Santa Cruz Island
Early in the morning we arrived to Santa Cruz Island, and anchored in Academy Bay. This bay offered us great shelter and the chance to observe the most populated town in Galápagos. The town of Puerto Ayora has the largest human population; at the same time is the home of the Charles Darwin Research Station. We learnt a lot about the different programs run by the center and the National Park Galápagos. Their efforts to conserve, inform and educate has its own challenges, but it was rewarding to observe juvenile Galápagos land tortoises and land iguanas being reared; these juveniles will be released onto the islands their parents came from. One of the most famous bachelors was observed taking his morning siesta. That tortoise couldn't have been any other but Lonesome George, who by the way shares his corral with two females from another island. He looked curious for a moment, then went back to sleep right by his private swimming pool. We got nice weather, we certainly enjoyed it, and by the very active behavior of some Darwin finches; they seemed to be enjoying it as well.
Our morning at the Darwin Center was followed with a visit to the town; we all walked along the streets of this very colorful small town. We drove from Puerto Ayora up to the highlands. Everything changes up there, tall trees, grasses, ferns and lots of epiphytes growing every where. We looked this afternoon for tortoises in the wild and found several males, and females. Some were resting under the trees, while others were quite active looking for food. Right as we were looking at these ancient looking reptiles, all of the sudden we made an unusual observation; right in front of our eyes, we have a flying mammal-- a Hoary bat. Just a few minutes later one of our young explorers found another bat. That was a Galápagos red bat sleeping in a bush, camouflaged with the brown dry leaves. We looked at it very carefully and silently observed it. After visiting the Gemelos (pit craters) and the forest of the endemic Scalesias we drove back to town.
We had a great day, lots of unusual sightings, wonderful weather; what a marvelous experience.
Early in the morning we arrived to Santa Cruz Island, and anchored in Academy Bay. This bay offered us great shelter and the chance to observe the most populated town in Galápagos. The town of Puerto Ayora has the largest human population; at the same time is the home of the Charles Darwin Research Station. We learnt a lot about the different programs run by the center and the National Park Galápagos. Their efforts to conserve, inform and educate has its own challenges, but it was rewarding to observe juvenile Galápagos land tortoises and land iguanas being reared; these juveniles will be released onto the islands their parents came from. One of the most famous bachelors was observed taking his morning siesta. That tortoise couldn't have been any other but Lonesome George, who by the way shares his corral with two females from another island. He looked curious for a moment, then went back to sleep right by his private swimming pool. We got nice weather, we certainly enjoyed it, and by the very active behavior of some Darwin finches; they seemed to be enjoying it as well.
Our morning at the Darwin Center was followed with a visit to the town; we all walked along the streets of this very colorful small town. We drove from Puerto Ayora up to the highlands. Everything changes up there, tall trees, grasses, ferns and lots of epiphytes growing every where. We looked this afternoon for tortoises in the wild and found several males, and females. Some were resting under the trees, while others were quite active looking for food. Right as we were looking at these ancient looking reptiles, all of the sudden we made an unusual observation; right in front of our eyes, we have a flying mammal-- a Hoary bat. Just a few minutes later one of our young explorers found another bat. That was a Galápagos red bat sleeping in a bush, camouflaged with the brown dry leaves. We looked at it very carefully and silently observed it. After visiting the Gemelos (pit craters) and the forest of the endemic Scalesias we drove back to town.
We had a great day, lots of unusual sightings, wonderful weather; what a marvelous experience.
