Galapagos - Isabela

Iguanas to the left of me, Boobies to the right...

Galapagos Islands

Wreck Bay, San Cristobal to Puerto Vilamil, Isabela

​​From Wreck Bay in San Cristobal island we sailed the 83nm to our next stop, the western most and largest island of Isabela. This made for a very long day trip, by-passing Santa Cruz. We will back track to Santa Cruz to do our provisioning and check out (which can’t be done on Isabela). Lifted the anchor just before 6am to discover that our anchor chain counter had stopped working. Seems that our quick-fix, cheap and nasty magnet has rusted away and destroyed the sensor. We have a work around though, which is a piece of electrical tape on the windlass. I have to count the number of turns, each of which is 40cm… I am hoping the next anchorages are not too deep, as I imagine becoming hypnotized, very dizzy or something weird like that.

Late arrival at Isabela

​We had enough breeze to put the main up and unfurl the gennaker and we were able to sail a lot of the way. As the breeze shifted onto the nose we unfurled the genoa and could come up a bit. Eventually though it was too high and we had to stick the motors on and push into it. As night fell and I came on watch about 7pm it started raining. We had squalls on and off for the rest of the evening and it was quite cool. The bimini has started leaking and so I put some plastic sheet under the frame. We have a hard top bimini on our wish list for when we return. There is a reasonable amount of light despite the cloud, as it is a full moon. I started to see the outline of the a few of the smaller islands and rocks in the gloom and then some lights from the shore around 10ish. We ended up anchoring at Puerto Vilamil, which is on the south east coast of the J-shaped island of Isabela, at about 11:40pm. There are 4 other yachts here, all monos and we set to the west of them, a little bit exposed to the swell. It’s quite shallow at 3m and of course tidal.

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Puerto Vilamil Anchorage - a bit of weather coming

Even though we have only come 80 odd nm to another island in the same group, in the same country, we have to do a formal, local check-in process. Manuel our agent, came over at 8:30am the next morning with the Port Captain for our local check in. It’s much easier than the initial check in, just filled in a few self-reported details in a ledger which the skipper signed and stamped. Wind has gotten up significantly and we are getting 21Kts from 230 degrees. It’s very bouncy in the anchorage and we decide rest up and get settled in before going ashore. After the onslaught of seal invaders at San Cristobal we still have our defences in place, but there are not as many seals here. We just had one come by and have a little sleep on our transom for a bit.

Downtown Puerto Vilamil

Flat shelled mountain tortoise

Isabela is the largest island in the Galapagos group, famous for its many volcanos. We are told the most recent eruption was only a couple of weeks ago! Ahh ok. The small population lives mainly around the town and few of the roads are paved. The hinterland is thick with vegetation and barely habitable.
 
Unlike San Cristobal, you can actually take your dinghy ashore and there is a dinghy dock, although it’s not much chop. We hit a couple of rocks on the way and taking a chunk out of the prop on the way in, as we didn’t keep a wide enough berth as advised. The dinghy dock is on a floating pontoon that the commercial boats and water taxis use for pick up and drop of. We only take the dinghy ashore once, next time its water taxis! Ashore we can see a few seals on the pier, but not as many as San Cristobal. The town is pretty basic but there are quite a few cafes and hostels as well as souvenir shops and tour booking offices. There is a church with some lovely painted scences with saints watching over the native fauna. We walk up to the obligatory tortoise sanctuary, completely missing the path through the wetlands and walking along the road instead. It’s a small sanctuary and we are obliged to take a guided tour at $10, but we learn a few new interesting facts. They feed the tortoises 3 times per week on a plant called Elephant Ear, which is close enough to cactus that they would normally eat. Luckily this is a feeding day so they are a more active than usual. There are tortoises of varying ages as well as some mature ones from the mountains of Isabela. The mountain tortoises were rescued when there was an eruption, and a couple of them bear the scars from burning lava that must have hit them during the eruption. Their shells are much flatter than the other lowland tortoises and they their necks are shorter, as they feed mainly on the lower, mountain vegetation. The mountain area of Isabela is quite rugged and inhospitable so finding the tortoises after the eruption was challenging, then they had to be sedated for the trip by helicopter to a waiting boat and finally by road to the sanctuary. They will eventually be released back to the same place, a costly and onerous undertaking! Further up the road there is a small lagoon where there are some flamingos, well four to be exact, and they dutifully posed for photos. Back in town we have lunch at Cesar’s which was really good value, 3 course menu dias for $8.

