Santa Cruz Island
Our expedition brought us today to one of the largest islands of the archipelago, Santa Cruz. The capital of this island, Puerto Ayora is a vibrant and active town. A beautiful waterfront surrounded by local restaurants and souvenir shops is the heart of this community. Santa Cruz Island is home to the Galápagos National Park Service and the world-renowned Charles Darwin Research Station; the main institutions in charge of the management and conservation of the protected areas in the islands. Santa Cruz is home to more than three-thousand giant tortoises that live in the wild, giving it the second largest tortoise population in Galápagos after Alcedo Volcano on Isabela Island.
The Charles Darwin Research Station has a very successful breeding center. Baby tortoises, about the size of doughnuts were observed. They were born in a hatchery where the eggs of these giant reptiles are incubated, and the hatchlings are raised in pens until they are safe from predation. We had a great view of the famous “last of its kind” Lonesome George, the “hard-working” Diego and many more gigantic individuals as well. George is a world-famous symbol of conservation of the National Park and an enormous effort has been made to reproduce this last representative of a once successful species of Pinta Island, his island of origin. After more than twenty years of breeding in captivity, George is the proud father of over half of fourteen-hundred baby tortoises that have been repatriated successfully to the island of Española. We witnessed firsthand and with respect and admiration the titanic efforts that have gone into saving these anti-diluvian looking reptiles of the Galápagos Islands. While we were at the station learning about the most emblematic animal species of the Galápagos, we received thirty children and three teachers from “Guayasamin” school on-board National Geographic Endeavour to participate in the highly successful Lindblad Expeditions’ “Kids On Board Program.” After a Zodiac ride and short tour of the ship, all the children and teachers participated in a natural history presentation I organized for them and enjoyed a brunch of pizza and ice cream!
We had time to explore Puerto Ayora before heading to the highlands. During the bus ride, we observed some of the different vegetation zones of the island. We started at sea level where the vegetation is arid and we drove to a higher altitude to find lush vegetation. Some guests opted to take exercise activities like power walking and mountain biking before lunch. Some others had the unusual thrill to visit a local school in the highlands called “Tomas de Berlanga”; Lindblad Expeditions supports this institution providing funds for its maintenance and wellbeing.
After lunch at Altair, a local restaurant in the highlands, most of us went to look for the giant tortoises in the wild. We saw several among the mist and evergreen trees. Later on we headed to a location at a higher elevation inside the national park, “Los Gemelos,” Spanish for the Twins. They are a couple of dramatic crater-like formations known as pit craters. These interesting geological formations are surrounded by the unusual vegetation typical in this zone. The predominant plant species is the Giant Daisy tree or Scalesia pedunculata.
After dinner a local band with female dancers came onboard to fill the atmosphere with the joy of their musical and dancing skills. Finally we all went to bed happy and dreaming about what new surprises our expedition will bring tomorrow. What a day! I feel, just like our guests this week, flush with an array of emotions and feelings. Education, conservation, research, commitment, love and care are all necessary for the preservation of one of the ultimate paradises on earth – the Galápagos!
