Santa Cruz is located in the heart of the Galápagos Archipelago; it is the second largest island and thanks to its elevation and topography it is one of the few more hospitable to colonization by humans. The population of this island is the largest of the archipelago, and from our ship we could see Puerto Ayora, a buzzing town. We disembarked at the main dock where buses were waiting for us in order to take us to the Charles Darwin Research Station. This scientific station was established here in 1964 as an international effort to change the then worrying outlook of this unique place. It joined efforts with the Galápagos National Park Service, which is now in charge of restoring the giant tortoise dynasty on the various islands where these amazing creatures are present. We made our way to the Fausto Llerena Tortoise Breeding Centre, where we learned about the various, exciting ongoing projects aimed to preserve and ensure the future of this emblematic species. Within special compounds we could observe the saddle-backed Española tortoises, and not far from them were the hybrids from Pinta, descendants of an extinct species that will eventually repopulate that island.
After visiting the breeding center, there was time to explore Puerto Ayora, the main port. The Charles Darwin Avenue is lined with t-shirt and souvenir shops, so there was plenty of opportunity to support the local economy!
Soon afterwards we got into the buses that took us into the highlands of Santa Cruz. Some guests took the option to visit the Tomas de Berlanga School on the way, while others decided to cycle along a stretch of the road to exercise a little.
On our way to the restaurant where we had lunch just after midday we visited “El Trapiche”, a small, family-run farm that produces brown sugar, sugar cane rum and excellent coffee which they sell both locally and to visitors.
Since this is “giant tortoise day” for us, we headed afterwards to “El Manzanillo Ranch”, a privately owned property located right in the middle of the migratory route of the Santa Cruz tortoises. There was almost no need to get off the bus to be able to admire these gentle giants: they were simply everywhere! Tortoises are free to wander wherever they wish, no matter whose property they need to trespass, in order to reach their favorite foraging areas, as the latter change throughout the year. It was really special to be able to walk around the area and have a close look at these ancient looking reptiles. It was hard to imagine that we would see so many of them, as they were once at the brink of extinction.
Today we learned about their past, present and future, and we just hope that this future will be a very lengthy one for their dynasty. Long reign the Galápagos giant tortoise!
