Santa Cruz Island
Today we reached civilization, even though we weren’t ready yet, the giant tortoises of this island were really the highlight that we wanted to see. The sun is a bit strong during this season of the year and the humidity had increased drastically since the last island we visited. We disembarked at the Galapagos National Park pier and after a 15 minute walk arrived at the Charles Darwin Station. Many projects were being done along with the breeding center of the National Park. Conservation on these islands is truly a big effort and a big responsibility that most of the people are proud to have.
As we visited the different corrals of the breeding center, we saw some of the most important and popular characters of this place; Super Diego, a male saddle back tortoise from Espanola Island had saved his species. Originally there were only 14 tortoises left and now over two thousand offspring are being repatriated. The baby giant tortoises we saw were almost ready to be moved away from captivity and get to the real world of the Galapagos arid zone, to later on learn how to migrate to the highlands, where tortoise paradise is found.
Just like tortoises, once they have lived the lowlands and explored every corner, we also headed to the highlands of Santa Cruz, in search for the biggest and oldest Galapagos Tortoises. During our bus ride, we found several of them along the road. After lunch we got to explore a breathtaking double decker lava tube and plenty of giant tortoises in the wild just enjoying the greenery and the rain.
We also spotted Barn Owls during our journey and some of our explorers even saw two giant tortoises mating. Quite an interesting show, I would say.
