Today we visited the second largest island in the Galapagos, Santa Cruz. This island is the economical heart of the Archipelago, as most the people who work in the tourism industry live in here. Also because of the location of the island, the Charles Darwin Research Station and the National Park Service have built their headquarters to help with the conservation of the species found here.
During the morning we visited the corrals where the iconic giant tortoises are being reproduced and their offspring are held until they reach maturity to be released. There are a couple different species of this kind, and we could see their gigantic size. Also we could see for a very last time some land iguanas in their pens, where one day they will help us again in the breeding.
Later, some decided to go for shopping in town while some preferred to have a look at how the Galapagueños live with such a beautiful place.
Santa Cruz is a large island full of traditions, so we went to the highlands to visit a very little farm called Trapiche, a place that cultivates sugar cane to later produce, brown sugar, molasses and moonshine.
As we wanted to use our time on the island better, we stayed in the highlands and moved to a restaurant where we had lunch and afterwards took a bus to visit our last site.
There are a couple places on the island that have changed their farmlands for letting tourist to come and see giant tortoises. This time we saw bigger tortoises than the morning, but in the wild. Some of the tortoises here have just arrived looking for some green places to find food after this dry year in the Archipelago.
Unfortunately the trip is coming to an end but today stayed in our hearts.
