Isla Isabela, Galápagos... I'm 'encantado'

My third and final island of my trip, Isabela. This is one of the youngest islands in the archipelago, as well as one of the most geologically active. I follow the Instituto Geofísico del Ecuador on Facebook, which is regularly posting updates about volcanic activity and temblors. Since mid-June, there have been near constant notices about 'quakes' measuring around 3.0 on the Richter scale. Additionally, the Sierra Negra volcano has been continuously erupting since June 26 of this year, growing the island. Admittedly, I was a little distressed about this when planning my trip; after arriving, I realized that these two geologic processes posed no real risk. The eruption is occurring on the opposite side of Sierra Negra than where Puerto Villamil is situated, and 3.0 earthquakes are barely detectable.

Arriving here was quite the journey, quite the day. I left Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristóbal by boat at 7 AM to Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, a boat ride with a duration of two hours. Then a 'layover' until catching a second boat at 2 PM for Puerto Villamil, Isabela. This is the most direct way to arrive by sea, though you can book a charter flight directly between San Cristóbal and Isabela. I'm no millionaire and wasn't in a rush so the flight option was not in my plans. When passing by boat, the departure times are similar for each island. They leave from both San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz at 7 AM and 2 PM, and Isabela at 6 AM and 3 PM.

Arriving to the port in Puerto Villamil, the transfer boat slowly winded between superficial projections of lava rock, almost like little zits on a teenager's face to the dock. The protocol upon arriving was slightly modified from my experiences on the other two islands. First, a guard walked a dog around our bags to sniff out any biohazards or paraphernalia. Second, there was an entry fee, $10 for foreigners and $5 for Ecuadorians. This means that, in total, I paid at least $130 for entry into the national park... extremely unexpected and annoying. So, once I begrudgingly paid the $10 entry fee to get onto Isabela, I hoped and prayed that my hostal would accept card payments. Lodging on Isabela seemed to be the most expensive by far, even for modest places, and my particular selection would’ve eaten up 50% of what I had remaining. If I had to pay in cash, I would have about $23 to spend per day, which would have easily been my dinner. Thankfully, I was able to pay using my card and relieving my worries. Holy Moly. Paradise ain’t free, folks.  At the end of the day, though, Isabela was by far worth the arm-and-leg prices, and here's why...

Isabela is crazy gorgeous. Amazing beaches, fields of lava rock, a mosaic of biodiversity everywhere you look and endless options of activities. My two absolute highlights of my entire time were the two paid tours I did, Las Tintoreras and Los Túneles that I'll describe shortly; however, the free activities were equally as fascinating. Compared to the other two islands, Isabela felt more like a touristy destination and people were constantly abuzz. By far my favorite island of the three.

The free things I did while here were:

• Snorkeling in Concha de Perla, situated right next to el muelle, where you both arrive and depart. A brief couple minute stroll down a wood walkway brings you to a little bay that is a small coral reef. Depending on your personal timing, you can see a vast array of sea life.

• Visiting the Centro de Crianza. Here they are doing a similar breeding and repatriating program as the Darwin Research Station, but only for the giant tortoises found on Isabela. Along the path to arriving there, you can find flamingos, ducks and other waterbirds... something I never anticipated finding in the Galápagos. 

• Hiking through Los Humedales to the Muro de las Lágrimas. You could pass by bike, but some points along the way are quite sandy. Additionally, the distances between side paths to other points of interest are small so you'd be hopping on and off frequently. An advantage to going by bike would be for the return to Puerto Villamil, which is almost entirely downhill. The day I went was overcast but the weather was pretty hot and humid, making me wish I had a bike to 'generate' a cooling breeze for my return. It took me about 4.5 hours for a roundtrip from my hotel by foot. Some of the coolest points of interest before arriving to the wall were visiting the several pozos, navigating through tunnels created by intersecting mangrove roots, having panoramic views from the miradors, and observing at least a dozen wild giant tortoises in their natural habitat. Seeing them in captivity is exciting, but nothing beats seeing an organism behaving naturally in the wild. The wall itself was quite interesting because it is the sole remaining artifact of a prison for political defectors and delinquents that sat on the island prior to the 1960s. Prisoners were forced to construct this wall, created solely from stacked rocks that measured, by my estimates, seven meters tall and fifty meters long and three meters wide. It reminded me of the old Nazi saying "Abreit macht frei" though I am not associating what happened here with the Holocaust. 

