Santa Cruz Island
Today we woke up to a view of Academy Bay on Santa Cruz Island. Puerto Ayora, capital of the island, is home to one of the most renowned places of the Galápagos: The Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS). We spent the morning in this institution learning about the different programs that this institution has in conjunction with the Galápagos National Park Service. One of the most important programs is the one dedicated to the world-famous Galápagos giant tortoises.
Many of the endangered populations of Galápagos tortoises have been brought back from the verge of the extinction through a remarkable and highly successful breeding, rearing and repatriation program that started in the 1960s.
A couple of individual tortoises have become living icons of the titanic conservation efforts that are taking place to restore the dynasty of them on the islands. One of them, the famous Lonesome George, is the last tortoise from Pinta Island. He is a sad reminder of the results of thoughtless exploitation by humans in the last centuries. In consecutive waves, pirates, whalers and sealers carried off thousands of tortoises for their meat and for their oil. Introduced species as goats have dramatically changed the island’s ecosystems.
However, not all are sad stories and there is a lot of hope, dedication and success. In the 1960s, the tortoise population of Española Island came so close to extinction that all the remaining tortoises – twelve females and two males – were brought to the CDRS. At that time the CDRS was looking for a female companion for George. It was a big surprise to locate another male tortoise from Española Island instead. This male that was found in the San Diego Zoo where he had been living for decades without being identified; he is aptly named “Diego.” He is tortoise number 15; please take a closer look at one of the pictures of the day and you will clearly see this number carved in its shell. Since Diego returned, the reproduction in captivity of the Española race has been a great success for hundreds of little babies he proudly fathered are roaming free now on the island. Today Diego seemed to be very active inside that corral; he was covered with red mud for it has been raining hard in the last days.
At midday, after spending some time in the town, we took a short bus ride to the lush green highlands of Santa Cruz. We crossed a lava tube, had a great buffet lunch at a local farm restaurant, watched the Galápagos giant tortoises in the wild and observed with amazement a couple of pit craters surrounded by an illydical “Scalesia” forest. In the evening our finale for a wonderful day was a party with a group of musicians and female dancers from Puerto Ayora. They performed live for us, their music, choreography and costumes were spectacular! Today, all our dreams and expectations came true in the living paradise of this enchanted group of islands.
