Santa Cruz and North Seymour Islands
Today we are in the central part of the archipelago. Our day began very early with my “time to rise and shine” ship-wide wake up call. But if one wants to see tortoises in the wild, one must, like these huge reptiles, get up and get active early! We rode buses into the green and lush highlands of Santa Cruz and were a bit dismayed by heavy garua mist that looked more like a light drizzle of rain than just mist to us. But we naturalists insist that it doesn’t rain during the garua season, so we had to accept that it was only “garua” dripping down our necks.
Before we even reached the boundaries of the tortoise reserve at El Chato, we found two smallish female tortoises (you can sex them by the length of their tails) slowly trucking down the cindery road. So we disembarked from the buses and began taking photos. Amazingly the weather immediately cleared up, the garua lifted, small patches of blue sky appeared and the sun came out from behind the low clouds. This was perfect weather for an early morning stroll down to the muddy pond where several huge giant tortoises were soaking and a handful of small pintail ducks paddled.
Yellow warblers sang from the wet green vegetation and tens of fat little grey and black finches hopped along the ground in search of a breakfast of seeds or insects. We were glad we had borrowed boots for this hike as the mud was quite sticky and the terrain at times very wet. Many of us scrambled through a ¼ mile long lava tube that took us to an open-air restaurant owned by a farmer named Miguel Angel Arias. Here a delicious and generous breakfast buffet awaited us and we did it justice as by now everyone was good and hungry!
After breakfast we had some free time for shopping and exploration of the charming port town of Puerto Ayora, then returned to the ship for lunch, siesta and a presentation by naturalist Celso on Charles Darwin. We made a dry landing at 4:00 p.m. on the rocky shore of North Seymour Island and were nearly overwhelmed by wildlife! Nesting blue-footed boobies, both magnificent and great frigate birds, land and marine iguanas, swallow tailed gulls, and the omnipresent sally light foot crabs and Galápagos sea lions entertained us. We marveled at how closely one can approach these wild and untamed animals, and greatly enjoyed being accepted as part of their world.
Today we are in the central part of the archipelago. Our day began very early with my “time to rise and shine” ship-wide wake up call. But if one wants to see tortoises in the wild, one must, like these huge reptiles, get up and get active early! We rode buses into the green and lush highlands of Santa Cruz and were a bit dismayed by heavy garua mist that looked more like a light drizzle of rain than just mist to us. But we naturalists insist that it doesn’t rain during the garua season, so we had to accept that it was only “garua” dripping down our necks.
Before we even reached the boundaries of the tortoise reserve at El Chato, we found two smallish female tortoises (you can sex them by the length of their tails) slowly trucking down the cindery road. So we disembarked from the buses and began taking photos. Amazingly the weather immediately cleared up, the garua lifted, small patches of blue sky appeared and the sun came out from behind the low clouds. This was perfect weather for an early morning stroll down to the muddy pond where several huge giant tortoises were soaking and a handful of small pintail ducks paddled.
Yellow warblers sang from the wet green vegetation and tens of fat little grey and black finches hopped along the ground in search of a breakfast of seeds or insects. We were glad we had borrowed boots for this hike as the mud was quite sticky and the terrain at times very wet. Many of us scrambled through a ¼ mile long lava tube that took us to an open-air restaurant owned by a farmer named Miguel Angel Arias. Here a delicious and generous breakfast buffet awaited us and we did it justice as by now everyone was good and hungry!
After breakfast we had some free time for shopping and exploration of the charming port town of Puerto Ayora, then returned to the ship for lunch, siesta and a presentation by naturalist Celso on Charles Darwin. We made a dry landing at 4:00 p.m. on the rocky shore of North Seymour Island and were nearly overwhelmed by wildlife! Nesting blue-footed boobies, both magnificent and great frigate birds, land and marine iguanas, swallow tailed gulls, and the omnipresent sally light foot crabs and Galápagos sea lions entertained us. We marveled at how closely one can approach these wild and untamed animals, and greatly enjoyed being accepted as part of their world.
