Galapagos Islands – Isla Isabela
Thursday, April 8th – Our ferry ride to Isla Isabela is every bit as ugly as yesterday’s. We careen and pound for 2 1/2 hours, and if she wasn’t so sure the pilot respected his own life, she would have said that he was out to get ours. As we approach the entrance to the harbor on Isabela, all she can see over the pilot’s shoulder is huge waves, heavy surf and rocks. It is unbelievable. How are we going to get through this? We do, but it is all a matter of timing and daring. We find out later that most ferry captains would never have come in the entrance this pilot chose with the surf and tide like it was. There is a calmer, much more civilized approach. So, this guy was risking her life for his little joy ride! Some nerve!
Arriving at the dock to the island town of Puerto Villamil, we unload and stand around waiting for our bags to be thrown to us. Picking up our bags, we start down the dock only to be officially stopped by some guy in a uniform. Now what? We are told to drop our bags. All bags are carried off the dock by the officials and heaped in a circle. A drug-sniffing dog is brought out to do his sniffing. Sufficiently sniffed, we grab our luggage, walk up the dusty road and take a taxi to our hotel.
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Wonderful hotel! Air-conditioned, hot and cold running water, walk-in showers, a bar serving cold beer. Located right on the beach, it is run by an English man and his Ecuadorian woman. He arranges our tours for the next two days.
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Day 1: a 25-minute panga trip to Los Tuneles, an area of fantastic and fanciful lava formations both above and below water with great snorkeling and great wildlife. Not to be missed say all the guidebooks and cruiser blogs.
Day 2: a trek to Sierra Negra, the second largest volcano crater in the world, and then further on to Volcan Chico, a lunar landscape of petrified lava and fantastic views. We choose a private tour which will allow us to hike the whole way and explore further and deeper into the area.
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Once settled, we set out to explore. Following the trail along the beach out to the lagoon area where the Pink Flamingoes reside is interesting, and we do see a few Pink Flamingoes!
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Puerto Villamil is a small town, and it does not take us long to explore. There is a main street along which the restaurants reside. Colorful umbrellas and sidewalk tables beckon.
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Friday, April 9th – A taxi arrives with our guide to take us and two young women staying at our hotel to the dock where our “chariot” awaits us. 25 minutes isn’t that long she keep telling herself. You will survive! We stand around the dock waiting and waiting. Other groups and boats arrive and leave, but not us. What is going on? Paperwork again! It seems the Park Officials are suddenly on a rampage and checking everyone. They do not like our guide’s paperwork. He is not allowed to take us, and now there are no boats left. Disconsolate, we head back to the hotel. Further questioning follows between the hotel and our guide. It turns out that there is another boat, but it will cost our group $100 more. That’s okay.
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Back we taxi to the peer. Into a panga which makes our small ferries of the last 2 days seem like the Queen Mary. Off we go. Out of the protected harbor, head on into the pounding surf, careening up one side of a wave, barreling down the other. We look around. Someone wonders about tipping over, sharks and where are the life preservers anyway? There are no life preservers! WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?
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We cruise around Roca Union, a huge lava fortress out in the middle of the ocean just waiting to tear us to pieces with each sucking wave that crashes into her. In between watching it, watching the guy on the engines and eye-balling other rocks clearly visible below our boat, we do see some boobies perched on the rock. Just look at those breakers!
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We are approaching the area of Los Tuneles, and she cannot believe what lies ahead. This boat is going to have to surf down the waves into the sheltered area just like a surf board. There are rocks all over the place and under water, too. Again, timing and daring is everything. This is like a roller coaster ride gone wild, and she hates roller coasters. Well, we made it, but once again, upon our return to Puerto Villamil, she hears that many other panga drivers did not dare to venture into Los Tuneles today because of the heavy surf. She guesses she should be delighted that we had such a skilled (crazy, loco?) panga driver!
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As we slowly motor deeper into the more protected area, we pass fascinating lava formations. The surf is bounding itself batty on the other side, but inside this protected area all is calm. Just look at that surf out there. She refuses, right now, to think that we are going to have to ride through it again to return to town.
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Small Galapagos Penguins have hauled themselves up and onto the lava rocks.
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The sea life around us is plentiful. Seals are cavorting in the water. Occasionally, sea turtles are seen swimming near, but they dart away as quickly as we spot them. Blue-footed boobies abound sitting on those rugged lava rocks.
