Santa Cruz Island
Galápagos means “saddle back.” The islands were named after tortoises with a shell that has a saddle shape: The Galápagos tortoises.
You can’t visit the islands and miss a tortoise, that’s why today we dedicated our day to this emblematic animal.
During the 1700’s and 1800’s thousands of tortoises were taken from the islands as a food source. Introduced species were abandoned on the islands at the same time. As a result of these activities the populations of giant tortoises started having big problems. On three islands they became extinct. On some others they were in dangerously low numbers. A program was developed in order to restore the dynasty of the giants. Today we were able to enjoy tortoises in the breeding center and later in the wild.
Surprises never end! And today we had a big one! While observing a tortoise feeding, it suddenly started walking towards our videographer Steve Ewing; what a moment! In order to get far away from it Steve tried to go backwards, but as he uplifted his camera the tortoise confused the microphone with another tortoise challenging it! So it charged! We couldn’t believe what we were observing! The islands never stop surprising us, and today if we wanted an experience with a giant tortoise we certainly had some!
