Santa Cruz Island: Puerto Ayora and Highlands
Puerto Ayora is the biggest and most developed town of the Galápagos archipelago, with somewhere around 20,000 people dedicating themselves to tourism or tourism-related activities, making this place one of the busiest ports in Ecuador.
Santa Cruz is the home of the Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station, which has established a breeding center to save the giant tortoises from going extinct; these gentle creatures have been and still are at risk due to human-related activities and most of all due to the presence of introduced species that are considered today the major threat to the island ecosystems.
The word Galápagos translates to “saddlebacks” and it’s the official name of this enchanted group of islands, located 600 nautical miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador. The giant tortoises that inhabit this place are divided into 10 different subspecies. Some of them are the saddlebacks that live in very arid ecosystems; not having enough to eat at ground level, they raise their heads to be able to reach the vegetation that is up in trees. This common practice has deformed the carapace, or shell, giving them this particular shape that is actually the name of the seats that Spaniards use for horseback riding. At the other end there are dome-shaped shells; opposite to saddleback’s are creatures that live on islands that have a higher altitude, more rain water and lush vegetation; tortoises here forage the ground without having to raise their heads while feeding. As a result, the individuals here are much bigger in size and have a grand round shape.
At this time of the year, the giant tortoises are coming back from the lowlands and are looking for fresh water. As we did our hike up in the highlands, we walked slowly and admired nine big individuals that roamed around the area.
As we returned to the ship after having a close encounter with the giant tortoises of the Galápagos, we clearly understand that these precious islands need to be conserved, not only for us humans to see, but for the magnificent creatures that have always been here!
