Santa Cruz Island
This morning found us anchored at Academy Bay off the town of Puerto Ayora, which has the largest human population in the Archipelago. Our first stop was the captive breeding center where our guests were happy to get up close and personal with giant tortoises in different pens. We saw and heard the story of Lonesome George, the sole survivor from Pinta Island and we learned of the efforts by the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Station to reproduce and repatriate these emblematic reptiles. On several islands, tortoises have been reduced to near extinction through human predation during the sealing and whaling eras. However, thanks to the captive breeding program the natural populations are recovering.
In the afternoon we took buses up to the highlands of Santa Cruz and enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch on the farm of a Galápaguenian. Afterwards we went in search of the giant reptiles in their natural habitat, and indeed we found many of them. Some were taking siestas under the trees, others were quite active, either drinking water from a small pond or feeding on the lush vegetation. We thoroughly appreciated the time to watch and photograph the huge, slow moving animals. This outing was a wonderful experience and quite an unforgettable one for most of us.
But the fun wasn’t over yet, because we went higher up the island still, to explore a cloud forest of Scalesia trees covered with epiphytes, a few orchids and ferns. Here we viewed two pit craters called “los Gemelos,” or “the Twins.” This was a superb location to find a variety of small land birds such as tree finches, and the woodpecker finch and warbler finch.
Late in the afternoon – after some final shopping - we all returned to the National Geographic Islander with smiles of satisfaction on our faces and looking ahead with eagerness for more adventures to come.
This morning found us anchored at Academy Bay off the town of Puerto Ayora, which has the largest human population in the Archipelago. Our first stop was the captive breeding center where our guests were happy to get up close and personal with giant tortoises in different pens. We saw and heard the story of Lonesome George, the sole survivor from Pinta Island and we learned of the efforts by the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Station to reproduce and repatriate these emblematic reptiles. On several islands, tortoises have been reduced to near extinction through human predation during the sealing and whaling eras. However, thanks to the captive breeding program the natural populations are recovering.
In the afternoon we took buses up to the highlands of Santa Cruz and enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch on the farm of a Galápaguenian. Afterwards we went in search of the giant reptiles in their natural habitat, and indeed we found many of them. Some were taking siestas under the trees, others were quite active, either drinking water from a small pond or feeding on the lush vegetation. We thoroughly appreciated the time to watch and photograph the huge, slow moving animals. This outing was a wonderful experience and quite an unforgettable one for most of us.
But the fun wasn’t over yet, because we went higher up the island still, to explore a cloud forest of Scalesia trees covered with epiphytes, a few orchids and ferns. Here we viewed two pit craters called “los Gemelos,” or “the Twins.” This was a superb location to find a variety of small land birds such as tree finches, and the woodpecker finch and warbler finch.
Late in the afternoon – after some final shopping - we all returned to the National Geographic Islander with smiles of satisfaction on our faces and looking ahead with eagerness for more adventures to come.
