Santa Cruz Island
Today we visited the most beautiful island of Galápagos (according to the endemic guides on board the ship). Yes, it was Santa Cruz Island where we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and saw the different types of giant land tortoises: the saddleback and the domed-shape tortoises. We can not forget also the famous creature called Lonesome George.
Lonesome George is the only tortoise found alive on the island of Pinta, and famous for the unfortunate reason of being considered the most lonesome creature on earth by the Guinness Book of Records. We believe he spent around forty years alone, looking for a tortoise friend on the island, until the scientists and wardens from the Galápagos National Park found him in the late nineteen seventies. Nowadays, the Darwin Station and the Galápagos National Park are doing their best to get him involved in a special breeding program. We are still looking for a female from this same island to keep him company, but meanwhile he has tortoise friends nearby.
Another program that the Darwin Station has is to protect the baby tortoises in captivity for a maximum of five years until they are big enough and can survive in the wild by themselves.
In the afternoon we had a great opportunity to see some adults of these giant creatures in the wild. It was fascinating to see these huge animals on the move, plowing through everything found in their way. Our guests really enjoyed this day on Santa Cruz Island, the most beautiful island in Galápagos.
Today we visited the most beautiful island of Galápagos (according to the endemic guides on board the ship). Yes, it was Santa Cruz Island where we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and saw the different types of giant land tortoises: the saddleback and the domed-shape tortoises. We can not forget also the famous creature called Lonesome George.
Lonesome George is the only tortoise found alive on the island of Pinta, and famous for the unfortunate reason of being considered the most lonesome creature on earth by the Guinness Book of Records. We believe he spent around forty years alone, looking for a tortoise friend on the island, until the scientists and wardens from the Galápagos National Park found him in the late nineteen seventies. Nowadays, the Darwin Station and the Galápagos National Park are doing their best to get him involved in a special breeding program. We are still looking for a female from this same island to keep him company, but meanwhile he has tortoise friends nearby.
Another program that the Darwin Station has is to protect the baby tortoises in captivity for a maximum of five years until they are big enough and can survive in the wild by themselves.
In the afternoon we had a great opportunity to see some adults of these giant creatures in the wild. It was fascinating to see these huge animals on the move, plowing through everything found in their way. Our guests really enjoyed this day on Santa Cruz Island, the most beautiful island in Galápagos.
