Southern Isabela Island
Today we dropped anchor at Villamil Bay. After a hearty breakfast, we were ready to disembark. The tide was extremely low and our skilled panga drivers managed to take us to the fisherman’s dock through the shallow waters of the bay. We climbed into pick up trucks and drove up the flanks of the active volcano of Sierra Negra.
The round trip took us around four and a half hours. We drove through the agricultural zone forest on a bumpy cinder road and then hiked along a dusty trail to the rim of the volcano. During the first half hour of our hike, we were blanketed by a kind of mysterious blowing fog. But as we reached the rim, the sun came through and then we could observe the giant caldera of Sierra Negra which is ten by seven kilometers in diameter.
Walking along the rim, we could observe the new lava formations that are less than a week old. Half the caldera floor is now covered with fresh, still warm lava flows. The vegetation on the inner caldera walls was burnt and in places across the volcano, fires were still smoking. We searched carefully and found some “Pele’s hair” which are fine crystallized lava rocks so thin they are almost translucent. In the distance, we could see a couple fumaroles with yellow accumulations of crystallized sulfur at the vents. A young Galápagos hawk flew over our heads and awakened us from our volcanic dream. We realized it was time to go back to the pickups for the ride down to the port town and then back to the Islander for lunch.
In the afternoon, we visited the Charles Darwin Tortoise Breeding Center of Villamil where we learned about the captive breeding program of the Galápagos giant tortoises. Then we followed a boardwalk through the mangrove swamps where flamingoes and other wading birds were feeding and walked or rode in our pick-up taxis to the village where we had seafood snacks with a refreshing beer. As the sun set, we returned to the ship, charmed by our day spent on this beautiful island, still active and wild.
Today we dropped anchor at Villamil Bay. After a hearty breakfast, we were ready to disembark. The tide was extremely low and our skilled panga drivers managed to take us to the fisherman’s dock through the shallow waters of the bay. We climbed into pick up trucks and drove up the flanks of the active volcano of Sierra Negra.
The round trip took us around four and a half hours. We drove through the agricultural zone forest on a bumpy cinder road and then hiked along a dusty trail to the rim of the volcano. During the first half hour of our hike, we were blanketed by a kind of mysterious blowing fog. But as we reached the rim, the sun came through and then we could observe the giant caldera of Sierra Negra which is ten by seven kilometers in diameter.
Walking along the rim, we could observe the new lava formations that are less than a week old. Half the caldera floor is now covered with fresh, still warm lava flows. The vegetation on the inner caldera walls was burnt and in places across the volcano, fires were still smoking. We searched carefully and found some “Pele’s hair” which are fine crystallized lava rocks so thin they are almost translucent. In the distance, we could see a couple fumaroles with yellow accumulations of crystallized sulfur at the vents. A young Galápagos hawk flew over our heads and awakened us from our volcanic dream. We realized it was time to go back to the pickups for the ride down to the port town and then back to the Islander for lunch.
In the afternoon, we visited the Charles Darwin Tortoise Breeding Center of Villamil where we learned about the captive breeding program of the Galápagos giant tortoises. Then we followed a boardwalk through the mangrove swamps where flamingoes and other wading birds were feeding and walked or rode in our pick-up taxis to the village where we had seafood snacks with a refreshing beer. As the sun set, we returned to the ship, charmed by our day spent on this beautiful island, still active and wild.
