Santa Cruz Island
The harbor is still filled with the last of the small sailboats coming through the islands on their way west across the Pacific Ocean. The season is starting to change, and gentle swells from the southeast indicate the southeast trade winds are picking up.
The Galápagos giant tortoises were out and about in the “Fausto Llerena Tortoise Breeding Centre” operated by the Galápagos National Park; not-so-Lonesome George and his two new female friends were out and about; Diego/superstud/the gringo and his six mates were moving around; the little ones, as always, were stumping around their enclosures, exploring. This program has been extremely successful in building up populations that were dangerously low. But as you can imagine, it is a slow process!
Halfway up the island, we stopped the buses to check out a small roadside shop that had their sugarcane press out on the sidewalk. Fresh cane juice could be had, or mixed in with fresh-brewed Galápagos coffee. Lots of us purchased bags of coffee, and many added a treat: chocolate-covered roasted coffee beans. That’s a tasty “wake-up!”
Before lunch, one more exploration was offered, and that was to walk through a long lava tube on the property of our lunch host outside the community of Santa Rosa. Fortunately everyone brought along their flashlights, because as happens during the rainy season, the lights didn’t work for the whole crossing, but everyone made it through safely, although some more muddy than others.
The cooler temperatures of the highlands were a welcome break from the lowlands, so the continuation of our adventures further into the highlands was delightful. The crust of the island has collapsed in many locations, creating circular depressions known as “pit craters.” If they had formed in limestone instead of basaltic lava, we would recognize them as “sink-holes.” The vegetation is unique at this altitude of almost 2,000 feet. A forest of predominantly Scalesia pedunculata trees is practically one-of-a-kind, even in Galápagos, as only this island has an entire vegetation zone named in its honor. All around the pit craters this forest extends out. Unfortunately this is the last remnant because man and his agricultural needs discovered early on the value of the underlying soils. However conservation projects led by the Galápagos National Park and other non-profits are restoring the forest in increasingly larger swaths of neighboring lands.
Before returning down to town, the buses diverted down a long dirt road, the access road of another farmer whose land lies on the migration route of giant tortoises. The Santa Cruz race of giant tortoise migrates up and down the flanks of the volcano, following the food supply and warmer temperatures. At this time of year, few are still found in this region, but three were seen wandering the green fields. Most tortoises at this time of year are in the lowlands where food, warmth and the opposite sex can be found in abundance.
By evening, everyone came home, exhausted, but satisfied that they had seen the essential, iconic member of the Galápagos indigenous community in its natural habitat. It is also important that visitors understand the effort involved in keeping this unique creature alive and well, both as a species and as a viable population. But we have moved far beyond just keeping individual species alive, we are aiming to restore the entire ecosystem in which they live; a long-term view and just possibly within reach, here in Galápagos.
