We wake this morning at Puerto Villami on the Island Isabela. With the Beluga travelling overnight – not sure how many of us did sleep.
I am in cabin 8 – on the top deck – so the rocking and rolling of the boat feels more in my cabin.
Breakfast and then off for a dry landing on Tintoreras a small island off the main island. On the way to see the inland lagoon where sharks keep their young safe – a young sea lion decided the path was his and we had to walk around another path so as to not have to walk over him. ( Funny thing – on our way back – guess which path it had moved to – you guessed it – the one we had to use)
A little way on that path – we had to wait for a white heron to get off the track. Got some great pics.
No sharks were there to meet us but lots of Marine Iguanas .
Off now to Port Villamil and our climb up Sierra Negra Volcano.
If you look at a map of Isabela you will see 6 Volcano’s – five of them still active, making this one of the most volcanically active places in the world.
Our “climb” started with a bus ride up the road to the beginning of the track. As we got higher – we went into the misty cloud and this was wet. Not enough to wet you like rain – but did make the track full of paddles and very muddy. The climb was about 60 minutes up to the rim of the volcano (1370 mts – not the highest – Wolf is at 1707 mt and its the most recent to spill out lava in May 2015)
The climb was interesting – lots of birds around us – BUT when we got to the top it was still misty and we could not see anything. Now what should we have seen? The second largest Caldera in the world at 6 x 5 miles. This one and all the other volcano caldera on Isabela are home to more wild tortoises than any of the other islands.
The trip back down to our bus was quicker than the up climb – especially for two of our climbers. – Let me just say it was very muddy and slippery.
Quick trip back to the Beluga for a clean up before lunch. We all have very muddy boots and while we had lunch – the crew cleaned all our boots then put them into the engine room. All boots were dry for us the next morning.
Lunch and nap – hard work this cruising around the Galapagos.
3.00pm back into Puerto Villamil to visit a Tortoise Breeding Station – checked out some more flamingos. the next couple of hours was our time to explore the small town – it was Sunday afternoon and most of the town was closed. Settled down in a nice cafe/bar with a beer and asked to use the wifi. “Sorry our Wifi is not working today” so that is why I am doing this part of my blog from home.
Back on the Beluga and we had two new american passengers – Alyce and Wallis . Interesting to hear about their speed boat ride from were we had joined to Beluga to Puerto Villamil.
7.00pm Dinner and rundown of tomorrows day.
Beluga travelled again after dinner to the other side of Isabela to Puerto Moreno.
Chau