Santa Cruz Island
Today we anchored in Santa Cruz, a beautiful island and the second largest in the archipelago. It has become the economical capital of Galápagos since it has the largest population of humans in the islands. The city of Puerto Ayora is also the home of the Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station. These two institutions work together for the conservation of the Galápagos; while the Station provides scientific advice, the Park Service makes decisions and puts ideas into action. They work as a team, as partners in conservation. Their main goal is the preservation of this Natural World Heritage Site.
In the morning we went to the Station to meet the famous giant tortoises, Lonesome George and Diego. They were the highlights of the morning. These two individuals represent living icons of conservation. George is the last one of its particular subspecies and Diego came back to the Galápagos after living for many decades in the San Diego Zoo. We learned about the successful breeding programs of Galápagos giant tortoises. These programs have been successful, thanks to more than forty years of hard work and commitment. Our guests realized how important these programs are in reestablishing or repairing the damage that the Galápagos wildlife sustained in the last centuries.
Then we had lunch in Altair, a friendly restaurant run by longtime residents of Santa Cruz, where we ate chicken and swam in a cool swimming pool.
In the afternoon, we visited the highlands of Santa Cruz. Soon we found giant tortoises in the wild, and observed their patience and lack of hurry! After this amazing experience up in the highlands we realized how important it is to keep these ecosystems, both for their beauty and for their richness.
For a long time the islands were exploited by pirates, whalers and seal hunters and destroyed by the introduced animals they brought with them. Now, things are different, and we are making that difference….What a day in paradise!
