Santa Cruz Island
Merry Christmas to all!
For our second full day, we had a fabulous experience in the company of the Galápagos giant land tortoises. These special and unique reptiles are the emblem of this archipelago. During the early sixteen and seventeen hundreds, buccaneers and whalers visiting these islands took tortoises and stored them in their ships to be eaten. They used their blubber as lamp oil and removed several hundred thousand animals from Galápagos; because of these practices, the tortoise almost went extinct!
The Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station have been working for forty-five years with a captive breeding program to raise these tortoises and restore their dynasty. During the morning, we visited the breeding center and learned from our naturalists the details of the success of this project.
We boarded buses for the drive to the highlands of Santa Cruz. Most of us walked a quarter mile through a huge lava tube, and then enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch served at a ranch with a beautiful view. The afternoon’s highlight was spending time among the wild giant land tortoises in their natural habitat. We also visited Los Gemelos pit craters and walked in the Galápagos daisy forest in the company of hundreds of Darwin’s finches and some friendly Galápagos mocking birds.
This was definitely a very different and unforgettable day in the company of the Galápagos gentle giants. Back on the National Geographic Islander, after our daily recap and the briefing about the next day’s activities, we enjoyed a marvelous and elaborate Christmas dinner.
Merry Christmas to all!
For our second full day, we had a fabulous experience in the company of the Galápagos giant land tortoises. These special and unique reptiles are the emblem of this archipelago. During the early sixteen and seventeen hundreds, buccaneers and whalers visiting these islands took tortoises and stored them in their ships to be eaten. They used their blubber as lamp oil and removed several hundred thousand animals from Galápagos; because of these practices, the tortoise almost went extinct!
The Galápagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station have been working for forty-five years with a captive breeding program to raise these tortoises and restore their dynasty. During the morning, we visited the breeding center and learned from our naturalists the details of the success of this project.
We boarded buses for the drive to the highlands of Santa Cruz. Most of us walked a quarter mile through a huge lava tube, and then enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch served at a ranch with a beautiful view. The afternoon’s highlight was spending time among the wild giant land tortoises in their natural habitat. We also visited Los Gemelos pit craters and walked in the Galápagos daisy forest in the company of hundreds of Darwin’s finches and some friendly Galápagos mocking birds.
This was definitely a very different and unforgettable day in the company of the Galápagos gentle giants. Back on the National Geographic Islander, after our daily recap and the briefing about the next day’s activities, we enjoyed a marvelous and elaborate Christmas dinner.
