Day 325: Isabela Island – Day 1
Our day began with yet another harrowing, 2hr. “ferry” ride, from Santa Cruz to Isla Isabela. The boarding process at the pier was marginally better – since there are twice as many ferries heading toward both San Cristóbal and Isabela at the same time, better organization was a must. This time, each passenger was given a color-coded necklace corresponding to their boat, allowing each operator to find their group more quickly. But we still didn’t leave on time.
Once we reached Isabela, we walked a short 10min along the road to our hotel – Casa de Marita. It was a beautiful white stucco building, framed by tropical plants with a prime, oceanfront location. Lindsay was impressed Igor had found such an awesome hotel for such a cheap price of USD $80/night! We checked in and got our key to our room…which was in the annex…across the street. Well that’s a buzzkill. Don’t get me wrong, the room was fine: quiet, clean, good AC & shower. But no Wifi and no beach.
Whatever – it’s not like we planned to spend much time in our room anyways. Isabela had a lot of attractions to see, so we dropped off our stuff and headed into town to start exploring. We visited a few tour agencies to book day trips for the next few days, then picked up a couple of rental bikes for the afternoon. One of the most popular activities on the island was to visit El Muro de las Lagrimas, or “The Wall of Tears,” – a dark vestige of Ecuadorian history when the island hosted a brutal penitentiary. While the history may be ugly, the trail itself was beautiful and gave us a good work-out and entertainment for the afternoon.
Enjoying the neighborhood and beach in Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island
Marine iguanas crawl all over the sand and rocks on the beach
Igor and Lindsay rent some bikes for the afternoon and venture out of town
Riding 5km to visit the infamous “Wall of Tears”
The Wall of Tears was built by convicts back in the 1950s when Isabela Island was being used as a penal colony by the Ecuadorian government. The purpose of building the wall was simply to give the inmates punishing work to do. It’s no surprise that in the harsh environment, many perished during the hard labor – thus the name of the wall
Hmm…as far as walls go…we’ve seen bigger…
Lindsay huffing and puffing her way up to the viewpoint. From here you can see that the rest of Isabela is nearly uninhabited – nothing but trees as far as the eye can see
View of the coastline of Isabela Island, with Puerto Villamil far away in the distance
A Giant Tortoise slowly walks across our bike path as we head back to town, passing through a “poison apple” grove and some tall Prickly Pear Catrus Trees
The bike trail has many scenic spots to turn off: tranquil lagoons and a beachfront cemetary
Pelicans hide in the branches of mangrove trees growing along the beach
Candelabra Cactus frame a peaceful lagoon during the Golden Hour
So many marine iguanas! These guys are lying all over the trail and sneeze salty loogies at our feet as we walk by
Sunset over the lagoon on Isabela Island
Taking a moment to enjoy the sunset
In consideration of our fellow tourists, we returned to our annex hotel room to shower and change before dinner. We were a little apprehensive about the cost of food – up until now we’ve tried to cook all of our meals to save money (Galápagos is insanely expensive!), but we finally found ourselves in a hotel with no self-service kitchen option. The street fair from the night before was surprisingly well-priced, so we hoped we could keep to the same budget.
Guys, I don’t know why, but Isabela has really cheap dinner options! Almost every restaurant along the main street in town offered a 3-course dinner for USD $7pp! Granted, “dessert” was usually a small bowl of fruit or Jell-O, but at least we weren’t hungry!
Restaurant after restaurant offer the same exact menu – even though there isn’t much variety, a 3-course meal for USD $7 is a deal!
We are shocked when the waitress refuses to sell Igor a beer with his dinner – apparently all restaurants are required to go dry the weekend before the elections! We notice a few of the pricer places around town breaking this rule, but we decide to stick to juice for the time being
Walking by the church after dinner – looks like your average Catholic church at first glance…
…however, the inside of the Puerto Villamil Church has a very tropical personality!