If you are try to get in your "10,000 steps" each day, you will easily accomplish this with your free activities on Isabela. The day I went to the wall, I logged almost 25k steps and 9.6 miles of walking. I combined the Concha de Perla and Centro de Crianza in the same day and managed only 17.5k steps and 7.2 miles. Only **wink**

That leaves my three paid tours on the island. The only one I felt was least necessary was going to the Sierra Negra caldera, the second largest the in the world measuring 14 kilometers around the rim, between 7.2 and 9.6 kilometers across and 140 meters deep... only eclipsed by the Yellowstone caldera. (For those of you that don't understand the metric system, which is far easier to understand than using Imperial units... that's 8.7 miles around, 4.5-6 miles across, and 460 feet deep). While it was a unique experience, the two reasons for my lack of enthusiasm was a combination between the weather and my guide. My entire stay on Isabela, the summit was shrouded with clouds and fog, shocking me since the volcano rises almost one mile above sea level. This pattern continued on my visit, despite the view being allegedly clear the day prior. My group was more fortunate than others because we received the clearest view before more dense fog moved in to block the view. This "diappointment" could have been overridden had my guide been more engaging with information about this natural spectacle. Whereas other guides were sharing facts about the flora, fauna and history of the volcano, mine lolligaged behind and kept repeating that the two most recent eruptions scorched the trees and plants. He repeated this information no less than ten times. When I started asking further questions, the old man, erm, guide didn't have the answers. How do I know this could have been better? Several other groups arrived and the guides were engaging the tourists with stories and information of the geological processes occurring both on Isabela and in the archipelago. At least I can say I've been there?

But the two absolute highlights of my entire trip were the other tours I did. The first of these was Las Tintoreras. Encircling the same port where I arrived to Puerto Villamil are these small and rocky islets, named after the white tipped reef sharks (Tintorera is the local name for them) that call it home during the day, before they head out for the nightly hunts. The tour began with snorkeling. It felt like the amount and types of wildlife we saw were deliberately placed there for us to find. Everything from sea turtles to sea horses, rays to marine iguanas swimming, pufferfish to echinoderms of all types saturated the shallow seabed. Boarding the boat once more to take us to the next stop, we passed several Galápagos penguins and blue footed boobies. But for me, the actual islote las Tintoreras was a biological orgasm. The seemingly devoid lava rock was coated with lichens, giving me my first true glimpse of primary succession from the start. Over the next millennia, the lichens will lead to a shallow layer of soil, allowing then for small plants to colonize. After further death, decomposition and erosion, larger and larger plants may begin to populate the islet until it, possibly one day, reaches its climax community (unless erosion or sea level rise beats it to the punchline). Granted, there was a sandy beach with a small, dense forest of mangroves, under which a colony of sea lions were resting so it wasn't completely inhospitable. 

The other was going to Los Túneles a.k.a. Cabo Rosa. Situated 45 minutes west of Puerto Villamil by boat is the most stunning landscape I've ever witnessed. Due to the nature of how lava interacted with the sea water, the cooling into rock formed tunnels and bridges that made me feel like I was in an ecological Venice. Between both walking on and snorkeling through the natural archways, this was the most unique experience I've had in my entire life. The cerulean water was crystal clear and, like Las Tintoreras, saturated with biodiversity. An organism I certainly never expected to find and see were Galápagos fur seals, of which three were resting and sunning atop a rocky projection from this haven. The second place we snorkeled was about ten minutes further east. Here, we observed a plethora of animals including more sea turtles, black and white tipped sharks, golden rays, puffers of all kinds, trumpetfish, sea horses, shrimps congregating on the roots of mangroves and octopuses. It was like a wet dream for me.

After two and a half weeks in the Galápagos, and the same amount of time in North America, my travel bug was satiated. I felt recharged and, for the first time in two years, actually ready to go back to work. The summer in the middle of my Master's program hardly did that for me, since is was the eye of my professional-development storm. The unparalleled beauty of North America and especially the Galápagos inspired me to begin planning my action on some innovative teaching methods I was eagerly waiting to implement.