Santa Cruz
A change of pace today. Away from remote and wild regions we arrived this morning in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in Galápagos, home to some 15,000 people. As with most seaside towns, Puerto Ayora is not without its’ resident gulls on the shoreline, although as one could guess in this extraordinary archipelago these are no ordinary gulls. The lava gull is another of the many species endemic to these islands, and one of the rarest gulls in the world with a population estimated to number just a few hundred pairs.
At the east end of town we made our way to the Charles Darwin Research Station where we viewed the enclosures that are home to the stations’ successful breeding programmes for giant tortoises and land iguanas. Lindblad Expeditions has been a long-term supporter of the work of station and we were to hear more about their valuable role in conserving the fragile environment of these islands later this evening during a presentation from one of their staff who visited us on board the Polaris.
In as much as it is possible to get away from the sea anywhere in Galápagos we managed it this afternoon. The highest point on Santa Cruz is close to 2,500 feet, and at this level the island is cool, lush and wooded. In places the forest has been cleared to create pastures for livestock, grazing that proves to be equally good for the native large herbivores. It was here that we encountered our first wild giant tortoises, a memorable experience and a welcome opportunity to see these remarkable animals in wide open spaces; a future that hopefully awaits the animals from the breeding programmes we saw earlier in the day.
A change of pace today. Away from remote and wild regions we arrived this morning in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in Galápagos, home to some 15,000 people. As with most seaside towns, Puerto Ayora is not without its’ resident gulls on the shoreline, although as one could guess in this extraordinary archipelago these are no ordinary gulls. The lava gull is another of the many species endemic to these islands, and one of the rarest gulls in the world with a population estimated to number just a few hundred pairs.
At the east end of town we made our way to the Charles Darwin Research Station where we viewed the enclosures that are home to the stations’ successful breeding programmes for giant tortoises and land iguanas. Lindblad Expeditions has been a long-term supporter of the work of station and we were to hear more about their valuable role in conserving the fragile environment of these islands later this evening during a presentation from one of their staff who visited us on board the Polaris.
In as much as it is possible to get away from the sea anywhere in Galápagos we managed it this afternoon. The highest point on Santa Cruz is close to 2,500 feet, and at this level the island is cool, lush and wooded. In places the forest has been cleared to create pastures for livestock, grazing that proves to be equally good for the native large herbivores. It was here that we encountered our first wild giant tortoises, a memorable experience and a welcome opportunity to see these remarkable animals in wide open spaces; a future that hopefully awaits the animals from the breeding programmes we saw earlier in the day.
