Santa Cruz Island
The Galápagos Islands were discovered by mere chance in 1535 as the bishop of Panama, Tomas de Berlanga tried to sail towards Peru, but fate and destiny drove him to this wonderful paradise. Perhaps he did not like what he found here, maybe because he did not find what he was looking for. It seems precisely the lack of fresh water and dense forest which helped to preserve the islands in a pristine stage until pirates, buccaneers and whalers came along to take Galápagos land tortoises as their food supply.
Since 1832 when Ecuador claimed the islands we have had a constant flow of human settlements coming to this archipelago.
As many populations of giant tortoises were diminished, the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Station (on the picture) have been doing their best to restore the populations of these gentle creatures with great success.
Today we visited the breeding center for tortoises and, like on Isabela Island, the babies get the best care and soon many will go to their islands of origin, we also saw the corrals were the land iguanas are kept; their program will not succeed without the generous help of visitors and institutions from all over the world eager to restore the populations of these unique reptiles.
We had a very active morning visiting the Darwin Center and when we finished there, then had a great time exploring the town of Puerto Ayora and its urban life.
The afternoon was equally great with lots of new species of birds and lush vegetation, and of course lots of giant tortoises in the wild. At the end of the afternoon we enjoyed a great sunset, and dream about tomorrow.
The Galápagos Islands were discovered by mere chance in 1535 as the bishop of Panama, Tomas de Berlanga tried to sail towards Peru, but fate and destiny drove him to this wonderful paradise. Perhaps he did not like what he found here, maybe because he did not find what he was looking for. It seems precisely the lack of fresh water and dense forest which helped to preserve the islands in a pristine stage until pirates, buccaneers and whalers came along to take Galápagos land tortoises as their food supply.
Since 1832 when Ecuador claimed the islands we have had a constant flow of human settlements coming to this archipelago.
As many populations of giant tortoises were diminished, the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Station (on the picture) have been doing their best to restore the populations of these gentle creatures with great success.
Today we visited the breeding center for tortoises and, like on Isabela Island, the babies get the best care and soon many will go to their islands of origin, we also saw the corrals were the land iguanas are kept; their program will not succeed without the generous help of visitors and institutions from all over the world eager to restore the populations of these unique reptiles.
We had a very active morning visiting the Darwin Center and when we finished there, then had a great time exploring the town of Puerto Ayora and its urban life.
The afternoon was equally great with lots of new species of birds and lush vegetation, and of course lots of giant tortoises in the wild. At the end of the afternoon we enjoyed a great sunset, and dream about tomorrow.
