Santa Cruz and North Seymour Islands
It is so hard to believe that we have been here two full days visiting this beautiful archipelago, and as for today (our third day) we had chosen the island of Santa Cruz. This is the second largest island in the whole of Galápagos, with the largest human population living on it. Fifteen thousand people make their living primarily out of fishing and tourism, which was evident once we ventured in and saw all the t-shirt shops on the main road!
The town of Puerto Ayora was our destination after we visited the highlands of Santa Cruz. This is where the emblematic species of the Galápagos, the giant land tortoises, have chosen to live on this island. We found these gentile giants wandering their natural environment formed out of green vegetation and monstrous trees. This was the setting that surrounded us during the morning, and looking for giant tortoises was a lot of fun and not a difficult task at all - after all it's hard to hide when you weigh five hundred pounds!
As we were near a lava tunnel formation, we decided to walk across it. This amazing natural formation was formed during the times when the island itself was volcanically active. The lava tunnel formation ended up conveniently at the entrance of an open air restaurant, where a delicious buffet style breakfast was waiting for us.
For our afternoon program we had planned a visit to one of the most interesting places in the islands, North Seymour. This island is located just a bit north from Baltra Island (main airport facilities in the Galápagos) and in spite of its tiny size, lots of sea birds congregate on it.
Gorgeous inflated red pouches of the male frigate birds were observed at a distance, and the encounter of land iguanas, sea lions and blue-footed boobies transformed an already great visit into an extraordinary one!
The hard part of the day was to get everyone to leave, since after watching a beautiful sunset, the island became immediately dark (not too much twilight in the Galápagos!)
That is the way how we ended another day in this beautiful paradise.
It is so hard to believe that we have been here two full days visiting this beautiful archipelago, and as for today (our third day) we had chosen the island of Santa Cruz. This is the second largest island in the whole of Galápagos, with the largest human population living on it. Fifteen thousand people make their living primarily out of fishing and tourism, which was evident once we ventured in and saw all the t-shirt shops on the main road!
The town of Puerto Ayora was our destination after we visited the highlands of Santa Cruz. This is where the emblematic species of the Galápagos, the giant land tortoises, have chosen to live on this island. We found these gentile giants wandering their natural environment formed out of green vegetation and monstrous trees. This was the setting that surrounded us during the morning, and looking for giant tortoises was a lot of fun and not a difficult task at all - after all it's hard to hide when you weigh five hundred pounds!
As we were near a lava tunnel formation, we decided to walk across it. This amazing natural formation was formed during the times when the island itself was volcanically active. The lava tunnel formation ended up conveniently at the entrance of an open air restaurant, where a delicious buffet style breakfast was waiting for us.
For our afternoon program we had planned a visit to one of the most interesting places in the islands, North Seymour. This island is located just a bit north from Baltra Island (main airport facilities in the Galápagos) and in spite of its tiny size, lots of sea birds congregate on it.
Gorgeous inflated red pouches of the male frigate birds were observed at a distance, and the encounter of land iguanas, sea lions and blue-footed boobies transformed an already great visit into an extraordinary one!
The hard part of the day was to get everyone to leave, since after watching a beautiful sunset, the island became immediately dark (not too much twilight in the Galápagos!)
That is the way how we ended another day in this beautiful paradise.
