Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz is one of the most beautiful Galápagos Islands. It is the second largest, therefore, it has lots of great places to visit, wonderful beaches, a couple of little villages, and the beautiful town where I was born.

This is also the home island of one of the healthiest populations of giant tortoises that freely roam through the humid highlands, in search of food and water.

If one has to become an expert on Darwin’s finches, this island is the perfect place for that. There are nine of the thirteen species, the favorite one being the woodpecker finch. And we found this famous finch, one of the few animals in our planet that uses a tool to eat. We also encountered the most colorful land bird in the Galápagos, the vermillion flycatcher. However, the real highlight for me was to see the flycatcher landing on the back of a giant tortoise. This happened several times, on different sites and with various tortoises and flycatchers. Enjoy the picture of a sighting that made my day!