Santa Cruz Island
When I awoke this morning, outside looked grey and misty. Outside, however, was warm. The day, as it turned out, was neither wet nor cool as the morning led us to believe. Our visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station and the tortoise rearing center operated by the Galápagos National Park was very productive – Lonesome George was in only partial hiding under a bush, and Diego was out in the open as were the little ones – hatchlings from this past year, incubated carefully and now allowed to roam the lava rocks of the corral. As soon as they reach a certain dimension across the carapace, they will be released on their island of origin, hopefully to grow and breed in the wild, doing their part to continue the species.
Everyone walked through town after leaving the tortoises, shops were visited, people watched, and the fisherman’s wharf photographed, where the day’s catch was being filleted while a sea-lion, pelican, blue-footed booby and perhaps other feathered friends watched carefully, waited for pieces to be dropped and forgotten.
By bus we departed the coastal town of Puerto Ayora in order to head into the highlands. On the way we stopped by the even smaller town of Bellavista where sugar cane juice, cane liquor, local organic coffee and cinnamon-chocolate bread were our mid-morning snack (as if we were starving)!
By the time we reached our destination, the lava tunnel looked like a good option for a last activity before lunch, although not all chose to walk the 20-minute dark and sometimes claustrophobic path to the restaurant. The island of Santa Cruz, according to many geologists, has just the right angle of repose for the formation of lava tubes…not too steep and not too flat. As a result, the island is riddled by many such tubes all over the island. Almost all farms lay claim to several tubes of varying lengths and sizes, most broken by collapsed ceilings, but some of significant distances.
The afternoon was spent in the highlands, first up high where a collapse of the upper layers of lava have resulted in huge “pit craters,” circular depressions of at least 300 feet depth. Surrounding the upper region around the craters is a forest of Scalesia trees — a distant relative of the sunflowers — unique to Galápagos (“endemic”). With hanging mosses, lichens and bryophytes, it is an ecosystem we haven’t seen yet, and won’t see again. Due to the altitude of the island, the forest is a result of the inversion layer hitting the upper region, which in turn provides the moisture needed for the growth of plants not attached to the earth.
Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was arriving to some fields where Galápagos giant tortoises were wandering at will, grazing placidly on grass or wallowing lazily in a small pond. This was an opportunity for everyone to select their own tortoise to follow or sit near, as there were around 40 in the area. It isn’t always this way, as when the warm season begins and the rains fall heavily, many migrate down to the lowlands. For today, at any rate, they were bountiful and beautiful in their own prehistoric manner.
We have much to learn from these enormous reptiles, if we could only slow down, listen and learn.
By nightfall we had slowed down, and later were listening to talented musicians and learning the names of the instruments of the Andes. Against all odds, some folk even had the energy to dance before turning in for a well-deserved night’s rest!
