Dec 21, 22 and 23
We returned to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and flew over to Isla Isabela in an eight-seater plane. The lone pilot fell asleep (seriously).
We checked into a lovely hotel in the small town of Villamil (pop. 1500) with a view of the beach and the setting sun from our balcony. Our first excursion was to the island’s giant tortoise breeding centre. The centre has a program of hatching and reintroducing tortoises into the wild. It’s a long process as they are not released until they can survive on their own at 12 to 15 years of age. The tiny tortoises were like toys – so small and incredibly cute. Isabela is the largest of the islands – 100 km long – and the only one with several different species of tortoise. The distance between the volcanoes and the different habitats allowed for five different species of tortoise to evolve. The centre houses all five species so it’s possible to see the physical differences between them. For example, tortoises from the area where the vegetation is lush and grows close to the ground have the shortest limbs as their food supply is within easy reach.
We walked back to the hotel along a boardwalk through a mangrove forest were we saw a number of flamingos. At the beach, black baby marine iguanas were huddled together on the rocks to catch the last warming rays of the setting sun.
The next morning we travelled by boat to a place called Los Tuneles. We wove our way through several kilometres of odd formations that were created when molten lava reached the cool waters of the ocean and “froze” into various shapes including the tunnels and bridges. We had a quick snorkel among tunnels and saw rays, turtles and white-tipped sharks. (I had to wear a full 3mm wetsuit that I brought from Whitehorse every time I snorkelled because the water was quite cold.)
We spent our third day on Isabela climbing Volcan Sierra Negra and its ‘offspring” Volcan Chico. We drove part way and then hiked a further hour to the rim if the caldera. As we trekked further we crossed the distinctive flows from the volcano’s eruptions in 1963, 1979 and 2005. The landscape was dry and brittle. From the farthest point we could see the island’s other active volcanoes far to the north.
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