Santa Cruz Island
There’s no day that can be the same in the Galápagos Islands! Anywhere you go you’ll be amazed by the magnificent wildlife of each place. This morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, home of the Galápagos giant tortoises, and we got informed about the conservation programs carried out by two institutions that are partners in conservation. In this case we are talking about the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galápagos National Park.
Here at the research station we have over seven hundred tortoises. Most of them are small baby ones, part of a captive breeding program carried out in order to restore the endangered populations of these iconic reptiles.
Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galápagos and it is home to over fifteen thousand human inhabitants. In spite of the island population there is a lot of nature and also one of the largest populations of giant tortoises in their pure wild state.
The second part of our activities on Santa Cruz included a visit to the highlands. For this purpose we boarded the buses and we had a ride for around thirty minutes all the way through the farming areas enjoying the cool breeze of the place as we reached the highest region.
Here, we had lunch with a touch of local flavors. After lunch we visited the giant tortoises reserve, finding many individuals, some of them wallowing in ponds and others feeding on grass and moving slowly though the forests.
Moments later we paid a visit to the craters known as “Los Gemelos.” In this place you can admire the majesty of the local indigenous trees surrounding these famous geological formations.
Just another day in paradise!
