Santa Cruz Island
The National Geographic Endeavour navigated towards the central part of the archipelago. Today we visited Santa Cruz Island, where the largest town of Galápagos –Puerto Ayora – is situated. We started our day with an early visit to the tortoise breeding center of the Galápagos National Park where we learned about all the projects the Park Service is doing to conserve the islands in a sustainable way for future generations. A few characters of the Galápagos were seen, and we learned about the successful project saving the species from Española Island which is a great example of human efforts for conservation.
During the afternoon we went to the highlands of Santa Cruz where we visited a sugar cane press, situated at a local hacienda. It was fantastic to learn about some of the processes the locals have developed to get products out of the cane in an artisanal way! After having lunch at a restaurant in the highlands, we hiked to look for giant tortoises in their natural habitat and we certainly found some of them.
As we walked around an area where the lava tubes are found, we were lucky to spot a couple of short- eared owls catching mice among the grasslands and a barn owl was found in one of the lava tubes. The green of the highlands and the interesting fauna found at that altitude gave us a better idea of the many vegetation zones in the archipelago! This was tortoise paradise, a place where the giants have evolved over millions of years and now coexist with humankind.
Our day in the islands was delightful; to see endemic giants in the wild and learn about life within the enchanted archipelago helped us better understand our wonderful planet.
