Santa Cruz Island
Meeting the Giant Tortoises… Santa Cruz Island is the home of the highly successful Tortoise Breeding Program that has helped these giants to literally come back from almost extinction, and it has restocked an ever increasing number of young tortoises to their original habitat.
During the visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station and the “Breeding Center Fausto Llerena” we saw tortoises of different sizes, all the way from some that hatched this year to gigantic ones whose birth might have happened a few decades or even maybe a century ago. It was a cloudy day when we started, but later the sun started to come out and finally it turned into a nice sunny day.
After the visit to the tortoises and some time to shop, we met at a local restaurant in Puerto Ayora to start the next part of the adventure. Some decided to do a little extra exercise and did part of the trip to the restaurant in the highlands on a bicycle.
Lunch was delicious and after resting for a short time it was time to meet the giants of the Galapagos in the wild. Upon arrival to the place where they are frequently found, we began to walk to a group of tortoises and were surprised when we found a couple of tortoises breeding, an indication that the life cycle of these giants keeps going and that there is hope for the recovery of these impressive giants in the wild.
After we embarked back on the bus and started to leave the area we had a surprise: all the buses had to stop as we had a small tortoise on the road! We had to wait for awhile as it moved out of the way. After arriving back to Puerto Ayora some decided to continue buying some souvenirs to take back home.
It was a long day with lots of things but it was not over yet, as after dinner we had the visit of a group of local musicians that played some folklore songs to all of us. Eventually some were invited to dance and many joined in. Finally the music was over and it was time to rest, and to remember some of the magical moments we had lived today.
