Santa Cruz Island
This was the very exciting day that we got to spend among the animals that have become the emblems of Galápagos. The fabulous and unique giant land tortoises of the islands. Unique in the world, these gentle giants roam freely in the highlands of Santa Cruz and other islands thanks to the efforts of the Galápagos National Park and the Darwin Research Station.
We landed at Puerto Ayora to see and learn about the rearing center where these unique creatures are bred in captivity with the goal of reaching their original numbers.
Pirates, whalers, buccaneers and even early settlers killed and ate several hundreds of these unique creatures and now, with a lot of effort and everybody’s help, we are trying to restore the dynasty of the Galápagos tortoises.
For more than fifty years park rangers and scientists have successfully bred these animals, and they’ve already repatriated several thousands.
We had a great lunch at the highlands and later we went up higher to the mountain to see the forest of Escalecia Pedunculata. We did some bird watching and saw some of the finches that live up there.
Giant tortoises in the wild were definitely the highlight of the day.
