Sierra Negra Volcano

“It is a big volcano! You must be kidding me! Is there where we are going?”

Yes, but not yet. First we will visit the tortoise rearing center where thousands of these emblematic reptiles have been born in captivity in order to restore the Galápagos tortoise populations. The center is in Puerto Villamil, the third largest town on the islands. The town was named after General Jose de Villamil who, in 1831, came and took possession of the islands under the flag of the Colonizer Society of the Galápagos, representing the new Republic of Ecuador. In 1832, the good General was appointed the first Governor of the islands and Ecuador took them as part of its territory.

During this fabulous morning our good cheer helped all of us to experience nature’s displays. In exploring this environment we visited the rearing center for tortoises near Puerto Villamil. We examined the baby reptiles and were impressed by how much care is taken into their development.

Once we finished our exploration at the rearing center, we moved to a certain lagoon where a dozen flamingos were busy filtering the water in the company of white-cheeked pintail ducks, moorhens and black-necked stilts.

But this island is not only home to this important giant tortoise restoration project and a lot of human history. It also has six volcanoes, and the one we found ourselves at the foot of today is known as one of the largest calderas in the world among oceanic islands—Volcano Sierra Negra! This is the one we are going to climb!

And we did. In spite of the fact that weather wasn’t what we were expecting, the hike to the rim of the caldera was extremely exciting. The lushness of the place was impacting with all the tree ferns and morning glories and many other plants as well. Being surrounded by hundreds of finches was also very nice and the vermillion flycatcher gave us moment of contemplation when all of the sudden amidst all the greenery, an intense red bird passed by.

All this excitement was part of our afternoon activities.

The rest is already history, and there is no need to reaffirm the how much we enjoyed this day. It was full of surprises and satisfactions, both the wilderness and the human-influenced areas gave us a new comprehension of how the Galápagos ecosystem works!