Puerto Vilamill, Isabella,

Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Fri 21 Feb 2014 20:14
Since we left San Cristobal last Tuesday, we had 2 nights in Santa Cruz. This is the touristy part of the Galapagos and where most of the international flights land. It is a bit like Blackpool with sunshine! We didn't stay long here as we wanted to get to Isabella, and also the anchorage was very busy with cruise boats coming in and out as well as many day trip boats. We spent most of our one day there messing around with the headsail. We had dropped it on the way there, but now needed to fix the drive belt on the furler motor - there is always something! We are also coming back here at the end of the trip, to stock up before we head off to the Marquesas.
We were quite keen to move to Isabella as it is said to be the 'jewel' of the Galápagos Islands and one of the most interesting and beautiful. On arrival, the town, so far as we could see, looked so much nicer than either San Cristobal or Santa Cruz, with white sugar cube buildings ranged along a beautiful long beach.
On the first day we were there, we walked along the beach and took the trail up to the giant tortoise breeding centre. Again here, as in San Cristobal, trails have been set out to walk along making exploring the islands easy. The trail took us through mangrove trees and over marsh land to the centre. On the way we saw various birds including avocets, and even a lone flamingo in one of the salt ponds.

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The trail to the tortoise centre

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A lonely flamingo

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The water in this pond was the colour of blancmange!

There are various breeds of tortoise in Isabella, each of which has evolved according to the landscape and availability of food where they live on the island. Soon have longer necks to reach higher trees and branches for food and some shorter, if they live in a area where food is closer to the ground. The shape of their shells also differs quite a lot as well, with some having much flatter shells and some, much rounder.
The centre had tortoises at all ages from babies to the giant sized full grown tortoise. The average lifespan of a tortoise is about 150 years. Some species had almost died out in Isabella, partly to do with being hunted for food by pirates and whalers years ago as they were a good source of fresh food on a long journey. A tortoise will easily live for up to a year with no food or water. Also, when settlers had arrived on the islands, they brought domestic animals with them, dogs, cats etc which killed the full grown tortoises, but also ants, which ate the eggs before the new babies could hatch.

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With some of the larger tortoises

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All sizes from babies to giants,

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This poster made us chuckle!

Another 'must-do' according to the ARC guide to Isabella, was to visit the wall of tears. This was built by the inmates of a penal colony after WW2, as a means of both keeping the prisoners busy but also to keep them in, quite how this was supposed to work when there was a set of steps up each side is unclear....
The wall is exactly what it says on the tin, a wall built of lava rock and not really that exciting, but we can now say we have seen it. The best bit about going to the wall was that on the way we saw tortoises in the wild. I was really keen to see a tortoise while we were here in Galapagos, after all the islands are named after them and it would seem wrong not to, but seeing them in the wild, wandering about, was much better than just in the breeding centre.

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A wild tortoise - looks much the same as the other ones, but more exciting to see, I guess you had to be there!

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The wall of tears, as I said not hugely exciting!

The second stop on the trip was the Mirador Orchilla. This involved a climb up some steep stairs, not so easy if you are used to living on boat, you forget how to climb stairs and your legs ache!! The view was worth it though. You could see all across the anchorage and the beach and inland as well. Even though Isabella is very green, it is also very rugged and barren. Nothing really grows here, there is no agriculture and nobody lives outside the main town. Most of the island is without human habitation of any sort and there are no roads to access much of it either.

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View across the bay and town from the Mirador

We also went to a lava tunnel on the beach. It was unfortunately full of flies and other 'bitey' things so we didn't hang around for long. We then went to Playa Amor to see the marine iguanas, of which the are hundreds. Walking back to town along the beach we saw lots of crabs named Sally Lightfoots. They dig holes in the sand and then outside the holes, scrape the sand to take anything nutritious and leave behind hundreds of small balls.

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John and Doug checking out the lava tunnel

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A marine iguana - see his white head? The iguanas are supposed to spit the salt out when they have been swimming. If they don't do this regularly enough, they get white heads! Sounds weird but I have been told this by a reliable source.

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A Sally Lightfoot crab,

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and the balls outside his hole

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The gorgeous beach at Puerto Vilamill

The last place we stopped was the salt water lagoon just near to the town where we saw three flamingos. We now feel as if we have seen some of the wildlife on the islands.
As it is election time here in Galapagos on Sunday, not sure if it is the whole country of Ecuador, there is a ban on alcohol being served for three days before the election in any bars or restaurants. We did get served one night by accident on the waiters part and the manager asked us to hide the bottles under the table! A very strange situation indeed, although the South Americans do get quite excited about politics, there have been parades every night in support of one party or another while we have been here and in Santa Cruz as well.
The only downside to being here in Isabella has been the anchorage, it is unbelievably rolly night after night. We have had awful trouble sleeping, we are waiting for someone to leave further into the bay so we can move forward and hopefully get a good nights sleep!


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