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Los Tunels

The highlight of our time in Isabela was a small boat tour of the site called Los Tuneles, which is west of our anchorage along the southern coastline of Isabela. There are quite a number of small boat tours departing around the same time to different destinations and the port police are making a big show of regulation, checking everyone has a life jacket on, taking pictures etc. It’s a small power boat, maximum 10 people, but with big, outboard engines and we have the company owner on board, as well as a guide and skipper. There is quite a swell running from the west, so we are bouncing into it. Our first “stop” is Union Rock which is a large vertical volcanic rock sticking out of nowhere. There used to be more of these rocks but as water level rises, and they erode away, they disappear. There are some black footed or Nazcar Boobies here and one, lone blue-footed one. We learn that the foot colour is due to their diet. Red-footed boobies have a diet of squid, blue foots eat Sardines and black foot eat pelagic fish. The populations don’t compete with each other for food. Our skipper slows down as he spots an enormous Manta Ray, it must have been the size of the boat! We watch it swimming around for a while before continuing on. We arrive at Los Tunels and it is like another world – we enter a natural lagoon which is very protected from the swell. There are lots of low, black lava rocks in the water and some of them form tunnels and archways. There are some tall, skinny cacti on some of them. We motor around them, its like an aquatic, lunar landscape, with a bit of desert-like vegetation, before tying the boat up to a rock and walking ashore.

You put your left foot in...

Los Tunels was formed during the last ice age when the water level was much lower. Isabela is a highly volcanic island with several volcanos, a couple of which are still active. The lava flows dried on the outside due to the cold, and underneath the lava kept flowing out, eventually leaving hollow tubes as it ran out. When the sea level rose the water could come in, creating this unique habitat. I was really excited to see the small colonies of the Blue-Footed Boobie and it is mating time so they are doing the boobie dance. Its amazing to see it. The male lifts his feet, marching up and down on the spot and also raises his tail in a polite but evocative curtsey. The male and female clash beaks and sometimes he will pick up a small stone and offer it as a gift or just move it around. He has to work pretty hard, dancing at least twice a day for up to 1 hour at a time. He also has to build a nest, so even though he might win over a mate with his fancy footwork, once she gets to the nest she may be disappointed and give him the flick!

We can see that some of the birds have brighter blue feet, apparently this means they are getting more sardines, and are better at fishing. Males with bluer feet are more attractive to the females.

We also go snorkeling here with our guide, which is weird because the water is not that clear and not all that warm either, even though I hired a wetsuit this time. Still there is a lot of sealife, including large turtles who are oblivious to us. We also see small white-tip reef sharks sleeping in the mangroves and caves, and a few rays cruising around as well. Our guide finds a small seahorse, sleeping attached to something on the bottom. It’s a pain snorkeling with such a large group as everyone is flapping around, scaring off the fish and one guy with a life-ring keeps banging into everyone. The guide takes a lot of photos which is good as my GoPro wasn’t charged and I missed a lot of stuff being at the back of the pushy group. We have a bite to eat on board as we head back to town, and the trip back is a lot quicker with the wind and swell behind us.

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​The Wall of Tears / Muro de Las Lagrimas

We hired push bikes for the day and rode a well maintained coastal trail up to the Wall of Tears, stopping to look at some wetlands along the way. Passed one giant tortoise crossing the road, why?! Ask the chicken! The Wall of Tears was constructed by prisoners as a bit of a pointless, hard labour exercise. It’s quite a substantial dry stone wall but it serves no function whatsoever and is just in the middle of nowhere.  Needless to say many suffered and died in the process, and that may have been the objective. Its wickedly hot here now and in the full sun, breaking rocks would have been brutal. Although the ride was fairly flat there were a few sections we had to pedal hard to get up and over, and let’s just say our butts are not really cycle-fit! We made a few stops on the way back checking some beaches, white sand contrasts with the with the black lava rocks that the marine iguanas frequent. We see a couple of them fighting in the sand  (or maybe they were courting – where is David Attenborough when you need him?!) We are yet to see them actually swimming so Keith tries to encourage one into the water, unsuccessfully. Well that wildlife experience will have to wait until we get to our next and final stop at the island of Santa Cruz.