Galapagos - Part 2

The faint smell of puke faded and was replaced by the roar of three 200 horsepower engines cranked up to full throttle. We were on our way.  Our small boat barely had room for the twenty of us as it skimmed across the water toward our next destination, the small town of Puerto Villamil on Isla Isabela in the Galapagos.  Puerto Villamil is a town of less than 2,200 residents, none of who are bankers, so we needed to bring all the cash we would need on the island with us. 

We arrived at the pier after two hours of skipping across the water and were welcomed by playful swimming penguins, lounging sea lions, and sunbathing iguanas.  

Sea lie-ns

We caught a cab to our hostel and settled in to our new home for the next few days.  We didn’t linger long though, as the excitement of a new place and the rumblings of our stomachs got us out of our hostel and onto the unpaved streets.  The sun was beginning to set, so our first stop was the beach.  People were body-boarding in the surf and we climbed a lookout tower to survey our surroundings and watch the sun sink lower in the sky. 

We made out way along the sand, spotting numerous iguanas and crabs, and headed toward the Iguana Point Bar in pursuit of Happy Hour, but something didn't seem quite right.  We made our way over to it only to sadly discover that it had long been closed down.

Apparently iguanas can get pretty rowdy

We wandered around some more and quickly found a different restaurant to silence our rumbling stomachs.

We started the next day with absolutely no plans and took our time making breakfast before venturing out into the world.  The first order of business was to try to book a tour or two for the next couple of days.  We had heard amazing things about the so called Tunnels Tour, but were worried that we would miss it because we had forgotten about the lack of banks on the island and it was not within our cash budget.  But there, in the window of one of the tour agencies we saw our savior, a blue and white Visa sign!  We signed up for the Tunnels Tour, and eagerly handed over our plastic, but there was a slight problem: their Visa machine was not working.  Fortunately, we were directed to a hotel whose Visa machine did work and we charged the money there.  With that taken care of it was time to hit the beach!  Strangely, there was not a single other person on the beach and Kate found the best spot to set up her towel to read in the sun while I bobbed around in the water. 

A couple hours later I was waterlogged and Kate had been fully solar charged, so we made our way back to the hostel for a short siesta.  By late afternoon we were ready to face the world again and started out on a short trek to the tortoise breeding center.  The trail took us over several boardwalks through the local lagoons where we spotted more iguanas, crabs and water fowl. 

As expected there were a plethora of tortoises of all ages at the tortoise breeding center and we had a good time watching them lounge around and climb over each other.

"Munch, munch, apple!"

"Munch, munch, leaves!"

We awoke the next day excited for our Tunnels tour!  They loaded about ten of us onto a boat and we were soon zipping across the water to the tunnels.  As we cruised through the water we were surprised by a ray repeatedly leaping 3 m (10 ft.) straight out of the water!  The guide said that sometimes if they are spooked they will fling themselves high into the air, and that the boat had most likely scared it.  It was a really cool sight. 

Soon after the ray-sighting we arrived at Tunnels, a neat formation on the coast of Isla Isabela where an eruption many years ago formed a network of lava tubes.   (The tubes are formed as the outside of the lava cools giving way to a tube for the hot lava inside to flow through.)  Over time erosion and other volcanic activity caused many of the tubes to collapse leaving the remnants as a system of bridges and short tunnels.  We had a great time snorkeling through the underwater tunnels and we saw some penguins and various sea creatures, including a sea horse.

A tunnel!

Galapagos penguins

After the tunnels, we stopped at another snorkeling area, but this time the focus was on the wildlife instead of the geology.  Here we followed our guide around and were able to find a sea horse, sea turtles, white-tipped reef sharks, and a manta ray before we boarded the boat back to town.

Our final full day in the Galapagos began with a taxi pick-up at our hostel for a trip to see the caldera of Sierra Negra.  Sierra Negra’s claim to fame is that it is the second largest intact caldera in the world with a diameter of 10 km (6.2 mi). The largest is Ngorongoro in Tanzania. After a quick 4 km hike we were standing on the rim looking out across the caldera. The last eruption occurred in 2005 where lava flowed from the north side into the caldera and it was fun imagining what it would have looked like only a mere ten years ago.

Sierra Negra Caldera - left

Sierra Negra Caldera - center

Sierra Negra Caldera - right

We walked along the rim of the caldera for another 2 km before reaching the north side and dropping down to see Volcan Chico.  Here we could walk on the old lava field from its last eruption in 1979.  We admired the fresh lava rock and views of the northern side of Isla Isabela before returning to the trailhead. 

That afternoon upon returning to Puerto Villamil we quickly ventured back out to the beach for some more swimming (me), sunbathing (Kate), and relaxing (both of us).  We grabbed some dinner and turned in early because we had an early morning and full day of travel ahead of us.

4:30 am rolled around quickly and we rolled slowly out of bed.  We caught a cab to the pier, and as the sun was rising embarked on our boat to Puerto Ayora.  We were sad that our journey was over, but also very excited to see our Seattle friends and mountains again.

Bye Galapagos!