Santa Cruz Island
Today we disembarked at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. Here we explored many of the highlights that this beautiful island offers visitors.
We headed this morning to the headquarters of the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here conservation programs are run in order to restore ecosystems and populations of endangered species. Among the most important programs is the repatriation of the giant tortoises to different islands. The giant tortoise breeding program is one of the most successful that has ever been carried out in the Galápagos. Eggs of these giant reptiles are incubated here and once they hatch the baby tortoises are raised until they are five-years-old, which is the age for repatriation.
For many people, Lonesome George is an iconic tortoise. He is here with two females for reproductive purposes. Our big hope is that George will one day reproduce.
The southern side of the island is green and its amount of vegetation grows accordingly with its elevation; the highest humid zone has large trees and many types of other smaller plants that make up the source of food for the local birds such as: finches, warblers, mockingbirds, doves and, of course, Galápagos giant tortoises.
We went for a long walk in the afternoon, looking for giant tortoises, and the more we tried to count the more we found. All these giant retiles were feeding on the abundant lush grass typical of the season.
It was a great day; I can’t wait to see more!
