Santa Cruz Island

 

We are coming almost to the end of our Galápagos expedition, yet every day so far has been one of a kind, with unique landscapes, flora and fauna.

 

Santa Cruz Island was very green and lush, due to the recent rains that have created an amazing habitat for the land birds and reptiles.

 

Our visit after breakfast to the Charles Darwin Research Station was very special. Step-by-step, we observed the successful program for breeding giant tortoises. All the guests were surprised to see so many baby tortoises that were about to be released back in to the wild. Among the big adult tortoises, the one that caught everyone’s attention was a male tortoise from Española Island named Diego, who was given back to the Galápagos by the San Diego Zoo. Diego came with the mission of saving the critically endangered Española tortoises, which was how he got the nickname of Super Diego. This famous tortoise is one of the fathers of nearly 2,000 tortoises that have been already released back on Española Island.

 

Later in the morning, before getting to our lunch spot in the highlands, we had two wonderful short visits. One was “El Trapiche,” a sugar cane mill where a nice local family let us try all the products they make with sugar cane juice, as well as a very good organically grown Arabic coffee. Shortly afterward, most of us walked through a giant lava tunnel that led us to the restaurant.

 

After a delicious lunch, we all went to explore the highlands looking for giant tortoises amid the many fresh water puddles. The vegetation in the area was very different from what we experienced on the other islands. There was no doubt that we were in the true habitat of the Galápagos giant tortoise as we spotted many of them as we walked through the vegetation. Some of these tortoises were more than 400 pounds!

 

Our day was very special not only because we saw a lot of wildlife but because we were able to spend time in town and mingle with the local people. It was great to see how people live and work in one of the most unique and protected places in the world.