Galapagos 2018 Day Five - Santa Cruz Island
This was to be the only inhabited place that we visited
during our week in the islands. Our
first stop upon arrival was the Charles Darwin Research Station.
It is here that work is being done to ensure
the survival of the various species of tortoises found through out the
islands. To do this some eggs are
gathered from each island (the tortoises vary from island to island). These eggs hatch here at the research station
and the baby tortoises grow in safety for a few years. The babies are separated by age and by
island. Once they are old enough they
are weaned off the food being provided by the station and set up so that they
can feed themselves when they are let go.
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| Baby Tortoises in a cage type protective environment |
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| Bigger Babies now out in a more open pen but still being fed by the station |
In addition to the babies there are some adults who are
living their lives here after being pets.
They also could not feed themselves and are dependent on the station for
survival.
Once out of the station, and the inevitable T-shirt shop, we
piled into buses to head to a “ranch” in the highlands where the tortoises roam
freely. Because they are protected they
do exactly that - wander about at will.
Since it was also the end of the dry season many were found at various
water holes and ponds. As we drove by
the various fields in each one could be spotted a large bump that was a
tortoise doing its thing there.
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| me and a friend |
Our stop
was a “ranch” that had been arranged to accommodate tourists like us, with the
ability to borrow rubber boots and a few shallow ponds where the tortoises
congregated. These are magnificent, slow-moving,
prehistoric animals and it was a delight and treasure to see them so close. I assume that the rubber boots were a
standard more useful in wetter weather – but tortoise poo is quite large – size
of a yam (just in case you were interested (😊))
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| Easy to find tortoises at the water holes |
Heading back to the boat for lunch we were initially stalled
at our attempt to reach the zodiac which was to take us back to the boat. There were 2 sea lions lying across the ramp
leading down to where we needed to get the boat. Ultimately the group was able to get by (using
a different ramp and dock) only to discover that one sea lion had been nursing
the other. No wonder they did not want
to move.
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| fish market |
Later the same day we had a couple of hours to waste in
town, looking in the various tourist shops and galleries. The highlight though was the fish market.
In it a very calm fish
butcher (is there an actual name for someone who fillets fish? A monger sells
fish ….) made his way though a large box
of freshly caught fish. This was done
while the patient pelicans waited for any scraps and an adorable, some what
nosy and equally patient sea lion waited at the fish butcher’s feet hoping for
a morsel. The man cutting the fish
worked away at his task even at one point stepping over the sea lion with the
result that the sea lion was between his legs for a time as he worked. Quite a sight.
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| Oh so patient fish man and pelicans and the nosy but still patient sea lion |
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| not even trying to score a fish |
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