Santa Cruz & North Seymour Islands

We are still navigating the center islands of the enchanted archipelago, Galápagos. Early in the morning we found ourselves surrounded by creatures that would have been considered mythical in other times. I am referring to the nowadays famous giant tortoises, which are abundant in the Galápagos Islands. I often find myself wondering what the reaction was of sailors who were at sea for so long looking for land, and then arriving to what they thought would be islands full of treasures, gold, water, food and why not…women!

Far from those thoughts, they found the Galápagos being nothing but a bunch of mysterious islands that disappear once in a while under a thick cover of mist. There wasn’t any water in the islands, and of course no women, since no indication of native communities have ever been found in any of the islands. No gold was found either, but what they found was far more important than what I mentioned above; a sort of giant reptile that would become one of the main sources of food for the sailors traveling in the south Pacific during the whaling times. It was this unfortunate finding that took certain unique populations of giant tortoises to the edge of extinction. However, they are luckier than some because other populations were completely wiped out from the surface of earth. Dramatic as it sounds, the population of giant tortoises had been brought back in some cases from nearly nothing, to become once again the dominant reptiles that they once were. It was definitely today’s main attraction to see a giant (over four hundred pounds) reptile work its way through the thick vegetation, just to appear out of nowhere to surprise us all.

As the morning progressed and our hunger for wonderful sightings increased, we headed north to the island of Seymour. A small piece of land teeming with wildlife that wrapped us up in its enchantment. Colonies of frigate birds with the red pouch inflated were observed from all directions, giving us all the feeling of being inside a National Geographic video production. But this was far better than a video; it was real life, at least for us lucky ones visiting one of the last pristine paradises on earth, the enchanted Galápagos Islands!