Isla Isabella 2: Volcanoes & the Wall of Tears

This follows on from the previous blog. https://kiwiflyingfish.com/2024/05/isla-isabela-1-puerto-villamil-tintoreras/ and is about a tour that was really a Trialthalon: Walking, Cycling, Walking and Beer.

Day 2 Volcanoes: Sierra Negra

The next day we decided to go on the volcano tour. On the jetty at 0710 for a departure at 0730. We had organised bikes the night before with the Bike and Surf shop. The owners Junior and Emilie were very helpful and our agent had agreed to take the bikes up while we went on the tour bus.

We arrived at the top with no sign of the agent or the bikes. The guide was ready to depart and said they would be there when we got back. We set off from the entrance to the national park. The first animals we came across were cows. The local farms think it is good grazing so they just let them wander into the park. There are fines but they are never issued!

Background

Around 30 years ago the park removed around 100,000 feral goats donkeys and other beasties off the island. They used NZ hunters with helicopters, followed on the ground with dogs. Given the chequered history of these islands, most of the native vegetation has been destroyed by pests, fire, and eruptions. As you can imagine vegetation was mostly introduced and very scrappy. There are lots of guava trees interspersed with ladder and bracken ferns, the odd tree daisy, and a few natives. This was a disappointment as we were anticipating more native trees and birds.

The Sierra Negra volcano is 1138m asl, is 700,00 years old, and has had 13 eruptions, the last three being in 1979, 2005, and 2018. The tour takes 3 hours over 16km. Because I had hurt my foot and thought I would only do the first hour. We all thought the trek went around the volcano cone but halfway up we discovered that these days it only goes out past the first caldera, onto the second cone, and then back. When we discovered the caldera is 9km by 7km we realised it would have been more than 16km around!

A Foggy Start

The day started foggy on the South side, which is not unusual. It is called the “garúa” that hangs in the air and clings in droplets to the sides of volcanoes. By the time we had done 8km, it had still not cleared. We got to the end of the first volcano then it was downhill to the second larva field. I pulled out and turned back. The boys continued.

When I turned back and tried to take some more photos through the mist of the 110m deep main caldera. The sides are very steep and the caldera itself is 9 x 7.4km across.

At the end of the walk, I took my bike and rode down to the town. It was a very peaceful ride with no boys, no pressure, and few vehicles. The top section is steep and windy with farms on the sides that look well kept, and tidy. There are colourful hedges along the roadside.

The middle section of the ride is fairly flat through long larva fields. The only thing of real items to note about the roads were that they seem to drive faster than the other islands and maybe becasue of this there were wa large number of dead birds on the roads, from Mango finches to Larva herons. There was also far more rubbish on the roadsides in Isabela than the other islands we had been to. At the end of this 24km ride, I was glad to get off the bike and have lunch.

Villamil Beach and Sites

After lunch, I had still not heard from the boys so I decided to set off down the beach to look at the far end.

Flamingos

The first tourist site I came across was the flamingo viewing platform at the end of town on the edge of a saltwater pool in the mangroves. At first sight, they looked artificial. they were so pink and clean and all around them was a shallow muddy pond. The four I saw were all sleeping on one leg and occasionally one might move and do some preening – pick up a mouthful of water and spray it over its back and appear to clean.

The only other bird I saw on the pond was a Pintail.

I decided to continue along the beach to the national park at the far end. The beach has beautiful fine white sand and a huge surf. When you reach the national park boundary the ranger takes your name and then you can cycle on the well-formed track and look at the beaches, larva tunnel, mangroves, sulphur lake, and Wall of Tears.

Beachside Cycle Trail

Lava Tunnel

This lava tunnel is very long as it starts up in the bush with a hole( part of the collapsed roof) then continues into the sea. You can climb down into the tunnel and inside or walk along the top. It is fascinating in how round it is, – just like a pipe, but cracked along the top

Playa del Armour

A lovely small beach surrounded by a lava wall. Ideal for kids and the rocks are covered in marine iguanas. All sunning themselves and ignoring the photographers and visitors.

After I had had a swim I decided that I just wanted to get back to the yacht and have a rest. I had still not heard from the boys so I cycled back into town. Dropped the bike off, walked to the wharf and caught a water taxi back to the yacht. I had a lovely swim and laid down in the cool for a siesta. Just before I finally fell asleep I heard from Hew. They were in a bar on the beach having lunch. All feeling tired and in need of rehydration. The rest is their story.

The Wayward Wanderers

Once you go downhill you have to come up

From the top of the hill at about 100m we walked to the North side of the mountain and eventually out onto a fairly recent lava field. The most recent eruption was in 2018 which lasted about 2 months via 6 different fissure zones. Some of the larva flows merged and ended up in the waters of Elizabeth Bay on the north side. We thought of White Island but there was no such doubt with our guide. He assured us that eruptions only happened on the northern side of the island and the south where the town is will remain untouched. We remain, unbelievers, as the town was built on the edge of a lava field.

