Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the archipelago and it is where the town of Puerto Ayora has been developed. This town lies right next to the sea and holds the largest human population in the archipelago. The vibrant village has several attractions: small shops, bars, restaurants and hotels and an impressive bay surrounded by high cliffs full of flora and fauna endemic to this archipelago. As we made our way to the main dock, we saw several sailboats visiting the archipelago, while boobies, pelicans, and sea lions were using some of the uninhabited boats as resting areas.
Today, besides enjoying a bit of the pulsating life of this town, we visited the emblematic Galápagos giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Station. It was our chance to get to know the ongoing programs to protect this emblematic reptile, but we also got to see them in the wild, pretty much like Darwin saw them a while ago.
On the top of the island we marvelled at the magnificent view of the gemelos, which are two huge sink holes of volcanic origin, now covered with the unique Galápagos giant daisy, scalesia. This special plant evolved so much from its original ancestor that instead of a small shrub, it has become a very tall tree, reaching highs of about thirty six feet! Every giant daisy’s tree is covered with lichens, mosses, Galápagos orchids and ferns where some of the tree finches build their nests.
It has been another successfull day filled with incomparable experiences in the enchanted islands.
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the archipelago and it is where the town of Puerto Ayora has been developed. This town lies right next to the sea and holds the largest human population in the archipelago. The vibrant village has several attractions: small shops, bars, restaurants and hotels and an impressive bay surrounded by high cliffs full of flora and fauna endemic to this archipelago. As we made our way to the main dock, we saw several sailboats visiting the archipelago, while boobies, pelicans, and sea lions were using some of the uninhabited boats as resting areas.
Today, besides enjoying a bit of the pulsating life of this town, we visited the emblematic Galápagos giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Station. It was our chance to get to know the ongoing programs to protect this emblematic reptile, but we also got to see them in the wild, pretty much like Darwin saw them a while ago.
On the top of the island we marvelled at the magnificent view of the gemelos, which are two huge sink holes of volcanic origin, now covered with the unique Galápagos giant daisy, scalesia. This special plant evolved so much from its original ancestor that instead of a small shrub, it has become a very tall tree, reaching highs of about thirty six feet! Every giant daisy’s tree is covered with lichens, mosses, Galápagos orchids and ferns where some of the tree finches build their nests.
It has been another successfull day filled with incomparable experiences in the enchanted islands.
