For our next outing we decided to hire a couple of bikes and head off along the coast as far as the Wall of Tears or Muro de las Lágrimas, checking in with a National Park official on the way.   This is the site of the infamous Isabela Penitentiary Colony which operated between 1946 and 1959, when the Galapagos Islands were a distant retreat for adventurers and a destination for political prisoners and common delinquents.  The Wall of Tears is the only remaining evidence of the prison camp where abuse of power end the lives of many of its prisoners. This futile construction is preserved in memory of those hardships endured by those forced to build it.

Our route was a mixture of Los Humedales or Wetlands, salt water lagoons, white sandy beaches, lava fields and spectacular miradores or viewpoints.  It’s been a while since we’ve been in the saddle which became increasingly obvious by the end of the day.  We returned to the town at around high water and found the coastal path severely flooded in parts, so found ourselves wading knee deep over sections of the last few hundred metres.

The Wall of Tears together with an allegorical painting depicting the horrors:

El Comino de las Tortugas:

At El Estero Lava Tunnel: