Santa Cruz Island
After a smooth navigation last night, we arrived early this morning at Santa Cruz Island. This island is where we find Puerto Ayora; this at the same time is the largest town in Galápagos. We went in to town to visit the Charles Darwin Center; there we learnt about the important programs for the conservation of the archipelago and their emblems such as Lonesome George. This emblematic animal is the last surviving tortoise from Pinta Island; despite of all the efforts, nobody has seen or found any tortoise of his kind anywhere else in the world. He shares his days and corral with two females from Isabela Island. Not too far from his corral another famous male tortoise from Hood Island lives with five females. He is better known as “Mighty Diego”; the females that live with him produce most of the eggs for the tortoise’s rearing center. We had the great honor to hear very informative talks by some of the executives and scientists from the center, and learned much from them.
Once we left the center, we took our buses and headed towards the highlands where we explored the island from another perspective. We walked along a lava tunnel where the evidence of the great power of this volcano was seen everywhere.
During the afternoon we dedicated ourselves to look and explore the regions where wild giant tortoises roam free, and where the only sounds are the very diverse songs of finches, mockingbirds, and warblers all around us. We went higher up to find the very unique Scalesia forest. This is a very special genus because is only found in Galápagos and nowhere else. The species we found this afternoon grows as a big tall tree, on some other islands we can find other species and most of them look like small shrubs.
We admire the beauty of the landscape of the Pit craters, the sweet smell of the flowers, and the nice cool breeze that accompanied us all along the way.
After a smooth navigation last night, we arrived early this morning at Santa Cruz Island. This island is where we find Puerto Ayora; this at the same time is the largest town in Galápagos. We went in to town to visit the Charles Darwin Center; there we learnt about the important programs for the conservation of the archipelago and their emblems such as Lonesome George. This emblematic animal is the last surviving tortoise from Pinta Island; despite of all the efforts, nobody has seen or found any tortoise of his kind anywhere else in the world. He shares his days and corral with two females from Isabela Island. Not too far from his corral another famous male tortoise from Hood Island lives with five females. He is better known as “Mighty Diego”; the females that live with him produce most of the eggs for the tortoise’s rearing center. We had the great honor to hear very informative talks by some of the executives and scientists from the center, and learned much from them.
Once we left the center, we took our buses and headed towards the highlands where we explored the island from another perspective. We walked along a lava tunnel where the evidence of the great power of this volcano was seen everywhere.
During the afternoon we dedicated ourselves to look and explore the regions where wild giant tortoises roam free, and where the only sounds are the very diverse songs of finches, mockingbirds, and warblers all around us. We went higher up to find the very unique Scalesia forest. This is a very special genus because is only found in Galápagos and nowhere else. The species we found this afternoon grows as a big tall tree, on some other islands we can find other species and most of them look like small shrubs.
We admire the beauty of the landscape of the Pit craters, the sweet smell of the flowers, and the nice cool breeze that accompanied us all along the way.
