The Galapagos are made up of many
islands, but just four big ones. Why did
we choose to go to Isabela, the biggest of the islands? We had read that on Isabela you can see everything
here that you can see on the other islands.
Isabela has less people on it, about 1500 population. It is a quiet
laid-back island with no city atmosphere, and has the best anchorage apparently and the
officials are supposedly a bit better to deal with. Also we hope to avoid the ARC rally here..
The anchorage is fairly peaceful, you don't have tour boats roaring
through it constantly. There are tour
boats around but they are off to the side because of the nature of the
anchorage, and you seldom get them through the anchorage, just the small boats
come through occasionally, depending on
the tide height. Isabela island is about
60 miles long and sits right on the Equator and our anchorage is at the South
end of island or about 40 miles South of equator.
The first thing we did here was explore the small town about a 15 minute
walk from our dinghy dock. The dinghy
dock behind the large main dock often has sea lions on it, and on the way in if
the tide is down you can see blue footed boobies and the occasional Penguin. Also you may see a manta ray or a turtle as
well on the way in. The path from dinghy
dock has lots of the black iguana's along it, some up to 3ft long.
A couple days later we took a taxi for $10 up the coastal road to its
end at the 'wall of tears' built by prisoners.
Here there is a short steep hike up to the top of a hill for a great
view. Then we walked the 7 km back to
town, there was a number of short side excursions off the road you could take
to different beaches and lagoons and see birds.
We also saw lots of large land tortoises along the way. We were nice and tired when we got back,
party because of the heat and mostly because our legs had again got out of
shape after 11days at sea. It is nice
and cool near the water but inland it is very hot.
A couple days later after we were feeling a bit fitter, we booked a hike
up a volcano. The hike costs $30 dollars
each which includes the 45 min ride up and a tiny lunch. It is a 16km round trip hike that takes you
up along the slopes of the volcano to to some fantastic views of the huge
crater and then the trail takes you along long lava tubes and caverns created
by the molten lava. The volcano area is
often socked it and gets more rain, so our views were sporadic as the clouds
came and went. We had a bit of light
rain off and on and it was fairly cool out.
We also saw some steam vents that are hot if you put your hands in them. The included lunch was nothing much,
recommend you bring some of your own food and water. It was interesting talking to some of the
land tourists on the hike, some from Equador, Italy, Austria and one Canadian
girl.
Another day I replaced some of the rusty galvanized turnbuckles on our
rigging. I had bought some replacements for $18.00 each just before we left
Panama.
Today we did the "tunnels" snorkelling trip for $70 each.
It is a 45 minute hi-speed boat ride up the coast to an area where the
volcanic lava had flowed into the sea and there is many arches, tunnels and channels that our boat could work its way up. Then the boat tied up to a rock and we walked
around on the arches and rock. We could
see lots of large turtles and fish swimming in the channels. All very impressive. Then we went to a couple
of different snorkelling places. Some people who could dive down saw seahorses.
Lunch again was a laugh, one apple and one tetra pack of juice was lunch.
People were not too happy, we had brought some of our own food so were
okay.
There is no apparent culture on island, it is just a tourist place. Not much money spent on place, the roads are
still mostly unpaved and dusty. There
is now 18 ARC boats here from the world rally.
They came in a few days ago and have plugged up the anchorage and
overwhelmed the place, so much for our peace and quiet. We thought they were just going to the other
2 islands which was one of the reasons we came here.
One day we were rowing in to shore and there was some surf curling in
the shallow waters of low tide. We
watched a sea lion body surfing. He
would swim around and surf the wave, then go around and out and do it again and
again. I guess they like to have fun to.
We rented a couple of nice bikes for $2.00 a hour and did the trip up to
the weeping wall again for some scenic exercise. Came back hot and sweaty.
We will probably stay here another 6 to 8 days, that is until near the
end of February and then head off to the Marquesas 3000 miles away.
INFO
-JC organized a water delivery to the
dock for the 3 yachts now here. We bought 25 gallons for $1.50 every 5 gallons.
There is a huge tank on back of a pickup truck with a hose.
-There is some garbage cans near dinghy
dock that we use. Mention this because I read on one of the sites you have to
keep all your garbage on boat.
-You can also have diesel delivered to
dock. JC said he could get it for $4
a
gallon.
-There is always a few sea lions on the
dinghy dock, but we have never seen them get in the dinghies. They do get on some of the small boats that
never move. One yacht with a swim platform at stern would have a sea lion there
occasionally. The sea lions here are
very small. The sea lions we have back
home are 3 times the size of the ones here.
There are lots of fly's here during the day on the boat, but they don't
bite and they disappear at night. The
small town surprisingly has no paved roads and occasionally you have a dust
cloud around you when a truck goes by.
At least there is not a lot of traffic.
Not sure what they do with all $100 park fee they collect from every
single tourist who comes to the
Galapagos, you see little sign of it being spent here.
After you stop thinking about how you have been robbed of $700 (twice as
much as the next most expensive place in the world) for the right to stay for a
meagre 20 days, you see that the island is a nice quiet pleasant place to stay.
Though it's certainly not in the league of places like Reunion and Rodrigues
islands or a number of other places we have visited.
-
The grocery stores have a lot more produce that we had been lead to
believe, and it comes and goes. The
canned goods selection is very poor, a few canned veggies and few other
things. No baked beans! Also all expensive. Though occasionally you are surprised by some
lower prices. Where we sometimes do
internet I get a juice for a $1.
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