Turtle breeding station

We leave the boat at it is the end of our cruise – but there is one last stop on the trip. We will go to see a breeding station for the famous turtles of Galapagos. We have been to the Darwin Research Center outside Puerto Ayora but the turtles on this island are actually a different species of giant turtles so we haven’t seen this kind of turtle before.

It is a short drive across the island to the breeding station where we can go in and see the turtles. Unlike the bigger research center this place focus solely on the turtles. We do get to see many of the big turtles moving slowly around the place and eating their food just as slowly.

There are so many turtles at this area – so the staff has to feed them since the land can’t supply enough food for to sustain such a big population of turtles. This ensures the turtle will gather at certain spots to go and eat the fresh leave the staff has given the turtles. The spectators naturally congregate at the same spots so there is actually a bit of a crowd at this breeding station.

Since it is a breeding station they do have a lot of younger turtles as well which has their own sections where they wonder depending on age. They grow slowly and will not be able to reproduce for many years. The youngest of the turtle has a bit of a fence on top of them I guess it is to prevent the bigger birds of prey hunting the young turtles. When the turtle is a couple of years old they move out to an enclosure where there is no net on top of them anymore.

It was good to see turtles again and this place is probably your only chance to go and see turtles on San Cristobal. So if you are not going to spend some time in Puerto Ayora on Santiago Island you should go here – if you do have the time to visit the turtles on Santiago I would recommend to go and see the turtles in the highlands or at the Darwin Research center if you haven’t got the time to go to the highlands. I prefer these two places to this breeding center.