2018 Lava Flow ot the North

Once out of the treeline, the weather cleared and we had great views to the north where most of the area is out of bounds and home to land iguanas and other native species. Looking down the lava flows you could see the different eruption flows and small patches of surviving vegetation on ridges.

With views out to sea there was very little evidence of any wind to aid our sailing with departure planned for a few days ahead.

Return to the Top

After peering down various dormant fumaroles and fissures of the northern larva flow we returned to the top of the hill for lunch where we could now see down into the crater.

Possibly a fellow kiwi carried these to the top of the hill….

Downhill

The walk back to the car park the guide pointed out various animals along the way, including those that should not have been there like a feral cat, a rooster, cows etc.

When we got to the end of the track and mounted up our bicycles we were reminded that our knees and other joints no longer enjoy walking downhill as they once did. As we descend into the cloud you are reminded how much the vegetation and wildlife depend on the condensation collected from the clouds to sustain life as rainfall levels are very low. A sophisticated ecosystem with lichen and mosses hanging from the trees to collect water that then dripped onto the ground. This was very evident under the bigger native trees with a substantial canopy providing a noticeably damp area underneath.

The Cycle Down

The bicycle hire shop had repeatedly warned us about the steep descent and slippery roads and to be careful. The local scotch mist, Garua, had thickened since earlier and raincoats were the order of the day as it was noticeably damp and much cooler. Each of our bikes was named but Geordie felt he needed an extra hint about the side of the road he should be on here.

The road was damp with patches of cow and horse poo to keep us on our toes for the first 5-6km as we negotiated the steeper windy section. To add to the adventure horses and cattle appeared out of the mist from time to time, much less concerned than us

The trip down to the flats took as through an area of cultivated land with plantations of bananas, plantain and cassava being grown in rich red fertile volcanic soil. Completely different to the other side of the island.

Fencing and Larva Flats

An interesting feature of the Galapagos has been the local approach to fencing and fence posts. Most fence lines use fresh tree branches as posts which generally sprout and start to grow. This grow your own fence post seems very sustainable but does come at the cost of having to trim the “post”on a regular basis. Barbed wire remains the other component of the fence stapled to the tree posts. These would not win an award at the field day fencing competition but are very effective on land with scarce resources.

Once down on the flats the landscape reverted to lava fields with scrubby sparse vegetation and our glorious downhill cycle became a bit of a grind for the final few kilometers. Isabela has noticably more rubbish lying around than the other islands reinforcing our feeling the island population is more focused on the tourist dollar rather than conservation.

Rehydration

After a 17km walk and a 25km cycle a refreshment stop was necessary to rehydrate and contemplate the next step of our tryathalon. One option was to complete the swim leg out to the boat the consensus was we were a little tired for that. However after the restorative powers of discounted beers Craig suggested a quick ride out to the Wall of Tears, a short 6km ride away along the foreshore before and then an afternoon siesta back on the boat.

How foolish were we, riding bicycles in soft sand is very difficult and the Wall of Tears we learned from exeprience is 60m above sea level. 6 short kilometers turned into nearly an hour of pushing bicycles through sand and struggling up hills to get there. Graeme nearly collapsed and Hew was getting wobbly, Craig as the youngest claimed he was fine!!

Wall of tears

Between 1946 and 1959 Isabela was a penal colony with a reputation for the abuse of power and the death of many prisoners. The only remaining evidence is the “Wall of Tears” a wall built to keep the prisoners occupied but for no other reason. At around 60 metres long and 10 high in places it is a big structure.

It remains a monument to mans inhumanity to man.

Beer Burgers and Bed

The cycle back to a bar was much easier, cycling downhill always is. After returning the bikes we were buggered so the only things remaining were beer, burgers and bed. Geordie finally turned up, we had lost him earlier in the day, a fairly commmon occurence. He had been in search of Flamingos as he had never seen one, had he been with us in the bar we could have pointed a pair out as they flew past.

A long day was completed walking back to the pier and getting the locals there to find the water taxi man to take us home. The water taxis only operate on Isabela until 9pm and it was after 8.30pm.

Geordie & Birds

Geordie spent considerable time chasing the birds on the trip – mostly the feathered kind. His photos needed a section devoted just to these and the time he put into getting the right photo has resulted in some spectacular shots.

As you can see from the last photo he often got back late, especially on the last night when the bike shop was texting me trying to find him, and their bike and we knew he was getting close to missing the water taxi shut-off time. As luck would have it he had managed to get a lift with the navy returning to their supply ship anchored in the bay. He was lucky to get any dinner!