Santa Cruz Island
I’ve always been amazed by the variety of landscapes that you could find at the island of Santa Cruz. You could say that I have the ability to appreciate these little details much more than others (especially over this particular island), because it happens to also be my home! It is always great to visit my home island, and even better, it is great to find out about the progress in terms of conservation in the archipelago. Santa Cruz is important for many different reasons. One of them is the presence of the main headquarters of the Charles Darwin Institute in the Galápagos. This is the place where we have the main breeding program in captivity for the famous giant tortoises. We even saw the baby tortoises in different stages, from a couple of months old all the way to five years old. This is precisely the age when the babies are repatriated to the original island where they came from. There was one particular corral that is inhabited by a famous tortoise called lonesome George. This is a one of a kind tortoise, mainly because he is the only one left of its kind. Yes, I know it is a sad history, but we are trying to make it eventually a happy ending one. We are currently looking for a female tortoise of the same raze of lonesome George to make him mate with her. We haven’t been successful yet, but you never know what could happen in the future.
After our visit at the Station, we had the chance to get to know the charming town of Pto. Ayora. The main items on display at the shops were t-shirts, so I believe that every single one of us got at least one!
Our lunch took place at the highlands of Santa Cruz in the facilities of a local restaurant. Here, the landscape was great! Lots of colorful plants and big trees were surrounding the area making it very pleasant for a walk or just to sit and enjoy.
Right after lunch we went in the search for tortoises in the wild. We saw several of them spread along a large field of green vegetation, and for some lucky folks, we have had the vermillion flight catcher landing on top the giant tortoise’s shell, as if it was on purpose modeling for our guests.
I’ve always been amazed by the variety of landscapes that you could find at the island of Santa Cruz. You could say that I have the ability to appreciate these little details much more than others (especially over this particular island), because it happens to also be my home! It is always great to visit my home island, and even better, it is great to find out about the progress in terms of conservation in the archipelago. Santa Cruz is important for many different reasons. One of them is the presence of the main headquarters of the Charles Darwin Institute in the Galápagos. This is the place where we have the main breeding program in captivity for the famous giant tortoises. We even saw the baby tortoises in different stages, from a couple of months old all the way to five years old. This is precisely the age when the babies are repatriated to the original island where they came from. There was one particular corral that is inhabited by a famous tortoise called lonesome George. This is a one of a kind tortoise, mainly because he is the only one left of its kind. Yes, I know it is a sad history, but we are trying to make it eventually a happy ending one. We are currently looking for a female tortoise of the same raze of lonesome George to make him mate with her. We haven’t been successful yet, but you never know what could happen in the future.
After our visit at the Station, we had the chance to get to know the charming town of Pto. Ayora. The main items on display at the shops were t-shirts, so I believe that every single one of us got at least one!
Our lunch took place at the highlands of Santa Cruz in the facilities of a local restaurant. Here, the landscape was great! Lots of colorful plants and big trees were surrounding the area making it very pleasant for a walk or just to sit and enjoy.
Right after lunch we went in the search for tortoises in the wild. We saw several of them spread along a large field of green vegetation, and for some lucky folks, we have had the vermillion flight catcher landing on top the giant tortoise’s shell, as if it was on purpose modeling for our guests.
