Southern Isabela
We anchored during breakfast off Puerto Villamil, a peaceful town nestled below Sierra Negra Volcano. Today there were two dramatically different options. 23 of our guests, accompanied by Naturalists Gilda Gonzalez and Carlos Romero and our head chef Antonio (who went along for a change of scenery and the exercise), spent the day climbing to the summit of one of the largest calderas in the world. They hiked through muddy pastures in the garua drizzle and then in the hot sun across the recent lava around Volcan Chico. In 1979 this area erupted and five huge lava flows wound their way down the flanks of Sierra Negra to the sea. The “volcano hikers” returned to the ship in the late afternoon, very tired but pleased to have seen the fantastic landscape of Volcan Chico.
Those of us who stayed in the lowlands around Puerto Villamil had an adventure too. We climbed into the back of pick-up trucks and sat on comfortable wooden benches. Then we headed off down a bumpy cinder road along the sweeping white beach and across quaint wooden bridges over mangrove lined pools, to view “El Muro de las Lagrimas” (The Wall of Tears). This impressive wall made of piled lava rocks was built by prisoners as a punishment. We climbed 169 steps to the top of the Mirador Orchilla, a look out point, from which we had a view of the coast and volcano in the distance. And, we peered into a lava tunnel that was filled, at high tide, with sea water. Access to these sites to the west of Villamil has only very recently been opened and it was great fun even for me (and for Naturalist Pablo) to explore an area we had not been to before.
We explored the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities and took photos of the endangered tortoises from Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul that are being bred and raised in captivity for repatriation. We followed a boardwalk beside shallow brackish lagoons, enjoying the plants and scenery and a few birds, and then returned to the ship for lunch.In the afternoon we hiked through a field of piled and twisted Aa lava and spied a few white-tipped reef sharks resting in a flooded lava crack. Then we had time for both a swim or snorkel in a beautiful mangrove lined lagoon and to walk through the lazy port town as the sun dropped towards the horizon and the day finally began to cool off.
We anchored during breakfast off Puerto Villamil, a peaceful town nestled below Sierra Negra Volcano. Today there were two dramatically different options. 23 of our guests, accompanied by Naturalists Gilda Gonzalez and Carlos Romero and our head chef Antonio (who went along for a change of scenery and the exercise), spent the day climbing to the summit of one of the largest calderas in the world. They hiked through muddy pastures in the garua drizzle and then in the hot sun across the recent lava around Volcan Chico. In 1979 this area erupted and five huge lava flows wound their way down the flanks of Sierra Negra to the sea. The “volcano hikers” returned to the ship in the late afternoon, very tired but pleased to have seen the fantastic landscape of Volcan Chico.
Those of us who stayed in the lowlands around Puerto Villamil had an adventure too. We climbed into the back of pick-up trucks and sat on comfortable wooden benches. Then we headed off down a bumpy cinder road along the sweeping white beach and across quaint wooden bridges over mangrove lined pools, to view “El Muro de las Lagrimas” (The Wall of Tears). This impressive wall made of piled lava rocks was built by prisoners as a punishment. We climbed 169 steps to the top of the Mirador Orchilla, a look out point, from which we had a view of the coast and volcano in the distance. And, we peered into a lava tunnel that was filled, at high tide, with sea water. Access to these sites to the west of Villamil has only very recently been opened and it was great fun even for me (and for Naturalist Pablo) to explore an area we had not been to before.
We explored the Charles Darwin Research Station facilities and took photos of the endangered tortoises from Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul that are being bred and raised in captivity for repatriation. We followed a boardwalk beside shallow brackish lagoons, enjoying the plants and scenery and a few birds, and then returned to the ship for lunch.In the afternoon we hiked through a field of piled and twisted Aa lava and spied a few white-tipped reef sharks resting in a flooded lava crack. Then we had time for both a swim or snorkel in a beautiful mangrove lined lagoon and to walk through the lazy port town as the sun dropped towards the horizon and the day finally began to cool off.
