On Saturday, March 8th, we flew from San Cristobal to Isabela using 2 small planes for the 13 of us.
Walking out to our planes. This was where the 25lbs of luggage per person came into play. We had left most of our luggage in Quito.
The Iguana Crossing Hotel was to be our home for the next three nights.
The hotel is right across the road from the beach and the marine iguanas do cross. In this photo you can see the umbrellas by the pool. David and I had a 2nd floor room overlooking the pool. The best thing was having a balcony where our hand laundry could dry.
Once we were checked in it was off on a short hike. Our local guide Maximo led the group while Alfredo took David to the hospital to get his little finger checked out. He thinks he jammed it somehow. The Doctor pulled the finger while the assistant held his elbow and they popped the joint back in place. A strip of antiinflammatory pills and they were out of there. No charge! They caught up to us before we got to the tortise breeding center.
A giant tortise with an ET face.
After our hike we had lunch at La Fuega, next to the church. Following lunch we went by boat out into the bay for some cruising around the islets and some more snorkeling.
We saw some Galápagos penguins.
Here is a pretty parrot fish.
Sunday, March 9th started with a bike ride. We passed the brackish lagoon with ducks and flamingos, the cemetary, Playa del Amor where we saw more marine iguanas, the Tunel de Estero, a lava tube to the sea and ended at the wall of tears. In the mid 1940's 300 prisoners were brought to the island and forced to build a big rock wall (to keep them occupied and tired, I guess). After a year and a half the guards were told this was unnecessary and work stopped.
A pretty duck in the brackish lake.
A man working on a grave in the Isabela cemetary.
Katie inviting us into the lava tube.
Joanne and David at the top of the wall of tears.
We were the first group to have lunch at the newly opened Red Lobster.
Cerviche, popcorn, rice and plantain chips.
After lunch we went kayaking along the shoreline and between some of the islets.
We saw sea lions, turtles, sharks, pelicans, and of course this blue footed boobie and Sally light foot crab.
All was going well until a rogue wave caught Joanne and flipped her kayak. It all ended well, but the lesson learned is " Keep your eyes on the waves and your bow facing into them".
Monday, March 10th was the day for our 10 mile hike. We were taken by van up to the Sierra Negra volcano. We hiked up to the rim and were looking into a huge caldera filled with back lava. Ten years ago there was an eruption and the caldera filled with lava. This is similar to the volcano on the big island of Hawaii.
We walked on past El Jaboncillo (the soap tree) to the Chico Volcano. We walked across the lava flow from the 1970's observing the different forms of lava, fumeroles where we could feel the heat, and the colors of sulfur and iron oxide. We were so lucky that it was a cloudy day and we didn't bake on the lava flow.
A section with lots of iron oxide.
We even spotted a land iguana behind a Darwin bush on our way out.
Alfredo took pity on us and gave us free time after lunch.
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