Santa Cruz Island
I’m very happy to be coming back to the town where I live. Puerto Ayora is the biggest city of the Galápagos and Santa Cruz is the second largest island and the economic center; 97 % of the land mass is a park protected by law and 3% are the areas where people live, including Puerto Ayora.
The whole day was dedicated to those antediluvian-looking creatures, the Galápagos giant tortoises. Our first activity was to visit the breeding center at the Charles Darwin Research Station, which has been a great success since it was created 50 years ago. Their mission is to see the tortoises back in the wild, like centuries ago. At Española Island, 30 years ago, we found 12 females and only two males tortoises, almost in extinction. But thanks to this very successful program we now find about 2,000 young tortoises living back there.
Once at the research station, we visited the corral of Lonesome George, the most famous reptile, not only in Galápagos but on the whole planet; this individual is our symbol for conservation. When the people of Galápagos was alerted by the authorities to evacuate the town during the last tsunami that originated in Japan two years ago, the first individual to be evacuated up to the highlands was Lonesome George, the last male survivor of his species. We have saved this peculiar tortoise, but in the past, three of the fourteen species we used to have are gone forever. It is very clear that if we don’t make the right decisions now, some other species may go the same way, not only in Galápagos but in other places as well. We also learned about Super Diego; this male individual came back from the San Diego Zoo in 1972, and joined his population at the breeding center with great success.
For the afternoon we headed to the highlands for lunch at a local restaurant with a spectacular view, and visited a sugar cane operation owned by a local family; we learned the process to make brown sugar and sugar cane “moonshine.”
Later we went to a private farm with giant tortoises everywhere; this farm was originally a chattel farm, but is now open for visitors to see them in the wild. Even though the land is private the tortoises belong to the Galápagos National Park, and the park rules are applied here as well. This visit was the highlight of the day; having all these creatures right in front of us was an unforgettable moment.
