Isla Santa Cruz is the most populated island in the archipelago but still has some wonderful wildlife and scenery, and is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station. The landscape here is dominated by the highland slopes of Cerro Crocker, the 864m-high volcano in the centre of the island. Although the coastal area was hot and sunny, just a hundred or so metres higher up the slopes ‘the cold mist that falls’, the garua, hung over the island like a grey blanket, bringing a constant light drizzle. We walked through damp, dripping Tree Scalesia, mosses, ferns and epiphytes on the lookout for the beautiful, small Vermillion Flycatcher, and managed to spot a single male with its insanely brilliant plumage – a superb sight.
Lower down we were able to find a few of Santa Cruz’s estimated 3,000 Galápagos Tortoises, which migrate up and down the mountain slopes depending on the season. These were gigantic males, which can weigh up to 250kg and measure up to 1.5 m over the shell. They live in harmony with the farmers on this (relatively speaking) highly populated island, but are under somewhat of a threat from dogs, and to a lesser extent, pigs and cats.
A few minutes drive from here we explored a lava tube, created by the solidifying of the outside skin of a molten lava flow. This tunnel was several hundred metres long and almost perfectly formed. Some such lava tubes can apparently go on for kilometres. Emerging back into daylight we were fortunate to spot a sleeping Barn Owl on a creeper right outside the cave.
Near the capital, Puerto Ayora, the Charles Darwin Research Station conducts some excellent research, conservation and breeding programmes with the flora and fauna of the archipelago. In particular, their captive breeding programmes for the various species of Galápagos Tortoise have been very successful in re-populating some of the islands.