Today we hired Manuel and his taxi to take us into the highlands. The highlands is the mountain area where most of the food is grown and animals raised for San Cristobal.
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| Our Taxi |
Our first stop was a hike up Lagoon El Junco. This is the largest fresh water reservoir in all of the Galapagos and it supplies the water to San Cristobal Island, population 2,000. It is a crater of an extinct volcano and its only water source is from rainfall.
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| Only Fresh Water on the Island |
Next stop, La Galapaguer, which is a breeding center for giant tortoises (tortugas). The goal is to repopulate San Cristobal Island with these tortoises which are only found on San Cristobal Island.
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| Young Tortoise |
They were huge and slow moving. It is easy to see why they were easily captured and used for food by the pirates, early sailors and settlers to the islands.
Tortoise
Last stop was Puerto Chino, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island. We had to hike about 15 minutes to get to the beach. Then we hiked to the top of a cliff and were able to see sea turtles swimming in the ocean. The water is dangerous to swim in, but people do surf at this beach.
The island gets its electricity from three wind turbines which we passed on our return to our cabana. We spent about four hours on this tour with Manuel. Manuel did not speak English so we had the chance to practice our Spanish with him. We all did pretty well.
Amzing
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