“But there’s nothing to do here,” the older traveler said in his heavy Austrian accent. “Exactly, nothing but sitting around at the beach,” came my reply. I had just told him how I ended up extending my stay in Galapagos a full two weeks later than planned, which would bring me up to a month total on the islands.
After the cruise deposited me on Isla Santa Cruz, I took a boat to Isla Isabela. What a great island this turned out to be. My only real complaint involved the food being subpar and overpriced, especially after I was spoiled on the cruise. For over a week I was buying canned tuna and bread to make sandwiches for one of my meals each day, in order to save money.
For my first full day on the island, I went on a volcano hike. Sierra Negra is an active volcano with the 2nd-largest crater in the world. The hike went along the edge of the gigantic crater to Volcano Chico, which was very colorful and had amazing views of the island and ocean. I didn’t know how long the hike would be, and I was used to short island walks on the cruise, so I wore my water shoes without socks. Then I saw the sign at the trailhead and realized I’d be walking 16K (10 miles). Oops! I would have preferred my hiking shoes with hiking socks for this, but it was too late to turn back. My feet didn’t suffer too much, but I was more concerned about putting unnecessary wear & tear on my water shoes…lesson learned. From now on, I need to ask about specifics before I sign up for tours.
Another memorable tour was the trip to Los Tuneles, which were lava tunnel rock formations. They actually took on the form of arches more than tunnels. We were allowed to walk around on the tunnel rocks for a little bit, then we were set loose in the water around them. I snorkeled with sharks, a sea horse, sea lions, and turtles. The sharks were trying to sleep in a small underwater cave that we were able to peak in to.
On several different days, I went to Concha de Perla, which is a naturally formed swimming pool. The water retreats every day and the sea creatures get stuck behind the wall of rock, until the tide returns. Here I snorkeled with turtles, sea lions and a spotted ray.
After 12 relaxing days on Isabela, I decided it was finally time to go to another island: San Cristobal. More on San Cristobal in the next update. For now, I leave you with additional pictures from the cruise – I took about 550 total during that week.
aaron travels the world 