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Deeper into this area, our driver drops the anchor. It is time for a snorkel to see the underground lava formations for which this area is noted. The water is a bit murky, but what fun we have swimming through lava tunnels and exploring.
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Next, we are taken to a spot where we can swim with the penguins. What neat little creatures! Almost drunkenly, they waddle around on land, and on the water’s surface, they paddle around like ducks, but underwater, they are streamlined animal torpedoes. We swim with them and are able to swim right up to lava rocks upon which they are perched.
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Back on the boat, we are off to find the sharks. This The First Mate is not enthused about, but she will do it. White-tipped Sharks do not attack. Well, she sees them. Sure enough, white tips. She mentally checks them off her list of things to see and climbs back on the boat. In her mind, she believes a shark is a shark, and she doesn’t want to be the first one in history a White-tipped Shark decides to attack.
Time to head home. If she thought riding into the bay on that surf was impressive, returning out into that bounding cascade of water has got to be classified as fool-hardy. Here she is, with no choice in the matter, doing it again. Timing and daring are ratcheted up a notch. Maybe even squared! Up one crest, side-slipping down another. Engines screaming. Water crashing. We make it out. She does not know how, but we did. 25 back-breaking minutes later, we are back on the dock. Gingerly she lifts her head. Will her neck move? Can her head swivel? Will her back ever straighten out? All seem to be in working order — so onto further adventures.
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To get the kinks out, The Captain and First Mate decide to take the trail out to the Wall of Tears. The island once hosted a cruel penal colony where one of the punishments was to put the prisoners to work building an endless wall of coral rock. It is not the wall that is really the draw. It is the landscape and the wildlife one might see that pulls people. Walking along the trail, we parallel the coast for a while.
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The trail leaves the coast to meander inland for a while. We are in a wooded area and can hear the sound of birds twittering in the branches.
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Darwin’s Finch? It looks like what she recalls, but she does not have a bird book with her. If it is, she would love to cross it off her things to see in the Galapagos.
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This trail is also noted for the lave tunnels that can be found along it. We do find some, though there are no warning signs posted, we dare not venture in too far.
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Under gathering storm clouds, we head back to our hotel passing an old cemetery which adds to the haunting, gloom of the weather.
Saturday, April 10th – Tour 2 to the volcanoes. The Captain and The First Mate are going to hike. Both feel a desperate need to walk, stretch and do something aerobic. The alternative is to ride a horse. Nope, we’ll walk, thank you. Jim and the two gals chose the shorter version of the trek with horses. Julio Gonzalo, our guide, picks us up in a taxi. He is a delightful young man born and raised on Isabela and a highly trained Park Guide who loves to hike and loves to be with people who love to hike. This is going to be a good day! The start of the trek is criss-crossed with gullies cut into the trail by heavy rainfall. He is pleased that we are not turned off by the fact that this is not a stroll up a manicured trail. We tell him about our life in Telluride and our mountain hikes there. We walk through misty rain and cloud, but he assures us that by the time we reach the top, it will have cleared. It is going to be a good day.
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Walking along, we talk of many things. Julio is inquisitive and intelligent. We talk about our various governments. He wants to know more about the stock market and how it functions. The First Mate asks him all the questions she had been wanting to ask about things Galapagos. We arrive at the top, which is as far as the horse trek goes, and absorb the 6-mile view across the Sierra Negra Crater.
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Leaving the horse group behind, we hike across a plateau of green. Over time, lava rock breaks down into fertile soil. Julio tells us that this area shows only the beginnings of growth after the millennia of years it took for the lava to break down into soil. In the distance we can see the volcanic landscape to which we are going.
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As we hike on up, the vegetation becomes much more sparse and the way ahead much more rocky and steep.
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The area ahead shows the beginnings of vegetation taking hold in the rough soil. A few cactus and low surface shrubs dot the landscape.
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Like the tunnels of giant earthworms, lava tunnels cross the landscape.
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There are many fumaroles, deep holes with hot sulphur vapor seeping out through crevasses. With care, we can walk to the edges and look down. Lava eventually makes fertile soil, and where there is soil and water, some form of vegetation will appear. Yet it is hard to imagine anything able to take hold and survive in that steamy heat.
