Saturday, March 12: Santa Cruz Island

This was the day of the Giant Tortoises.  Although there were other related activities, it was centered around what is probably the best-known animal unique to the Galapagos Islands.

After breakfast, Susan and I were waiting our turn to board the tenders and were looking over the side of the Flora from deck 7.  We were looking at the sea just a few feet from the ship and noticed a sea turtle swimming by. 

  A sea turtle swimming past the Flora 

  About a minute later, this golden ray, came by the ship.

 And then a Hammerhead shark: (you have to look a bit close)

In a space of less than 5 minutes, we had seen a sea turtle, a golden ray, and a Hammerhead shark.  In about any other place in the world, we would have been happy to have spotted any one of these in a day, but here in the Galapagos, we saw all three before our main activity had even started. 

We boarded the tenders and headed to the dock and the closest thing to “civilization” we had seen all week. 

 If you could call this “Civilization”

We transferred to small buses, about 12 people per bus, and headed inland.  Every place we had been in the Galapagos so far had been very desert-like but today would be very different.  We were heading toward the “high-lands”, but even the low-lands were different and were covered with green vegetation. 

A very straight road to the high-lands

We had a stop to make and some work to do before meeting the Giant Tortoises: we had to plant some trees.  We were to plant some trees in a reforestation effort in one area.  It was really symbolic and not very efficient, but I guess the thought counts.  We stopped along the road and put on big Wellington boots.

The boots were laid out for us to find and put on. 

Everyone picked up a small trowel and two small (12“) trees of three different species.  The guides led us to an area that had been cleared and small holes had been dug in the very rocky ground into which we could “plant” our trees.  The holes were much too close together for the trees to grow more than a year or two.

 In the process of planting too many trees

I suspect that not enough area had been cleared, so the holes had to be very close together in order to fit in enough places to plant the young trees.  After the planting was done, we took a short walk around the area looking for unusual birds and seeing how quickly the trees grow in that area.  After the walk, we turned in our boots and reboarded the busses for the short ride to the Manzajnillo Ranch where the Giant Tortoises enjoy a protected environment to their liking.

This Tortoise almost blocked the road into the ranch.

The Naturalist Guides led us on a walk around the property where there were multiple tortoises. 

 This tortoise seemed to be looking for cool shade.

When we arrived, the sun was hot and the air was very humid and the tortoises seemed to be looking for places to rest in the shade to avoid the heat.

  This tortoise had found a place in the shade of a tree.

Some of the tortoises were munching on grass and other vegetation but most just seemed to be resting.  I’ll comment here that the entire area of the high-lands was much different than the other parts of the Galapagos we had visited.  This was like a rain forest: damp, humid, with lots of water holes and ponds.  The vegetation was lush and green This was the beginning of the rainy season, but I suspect there was some moisture here year-around. 

 This tortoise had been munching on some ground cover.

When the tortoises do move, they do not move very fast.  The tortoise in this video was practically sprinting in tortoise terms.

After wandering around the tortoises a while, most of our group headed back to the ranch shelter, while a couple of us followed our guide around some more, discovering some non-tortoise sights.  

 I’m not sure if this is a flower or a kind of mushroom

This one looked like an apple relative.

The duck was both colorful and rather tame.

We headed back to the main ranch area where there was a large open-air shelter where we had a nice lunch.  While eating lunch, a major rain storm hit, getting everything in the area wet.  The tortoises seemed to love it: they came out from under their shade and laid in the rain, soaking it up.  The rain lasted quite a while and we ended up having to make a bit of a sprint to the buses, getting just a little damp in the process.

 The road out of the ranch was just a little wet.

On the bus again, we headed back toward the dock.  We could see the sunshine in the distance as we drove under the dark rain clouds.

 We could see the sun and the ocean in the distance.

Once on the tender and heading back to the Flora, we could look back and see the rather menacing clouds behind us.

  We were leaving the high-lands and the storm clouds.

That evening we watched another colorful sunset, got the information for disembarking the next day and enjoyed a very nice “farewell dinner” and some piano music in the lounge.

There is a nice three masted schooner here, if you can spot it.

Click the “Back” button to return to the primary document/web page.