Santa Cruz Island
We arrived this morning at Santa Cruz Island, home of the Charles Darwin Research Station. Today we visited the corrals where some giant tortoises live in captivity and their youngsters are raised in order to increase their populations.
Over the years several baby tortoises have been released in the wild, where their parents originally came from. We also looked at the most famous single male tortoise in the world, Lonesome George; he spends his days with two females from Isabela Island, and despite all the efforts made, he just doesn’t want to mate! We found lonesome George next to his private swimming pool taking a good siesta, while waiting for his breakfast.
After we left the Darwin Center, we walked back to town and saw all the colorful souvenir shops along the main road. For the afternoon we explored the highlands of Santa Cruz where wild Galápagos giant tortoises live in complete freedom. Some were observed feeding on grasses, while others were ready to go in water pools.
We had a chance to explore an enigmatic lava tunnel, too. This had formed during a volcanic eruption long ago, and for us it is one of the best ways to understand the volcanic origin of the archipelago. During our exploration of the highlands, we encountered a couple of sink holes formed by a collapsed platform thousands of years ago; all of this was surrounded by a spectacular Galápagos giant daisy forest.
As we returned to town, a group of fishermen were cleaning freshly caught fish; pelicans were trying hard to steal some of it and some of them did it successfully, while others could not get even a bone!
We came aboard and had a great time talking about the wonderful day on Santa Cruz during our recap time. It was truly a wonderful day!
