Santa Cruz Island
The first thing that we saw when we woke up this morning was the town of Puerto Ayora. Sitting in the lowlands of Santa Cruz Island, this town is the main economic heart that pumps the continuously growing tourism of the islands.
The people of the Galápagos are settlers from mainland Ecuador or other countries. Its inhabitants fell in love with these islands, or perhaps with the beauty, and decided to make Galápagos their permanent residency.
Nowadays, regulations in the islands prevent anybody from simply “moving” to the Galápagos. A very strict law has been created that restricts even those born in Ecuador to move within its own land; all for the sake of saving one of the last paradises on earth.
The town of Puerto Ayora is also our doorway to see one of the most fascinating animals in the Galápagos, the giant tortoise! Few of them are found in captivity at the Darwin Station; they have been the lucky ones. After being found long ago in circuses and Zoos they were relocated to the Galápagos for a better life.
During the afternoon we looked for them in their natural environment. A good number of them were successfully found simply roaming the forestry in the highlands of Santa Cruz by our naturalists and guests.
In an effort to bring back the historic number of tortoises that were once decimated (almost to extinction) due to poaching by pirates and buccaneers since the early eighteen hundreds there has been a great effort. The healthy population of giant tortoises found in the wild has been increasing due to a joint program between the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Station.
For some of us our successful day ended with extra shopping time in the late afternoon. This might be the only chance for us to get ahold of that “lonesome George” t-shirt that we have been dreaming of for so long…
The first thing that we saw when we woke up this morning was the town of Puerto Ayora. Sitting in the lowlands of Santa Cruz Island, this town is the main economic heart that pumps the continuously growing tourism of the islands.
The people of the Galápagos are settlers from mainland Ecuador or other countries. Its inhabitants fell in love with these islands, or perhaps with the beauty, and decided to make Galápagos their permanent residency.
Nowadays, regulations in the islands prevent anybody from simply “moving” to the Galápagos. A very strict law has been created that restricts even those born in Ecuador to move within its own land; all for the sake of saving one of the last paradises on earth.
The town of Puerto Ayora is also our doorway to see one of the most fascinating animals in the Galápagos, the giant tortoise! Few of them are found in captivity at the Darwin Station; they have been the lucky ones. After being found long ago in circuses and Zoos they were relocated to the Galápagos for a better life.
During the afternoon we looked for them in their natural environment. A good number of them were successfully found simply roaming the forestry in the highlands of Santa Cruz by our naturalists and guests.
In an effort to bring back the historic number of tortoises that were once decimated (almost to extinction) due to poaching by pirates and buccaneers since the early eighteen hundreds there has been a great effort. The healthy population of giant tortoises found in the wild has been increasing due to a joint program between the National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Station.
For some of us our successful day ended with extra shopping time in the late afternoon. This might be the only chance for us to get ahold of that “lonesome George” t-shirt that we have been dreaming of for so long…
