February 12

Day 5:  February 12

Isabela Island.  Early landing in the small town of Puerto Villamil before beginning the hike to the Sierra Negra Volcano, which is the largest basaltic caldera in the Galapagos.  In the afternoon, explore the tortoise breeding centre in the Puerto Villamil area.

Morning:  Sierra Negra Volcano Hike (Isabela Island).  Hike to the rim of the 10km wide crater of the Sierra Negra volcano, which is the largest basaltic caldera in the Galapagos.  Trek across the moon-like landscape of the lava fields and fumaroles, and enjoy spectacular views looking north toward Fernandina and the rest of Isabela Island.  The volcano last erupted in June 2018, making it the most recent eruption of the Galapagos.  The hike is 7km in total.

Afternoon:  Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre Visit (Isabela Island).  Walk through the town's wetlands to visit the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre.  With the giant tortoise on its way to extinction in the late 1950s, this program was established to protect these noble creatures.  

We’re moored offshore from Puerto Villamil this morning.  This is the town where our guide Oswaldo is from.  Population about 3500.  The weather looked promising…….  Mix of sun and cloud. 

Isabela Island info from the Moon Guidebook:  Isabela is by far the largest island in the Galapagos and, at nearly 4600 square km, accounts for half the archipelago's total landmass.  At 100 km long, it is four times the size of Santa Cruz, the next largest island.  One of the Galapagos's youngest islands, Isabela boasts a dramatic landscape dominated by six intermittently active volcanoes.  From north to south, these are Wolf (1646m) and Ecuador (610m) - which both straddle the equator - Darwin (1280m), Alcedo (1097m), Sierra Negra (1490m), and Cerro Azul (1250m).  Isabela has one of the largest populations of giant tortoises, which feed on the abundant vegetation in the highlands.  There are five separate subspecies here, one for each volcano (except tiny Volcan Ecuador).  The slopes of Volcan Alcedo have the biggest population - more than 35 percent of all the tortoises in the archipelago.  The west coast of the island receives nutrient-rich, cool waters from both the Humboldt and Cromwell Currents.  This is why the marine life is so abundant, with large populations of whales, dolphins, and flightless cormorants, which dive down into the cool waters in search of fish and not longer need their wings.  Isabela also has the largest population of Galapagos penguins, although numbers fell dramatically as a result of the 1998 El Nino climate pattern.  Whalers and pirates began visiting Isabela in the 18th century, hunting in the waters off the west coast and stopping over to gather tortoises as food for long voyages.  The names  of many of these ships are still carved into the rocks at Tagus Cove.  In 1946, it was the humans' turn to endure hardships on the island, when a penal colony was built on Sierra Negra's southern slopes.  The notorious jail was closed in 1959.  The tortoise population on Isabela has suffered considerably.  The whalers used to hunt them, and more recently thousands of feral goats have eaten their vegetation; cows and donkeys trample their eggs.  Things are improving, though, particularly after 100,000 goats were successfully eradicated between 1997 and 2006 by a huge government operation, mainly employing hunters from New Zealand & Australia in helicopters.  The tortoise breeding centre on the island is one of the biggest in the archipelago, releasing hundreds of tortoises back into the wild.   

At 7:15 we took the dinghies to shore where we met up with a small bus (not this one)……

..........for about a 40 minute drive to the base of the volcano walk.  We gained about 800 metres on the drive up; the walk was about 2 km and 200m – very gentle climb.  The trail took us to the edge of the crater of the Sierra Negra Volcano.  The crater measures 9.3 km x 7.2 km; apparently the second largest in the world.  The largest is in Tanzania.  The volcano last erupted in 2018.  Apparently Oswaldo and his brother witnessed a large eruption in 2005 and shot a video of it which became quite famous.  Sales of the video helped their family financially.

Just as we made it to the edge of the caldera we could see the rain moving in.  So – snapped a few pictures and headed down.  It didn’t last long and was a very light rain/drizzle. 

Oswaldo lagged behind with Donna and was thrilled to find a pair of Darwin's flycatchers.  This is a picture of the male.  Seems they have come very close to extinction, so this was an exciting find indeed!

As we walked toward the pier to meet up with the dinghies, we saw a few of the locals……..

Photo by Oswaldo

We got back to the boat in time for lunch.  I see the crew were busy cleaning our cabins while we were gone.

At 1:45 we left for town again – this time to the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre.  It really seems to be a huge success story.  They have (at least) two types of giant tortoises here.  They have a section for the breeding adults and separate sections for eggs and for various age of young ‘uns.  We had a bit of rain as we toured the Centre; thus the really shiny shells. 

 These are (Oswaldo estimated) two-three years old. 

Apparently they are released into the wild at about 5 years of age. 

Here’s a second type of tortoise.  The shells of these ones are a bit flatter. 

There is also a very interesting information centre. 

We met Oswaldo’s parents at their store, and used their wifi to catch up on email, etc.  The best part was that my watch finally synched with my phone and my offline Google Maps finished updating and became available once again.  Then we walked about town for a bit.  There were a few souvenir shops and quite a number of restaurants and various types of tour companies.  I didn’t find anything that I needed……  Back to the pier for the dinghy ride back to the boat.  And there went another day……..

Photo by Jenny

Photo by Donna P