Southern Isabela
Puerto Villamil is a small village that lately is gaining a lot of attention from our local authorities and international NGOs. This is because the village is in the process of development and every decision taken has to be carefully studied and planned. The idea is to make sure that such development would not impact the beautiful environment that is nursed here or disrupt the local economy. In terms of the tourism industry, the island has a lot to offer: there are beautiful long white organic beaches where people that are looking for a place to relax could visit. Not too many people are found walking along the beach since the town itself is located on the remote southern side of Isabela Island. If you could stand to be the only soul walking on the beach, I believe Isabela is the right place to be!
The shoreline itself has a lot of wildlife that you can get in contact with, within the national park regulations, of course. If your mood or nature is the exercise type, then what about hiking to the rim of a nearby active volcano, one of the largest calderas in the world. That is precisely what we felt like doing today, and off we headed to admire Sierra Negra volcano, which last erupted in October, 2005. Half of the caldera floor is full of new lava flows from the last eruption, and even with the mist surrounding us, we were able to see patches of darkness at the bottom.
For the afternoon we visited the breeding center for giant tortoises where we learned about the programs to incubate the eggs of these famous reptiles, and in that way increase their numbers and their population. It was also amazing to find out what the scientists have been working on lately, and to learn that they are capable to manipulate the sex of these reptiles just by controlling the temperature of the incubators. It is due to this program that the number of some of the subspecies of giant tortoises has increase successfully and we can confidently say that they are no longer in danger of extinction. Right after our visit to the breeding center we headed to town to simply walk around the charming village, watching the local people doing their daily activities. It was fun to see the local kids having the best time with the simplest things such as jumping off the local rustic docks…what a life!
Puerto Villamil is a small village that lately is gaining a lot of attention from our local authorities and international NGOs. This is because the village is in the process of development and every decision taken has to be carefully studied and planned. The idea is to make sure that such development would not impact the beautiful environment that is nursed here or disrupt the local economy. In terms of the tourism industry, the island has a lot to offer: there are beautiful long white organic beaches where people that are looking for a place to relax could visit. Not too many people are found walking along the beach since the town itself is located on the remote southern side of Isabela Island. If you could stand to be the only soul walking on the beach, I believe Isabela is the right place to be!
The shoreline itself has a lot of wildlife that you can get in contact with, within the national park regulations, of course. If your mood or nature is the exercise type, then what about hiking to the rim of a nearby active volcano, one of the largest calderas in the world. That is precisely what we felt like doing today, and off we headed to admire Sierra Negra volcano, which last erupted in October, 2005. Half of the caldera floor is full of new lava flows from the last eruption, and even with the mist surrounding us, we were able to see patches of darkness at the bottom.
For the afternoon we visited the breeding center for giant tortoises where we learned about the programs to incubate the eggs of these famous reptiles, and in that way increase their numbers and their population. It was also amazing to find out what the scientists have been working on lately, and to learn that they are capable to manipulate the sex of these reptiles just by controlling the temperature of the incubators. It is due to this program that the number of some of the subspecies of giant tortoises has increase successfully and we can confidently say that they are no longer in danger of extinction. Right after our visit to the breeding center we headed to town to simply walk around the charming village, watching the local people doing their daily activities. It was fun to see the local kids having the best time with the simplest things such as jumping off the local rustic docks…what a life!
