Santa Cruz Island
Early this morning we entered Academy Bay in the southern realm of Santa Cruz Island. We disembarked this morning at the Galápagos National Service dock and walked through a forest of giant prickly pear cactus to the tortoises breeding center. At the center we saw the diverse types of tortoises from the islands and in different stages such as new born, juveniles, and adults. We were very lucky and saw famous Lonesome George and his two companions from Española Island; genetically these two types Pinta and Española Islands are closely related. We have not yet seen Lonesome George mating but we still hope he can reproduce with these two females. If everything goes well for George one day we may have his descendants on Pinta Island.
As we left the breeding center we went walking through town and had a great time discovering the islanders’ life style. We also headed to the highlands; there we stopped by a small coffee shop where we saw how the production of coffee is done and how to make alcohol from sugarcane. Before the morning ended we also went in to a lava tunnel and learned how this is formed during a volcanic eruption and how small stalactites and stalagmites began to form in a very slow process that may take several thousands of years.
We went up higher in our local buses to the pit craters which are surrounded by a forest of Galápagos giant daisies; this forest is a very interesting one as it also has endemic species of orchids, ferns, lichens, mosses, and many other plants found nowhere else in the world but here.
Later in the afternoon we looked for Galápagos giant tortoises at a local farm. Some of the tortoises are in the highlands; others are in the lowlands mating. We found three adults on the farm and one of them has been here for several weeks in the same area. In the next months, many tortoises will migrate to the high humid uplands to feed on the abundant vegetation that grows here, whilst the coastal area will be dry until the next rainy season.
We returned to the ship in the late afternoon feeling very happy for all the things we saw and enjoyed today.
