Rancho Primicias Tortoise Reserve

About the site

Rancho Primicias Tortoise Reserve

Rancho Primicias, also called Hacienda Primicias, is a private farm in the highlands of Santa Cruz, near the village of Santa Rosa and next to the El Chato reserve. Like El Chato, it lies on the route the giant tortoises have followed for generations between the dry coast and the green highlands, and they roam freely through its pastures, ponds and forest.

A walk through the farm brings you close to the tortoises grazing in the meadows or soaking in the muddy ponds, always keeping the park's distance of two meters. The farm also has a lava tunnel about 400 meters long that you can walk through, a tube left by a river of lava whose surface cooled while the molten lava inside drained away.

Darwin's finches, vermilion flycatchers and cattle egrets, which often follow the tortoises, are common, and short-eared owls and Galápagos rails are sometimes seen.

Rancho Primicias is visited on highland tours from Puerto Ayora. The paths can be muddy, above all from June to November, when the garúa mist covers the highlands.

Highlights

• Birdwatching
• Giant Tortoises