Santa Cruz Island
As we disembarked at the Galápagos National Park Service dock, we could clearly see how the ocean conditions affect the weather on these islands. As the waters get a bit rough, clouds cover the sky and a magical misty rain known locally as “garua” starts falling. The lushness of the vegetation and the freshness of the air allowed us to have a pleasant walk in the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center at the Charles Darwin Research Station.
As we talked about the tortoise breeding program, we experienced the tameness of these gentle creatures. As we drew closer to them, they did not move away from us – that was just like having a dream come true… We saw baby tortoises in their pens, the famous Lonesome George, and the hard working Diego posed for pictures with us once again.
We were looking forward to observing the giant tortoises once again in their natural habitat, so we were excited to take the buses to the highlands. Before we arrived at the restaurant where we had lunch, we crossed a lava tunnel that surprised us and delighted our younger explorers. The young ones made jokes about being in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
After lunch, we headed further down the reserve to look for tortoises. We were happily surprised that the numbers of individual tortoises had significantly increased since our last visit to this area. There where around fifteen tortoises, several young and many big males kept us exploring all around. It is just a matter of time, and we are certain that there would be dozens of tortoises roaming freely on the area. Tortoises where not the only species found during our hike in the upper lands of Santa Cruz Island; a white-cheeked pintail duck was happily feeding in a small lagoon, Darwin finches, yellow warblers and flycatchers kept us busy looking around in all directions.
The pit craters surrounded by “garua” looked enchanted. To our surprise as we walked back to the bus, we found a brightly colored vermillion fly catcher that literally posed for our cameras for at least 10 minutes.
Later in the afternoon, as we returned home on our Zodiacs, we felt in our hearts that there are many reasons why we have to maintain the enchantment of this fascinating archipelago.