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On across the lunar landscape of Volcan Chico we trek. In reality, Volcan Chico is an expansive area made up of not one but many small volcanoes.
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Julio explains the changes that occur in the lava and vegetation as each area ages over time. The colors and formations are impressive. We reach the turn-around point on the trail. Earlier, The First Mate had told him about our ceremony upon crossing the equator where we paid our homage to King Neptune. He says now that we are among the volcanoes, we need to pay homage to them. In the past, human sacrifices were often required, but today, what he likes to do is sit quietly for 10 minutes and listen to the volcanoes around us. So, we each sit in our own space for 10 minutes and listen. In our busy, run-around lives, it is easy to forget how much is revealed when one stops and listens.
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The view from The First Mate’s meditative perch.
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The view from The Captain’s spot. He is impressed by the one hill of green in that field of molten lava.
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Having finished two books on the lives of early settlers to these islands, The First Mate is now reading “The Beak of the Finch” by Jonathan Weiner. Evolution versus Creationism. The physical evidence of evolution is all around us. Not so with creationism, as far as she is concerned. She tells Julio that, in the States, there is still an ongoing debate over the two view points, and what to teach or not to teach has and is often fought over in various school districts. There is no one accepted approach across our country. She wonders what it is like in the schools in the Galapagos — predominantly Catholic, yet located in the very cradle of Darwin’s theory of evolution. He claims that the debate is much the same in the Galapagos. It depends upon the school and the parents. Then he turns the question more inward by saying that, while he believes in God, he does not believe we were made in God’s image as the Bible says. Instead he says that the Bible also says that no man can know the shape or face of God. That he does believe. He belief is that God is energy. He is the energy that started everything around us in motion, and that is what we see at work here in the Galapagos.
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He explains that from the earth’s red hot core, the lava was spewed out. Magnificent energy at work.
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Silently over millennium, the lava is broken down so that the first level of scrub plants can take hold. More break down occurs, more plants take root.
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As we walk out of the lava fields back down into the lush landscape of the island’s highlands, we study what time and energy has wrought from a barren mountain of lava. The First Mate likes his concept of God as the energy of creation, rather than the creator of all things. What a very special and interesting person our guide was! She is truly happy we were able to share this day and hike with him. We have his card, and if we ever do get to return to Galapagos again, we will certainly contact him.
Monday, April 11th – With great forbearance, we head to the dock for our ferry ride back to Academy Bay. The dock is full of people, and there are several of these ferries at the docks. Duly checked through by the officials, we head to the line at the first ferry. There is a list. No, our names are not on this pilot’s list. He shoos us on to the next ferry, but that’s not the one either. The last ferry on the dock does not have a pilot on it. He finally shows up, but he does not have his list. He waits. We wait. The list arrives. Our names are not on that list. Now what? To our left is a smaller boat that kind of looks like it could be a ferry. None of these are marked in any way. They just pretty much the same — small fishing boats with bench seats running around the interior edges. Only this one cannot be a ferry that actually hauls paying passengers. It can’t be. It’s small, old and definitely way past being on its last legs as far as The First Mate is concerned, but it is (sigh) our ferry. We climb aboard and then more climb aboard. They must have overbooked. We are wedged in our seats. Jim, on his one-person bench, is asked to move over to make room for another person. He stands up to let this person in next to the wall, and Jim is left with a corner of the seat. He now knows for sure this isn’t going to be a pretty ride. For the first time on any of these ferry rides, life preservers are passed around, and each passenger receives one. The First Mate sits on hers to give her a little more strategic cushioning for the slamming to come. Off we go in an underpowered, old sea cow of a boat. The torture is sublime. We’re numbed and bruised. Two and a half hours later, a more pathetic looking bunch could not have been dumped onto the docks at Academy Bay. Unanimously, we three vow never to take a Galapagos inter-island ferry ever, ever again!
Our touring of Galapagos is over. There are one or two other sites The First Mate would have liked to see, but mentally, we are beginning to gear into the passage to the Marquesas. She is thinking of cleaning chores and further provisioning. The Captain is concerned about the fuel we need, getting the bottom of Avante scrubbed and tracking down all the paperwork we need to clear out of Ecuador. While Jim heads off to an internet cafe, we return to Avante to begin our chores. In the early evening, Janet and Tom arrive for cocktails. We take them to the Red Mangrove Inn for another great sushi dinner.