Santa Cruz Island
An invigorating sunrise at Academy Bay invited us to visit the largest town in the Galápagos Islands, Puerto Ayora, named after Isidro Ayora an Ecuadorian President in the 1930s. Our morning started with an interesting walk along the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities. In conjunction with the National Park Service several conservation programs have been developed since 1964. In order to recover the giant tortoise populations that were almost brought to extinction in the past, from the breeding center approximately 3,000 little tortoises have been repatriated. On the other hand, as we want to increase the number of tortoises and land iguanas, also they focused on the eradication of introduced plants and animals. All these conservation programs have been pretty successful.
After a great lunch at the Highlands of Santa Cruz we had the experience to see the pit craters in the Scalesia zone. Scalesia is an endemic genus from the sunflower family for the Galápagos. It represents in the plant kingdom what finches represent in the animal kingdom in the Galápagos: one common ancestor and different species that have filled in empty ecological niches, therefore, there are 20 distinct ones. In the lush as we were “finching” we spotted the Vermillion flycatcher. We observed the giant tortoises in the wild roaming and feeding. They have certain shyness towards the ones we saw in the morning at the Research Station. When we got closer they went hissing into their shells. What a wonderful combination of wildlife and habitats.
An invigorating sunrise at Academy Bay invited us to visit the largest town in the Galápagos Islands, Puerto Ayora, named after Isidro Ayora an Ecuadorian President in the 1930s. Our morning started with an interesting walk along the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities. In conjunction with the National Park Service several conservation programs have been developed since 1964. In order to recover the giant tortoise populations that were almost brought to extinction in the past, from the breeding center approximately 3,000 little tortoises have been repatriated. On the other hand, as we want to increase the number of tortoises and land iguanas, also they focused on the eradication of introduced plants and animals. All these conservation programs have been pretty successful.
After a great lunch at the Highlands of Santa Cruz we had the experience to see the pit craters in the Scalesia zone. Scalesia is an endemic genus from the sunflower family for the Galápagos. It represents in the plant kingdom what finches represent in the animal kingdom in the Galápagos: one common ancestor and different species that have filled in empty ecological niches, therefore, there are 20 distinct ones. In the lush as we were “finching” we spotted the Vermillion flycatcher. We observed the giant tortoises in the wild roaming and feeding. They have certain shyness towards the ones we saw in the morning at the Research Station. When we got closer they went hissing into their shells. What a wonderful combination of wildlife and habitats.
