope to find a female from George's species, and a reward of ten thousand dollars is offered for finding a mate. Interest is rising to find one.
On the other hand Dieguito has been absent from Galápagos since the early thirties of last century and was found in San Diego zoo in the eighties. That is why its name comes from a small group of tortoises from Española that survived from the edge of extinction and were taken to the Darwin Station. After twenty years of breeding in captivity, George is the proud father of over half of fourteen hundred baby tortoises that have been repatriated successfully to the island of Española.
We observed giant tortoises in the wild like whalers did, and it was a wonderful experience.
Back onboard, after recap and dinner, we were delighted by musicians from Galápagos.
