we visited Santa Cruz Island, home to the largest population in the Galapagos. This day we were so lucky that the weather helped us and stayed nice for most of the day. Partly cloudy, with an amazing, refreshing wind combined with the good mood created by the heat of the previous days.
Today we had a chance to visit the very famous Charles Darwin Research Station and the breeding center where the giant tortoises are bred in captivity in order to repopulate the islands. It was great to see these huge animals that can be up to two grown up men’s weight. Dome types, as well as the ones that give the name to the islands, the saddleback types.
The land iguanas also contributed, making the show even better. They continued eating and wandering around their pen not at all disturbed by all the visitors taking pictures and talking about them.
Later, almost half of our group decided to go biking in the highlands. El Trapiche, which is where they explained us how to get products from the sugar cane without any electricity, was nothing more than amazing. Some of the kids with a lot of energy also decided to have a ride on the donkey that we used for getting some of the sugar cane’s juice.
After this, we enjoyed our lunch at El Aquelarre. The food was wonderful and we got to enjoy the fantastic landscape in the highlands of Santa Cruz.
To finish the day we took buses to a giant tortoises’ natural reserve for the opportunity to encounter them in the wild – in their environment.
There is nothing better than going to a place with high expectations and still getting overwhelmed by all of the amazing things you find.
