- Address: Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Santa Cruz Island.
On the Galapagos , as on any other volcanic islands, there are many craters. Driving the central part of Santa Cruz island , you will see two giant craters near the highway. These are the craters of Los Gemelos (translated from Greek as "twins"), huge funnels covered with tropical vegetation and attracting with their unusual appearance. Along with the lava tunnels are one of the most interesting natural attractions of the island.
Versions of origin of craters
If you look from the edge of the cliff down, the craters look like ancient quarries, in which people mined a stone for the construction of their homes. The depth of the dips is about 30 meters, but according to local legends, one of the craters is so deep that no one can know its true dimensions. Meteoritic, volcanic, karstic - which only versions of the origin of the mysterious funnels did not put forward scientists. Craters "twins" are really similar to lunar craters, which, as we know, have a shock origin. But the version closest to reality says that craters are magmatic formations, which eventually were damaged by erosion and as a result of tectonic shifts fell down. Until now, the edges of the craters are very mobile and can collapse, so close to their edge is not recommended. In 1989, for the convenience of visitors around one of the "twins" was made a survey site. The scale is amazing: in each of the funnels can accommodate several football fields.
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Fauna and flora of Los Gemelos
Bright green greens thickly cover the walls and bottom of the craters, surrounding the terrain, cut by a few paths. It has a special climate, damp and cool. In the dense forest and thickets of bushes you can hear the singing of birds, near the craters there are a swamp owl, Darwin finches, and the most interesting bird is a red tyrant. These are curious and rather tame birds, painted in bright red color. Of the vegetation, shrubs prevail. In the area of the craters, there is a widespread cirrhosis, which grows up to 20 m in height and looks like a real tree.
How to get there?
The craters of the Twins are in the central highland part of Santa Cruz Island , near the highway linking the airport to Fr. Balta and the main city of the archipelago is Puerto Ayora . The distance from the road is 25 and 125 m respectively. Bypassing both craters will take about an hour and a half.
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