Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz Island holds the largest town in the Galápagos, Pto. Ayora. It is a relatively young city, founded in the 1930s by a group of Norwegians. It has grown so much since then that the population itself crossed the barrier of ten thousand people. Their main way of life used to be fishing, but I must say that currently almost every family in this town is involved in one way or another with tourism.
This is actually a good thing, since tourism has proven to be a very good deal for the Galápagos as a protected area. It is very well known that you need to see and know about a place before you start caring for it. Galápagos is one of those areas that you would fall in love with from the minute you set foot on it.
Today, as we walk through the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities, we learned about the most recent programs for conservation. We saw large giant tortoises in their corrals and we even encountered the famous Lonesome George, the last individual of Pinta Island sub-species.
The afternoon was equally as good. The green and lush highland of Santa Cruz holds a very healthy population of tortoises in the wild, and there were plenty of them when we arrived there. It was a great opportunity for bird watching as well. In general, our days and experiences in Galápagos are getting better by the minute, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow…
Santa Cruz Island holds the largest town in the Galápagos, Pto. Ayora. It is a relatively young city, founded in the 1930s by a group of Norwegians. It has grown so much since then that the population itself crossed the barrier of ten thousand people. Their main way of life used to be fishing, but I must say that currently almost every family in this town is involved in one way or another with tourism.
This is actually a good thing, since tourism has proven to be a very good deal for the Galápagos as a protected area. It is very well known that you need to see and know about a place before you start caring for it. Galápagos is one of those areas that you would fall in love with from the minute you set foot on it.
Today, as we walk through the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities, we learned about the most recent programs for conservation. We saw large giant tortoises in their corrals and we even encountered the famous Lonesome George, the last individual of Pinta Island sub-species.
The afternoon was equally as good. The green and lush highland of Santa Cruz holds a very healthy population of tortoises in the wild, and there were plenty of them when we arrived there. It was a great opportunity for bird watching as well. In general, our days and experiences in Galápagos are getting better by the minute, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow…
