Santa Cruz Island
An astonishing sunrise welcomed National Geographic Islander into Academic Bay at Santa Cruz Island. We have been enjoying the flora and fauna of the Galápagos Island for few days but it was time to get some interaction with human civilization. Puerto Ayora is the largest town in the Galápagos Islands and its main economy is ecotourism, agriculture and fisheries.
Today our purpose was to meet those giant creatures that gave the name to the islands, the giant tortoises “Galápagos.” Our morning excursion took us to the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park, which houses the Fausto Llerena giant tortoises breading center. The objective of the breading program is to bread species of tortoises from Santa Cruz, Santiago, Española, Pinzon and Pinta Island in captivity. The offspring of these tortoises will remain in the center for five years. Then they will be repatriated to the zones that have been affected by human beings. In addition, the legendary Lonesome George, who is the last individual from Pinta Island, was very dynamic this morning and we got good shots of him. After a remarkable morning in the breading center we walked back to town and passed by the fishing ward where the artisanal fishermen showed to tourists the different kind of commercial fish that is consumed by the community. Others guest where hanging around with the graceful sea lions, pelicans, herons and frigate birds that where begging for free fish.
Heading by bus to the highlands we begin to understand how the geographic location and marine currents determine the weather in the Galápagos Islands. The changes in the vegetation were very dramatic just within 60 meters above of sea level. After being very impressed with the different vegetation zones, we made a quick stop at Bellavista village to learn about the processing of sugarcane. Beside sugarcane juice, we also tried organic coffee from the Galápagos with chocolate bread. We got the Tortoises Reserve area where a delicious organic lunch was waiting for us. Many of our guests joined us for a short walk into a lava tube that was formed 1.5 million years ago when the volcano in Santa Cruz Island was very active.
The Tortoise territory is located approximately 240 meters above sea level. Walking through the humid zone with low vegetation, we were expecting to find the giant tortoises in their natural habitat. Suddenly, we spotted one these gigantic friendly animals that was opening its own path through the vegetation. Few minutes later we found more of them that we thought we were in tortoises paradise. Besides tortoises, Darwin’s tree finches were all over the area. Others species such as white-cheeked pintail duck, cattle egret, and Galápagos rail were also found during our excursion in a freshwater lagoon. A wonderful day ended in Puerto Ayora.
