Santa Cruz Island

Welcome to my home, the island of Santa Cruz! Puerto Ayora is the best town in Galapagos, and we spent this morning at the Charles Darwin Research Station, the afternoon in the highlands. During the morning we had a great walk visiting the hatchling land tortoises which are between one to five years old. Some of the real giants are considered to be one hundred or more years old! In addition to the tortoises, we also saw many important birds and I had the chance to approach one of them, the cactus finch, which was feeding on the opuntia cactus. This finch has the longest beak of the fourteen different species of Darwin finches that exist. It not only feeds on cactus it also builds it's nest on the cactus trees of the area. When we finished our visit around the Darwin Station, there was a chance to get a refreshment at the Station kiosk. Near the benches where we sat were numerous finches, principally of the small beaked, medium- beaked and cactus finch species. They hopped around on the ground. They hopped around on the benches. They hopped around on the tables in front of everyone, and they occasionally hopped onto the counter to check it out for crumbs. Good opportunity to compare beak sizes!