Isabela Island
Rich's 2025 World ARC PatBon Blog
Richard Hurd
Thu 6 Mar 2025 20:47
A quick catch up from Isola Isabela, our second stop here in the Galápagos Islands. This is a really quiet, unpopulated island, with one small town called Villamil where everyone lives. It looks as if the rest of the island is free of humans, apart from the odd scientific lodge studying the flora and fauna. There are a few tours available, to a volcanic crater, an area near the anchorage where you can see the remarkable Galapagos penguins and also the Los Tuneles. This is the one we all chose to do, as it is an amazing lava landscape, that has been broken and eroded by the sea and it is now a mass of tunnels, arches and interlinked sea lagoons. Paradise for sea lions, small sharks, turtles, rays, iguanas and birds. We’re had a long snorkel in the area and the wildlife is remarkable. There are no dive sites on Isabela, just one operator taking people to a small island called Tortuga, but they are not official operators, so we decided give them a miss.
The following day, Paula and I hired bikes and headed up a trail into the National Park to the Wall of Tears. In the 40’s & 50’s, there was a brutal Ecuadorean penal colony on the island and the prisoners were forced to build a huge pointless wall in atrocious conditions. Many died and there are several mass graves under large concrete slabs around the wall base. There was an amazing view on a small hill above the wall, called radar hill, where the US military had a radar station during WW2. Tortoises, iguanas birds everywhere and wonderful bike ride, although it did rain the whole time. A nice cocktail in the Pink Iguana on our way back sorted us out though!
The anchorage was a bit open sadly, so hot, sticky and rolly nights there, but it was a marvellous place to visit. Next stop ….. Santa Cruz.