Santa Cruz is the second largest inhabited island located in the heart of the archipelago, an extinct volcano which rises more than eight hundred meters above sea level.
This is home for one of the largest kinds of giant tortoises, and also one of the healthiest populations. While exploring the highland trails we encountered dozens of these creatures, the biggest and first owners of the land.
Today, tortoises, humans, finches, lizards, they all coexist peacefully in the same territory. There is no way to deny, however, that we do have problems here, including a long list of introduced species. The good news is that there is an extensive list, as well, of the many successful programs for the restoration of the island.
During the evening we enjoyed a talk given by one of our guests on board, who is actually a scientist currently doing research in the Galapagos Islands. Whenever there is a possibility, we invite researchers on board, allowing them to see the islands from a different perspective, and they enlighten us with the latest discoveries. Salome works with sharks in the marine reserve, tagging and following them, learning about their behavior and migratory routes. We even learned the particular names of several sharks, new stars of the Galapagos, kings and queens of the marine reserve.
We ended our day with some local music from Galapagos.
