Santa Cruz Island
Today we learned about the efforts of the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS) in protecting and preserving the emblematic species of the Galápagos Islands – the Galápagos Giant Tortoises.
In the morning we disembarked at the GNPS’s pier to visit the rearing center of the giant tortoises. In times of pirates, buccaneers and early settlers, these gentle creatures where slaughtered for their meat and their blubber, which was used as thick oil for lamps.
When the GNPS was established in the year 1959, they conducted a survey in the islands to establish the state of the populations of tortoises on the islands.
They found that the numbers of giant tortoises had been diminished dangerously, and a program was started to restore their numbers. This program was symbolically named “Restoring the Giant Tortoises’ Dynasty.”
We saw juvenile tortoises, learned about the incubation system and also saw several giant adult individuals. After this interesting lesson of successful conservation of an endemic species, we walked down to town to helping the local economy by buying some good typical handcrafts or having a drink in the local cafes.
The highlights of the afternoon were a trip by bus to the lush green highlands of Santa Cruz, hiking through a lava tube, having a great buffet lunch at a local farm and then watching giant tortoises in the wild and exploring pit craters and Scalesia forests.
The evening ended with a happy party with Eco Arte; musicians and a dancing group that came from Puerto Ayora to our ship to entertain us with great South American music and choreographies with great costumes.
Another fabulous day in paradise!
