GALAPAGOS PART II - ISABELA: THE ISLAND FULL OF SURPRISES
After having explored the island of Santa Cruz, we decided to spend a couple of days on Isabela, the least populated and Western-most of the three inhabited islands, as we were told that the wildlife there is phenomenal. We did indeed see lots of species up close, or ones that would otherwise only be visible on cruises, and some amazing landscapes - but that wasn't the only surprise Isabela had in store for us! This prompted the idea to summarise the learnings from each location at the end of each of blog post - who knows it might turn out to be useful in the future!
Transportation between the islands is by a 2-2.5 hour speedboat ride, with an option to leave at 07:00 or 14:00 (the earlier crossing being easier on the stomach both due to calmer seas and not having had time to eat breakfast yet). So we were up at (what felt like) the crack of dawn, joining a large number of sleepy tourists at the dock, waiting to board Destiny. Unfortunately the travel agents had sold more tickets than Destiny's maximum capacity (20 people), so we were destined to wait around while they located another boat for the remaining passengers (credit due to the captain for refusing to overload the boat though!). Despite there usually being a number of upset stomachs on the journey (evidenced by the fact that the skipper handed out little black plastic bags as we boarded the ship), we managed to avoid revisiting our breakfast in both directions, although the journey felt very long!
Learning 1: Even iron stomachs can be challenged by the open-sea crossing between the islands. TOP TIP: Avoid breakfast and come prepared with anti-seasickness tablets (one of the best investments of $0.10 per tablet you will ever make).
Arriving in Isabela, we were surprised by the various wildlife visible from the harbour - we later went on a harbour-tour to be able to appreciate it better! After just 5 minutes from the dock by boat, you can see a colonies of penguins, blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, as well as the usual crowd of sea lions and iguanas. Seeing so many different animals in one place was quite unique (especially the penguins and the boobies), since you usually have to go on whole-day trips (for significantly more money) to see them individually - although the colonies there tend to be a bit bigger. Unfortunately, we missed out on the area's resident hammerhead shark, as he had temporarily abandoned the area due to the warmer water temperature caused by this year's El Nino cycle.
There is a little lagoon, "Concha Perla", where we were lucky enough to be able to swim with 2 sea lions - they are incredibly playful around people and very good swimmers. Unfortunately I left my prescription snorkeling mask on the beach by accident, and it was gone by the time I returned 2 hours later. Now how to get a replacement in Peru, so I can go snorkeling / diving when we get to Colombia...
Learning 2: If you're lucky, water-resistant watches can survive snorkeling sessions if you forget to take them off. However snorkeling masks won't survive being left on the beach. I hope its happy new owner is a Left: -5.5 Right: -5.5 short-sighted sea lion, who is the talk of the town with his new mask!
The next surprise waiting for us on Isabela was that it was much, much less developed than Santa Cruz. When we first arrived, the lack of paved roads had a romantic touch to it; however we started to get a little worried when we found out that not only did they not have ATMs (which we had learned about by accident just before departing with the ferry), but they didn't really have the infrastructure to accept debit cards either (only in a few places and for a hefty 22% surcharge). Luckily we had just enough cash with us to last the 3 days we had planned to stay, but we had to economise a little (Hello set menus and self-made spagetti with tomato sauce and no salt, pepper or any spices!) and this also eliminated the possibility of us staying any more days. :) This was compounded by the fact that the potable water available in the hostel tasted quite stale, and bottled water was only available in 0.5 and 1 liter bottles (although the 1 liter bottles quickly ran out after the 1st day) and paying $1 for half a liter of water quickly adds up!
Learning 3: Cash is king! Cash is king! Cash is king! If there is any doubt, never rely on a town/city having ATMs in the middle of the ocean!
After going through literally every single shop, we found out thst the reason for the shortage of goods was that the island hadn't been resupplied since December (hence the old taste of the water at the hostel...). The logistics chain is quite complicated: goods are shipped over 5 days from Guayaquil on the mainland to the deep water dock at Baltra island (where the main airport - but nothing else - is located), and the number of ships servicing the island has been reduced from four to a single ship for some reason. After being unloaded, containers are transported from Baltra island across a small strait to Santa Cruz island, and across the island by truck to the main city. Anything going to one of the other islands is then loaded on to a dingy item by item for onward transportation, and eventually makes it to the stores. This leads to much higher costs / prices and frequent shortages as everything is imported with the exception of pineapples, bananas, peppers and of course fish. Our tour guide told us that she recently purchased a canister of cooking gas for $80 (normal price $5)!
Learning 4: Distance from civilisation is strongly correlated with the availability, quality and price of food, water and other luxury items.
The advantage of it being a little town was that it was relatively easy to meet the people you had befriended over the shared trauma of the speedboat crossing, as they would inevitably gather for lunch at one of the 5 restaurants on the main square. Meals cost twice as much as on Santa Cruz for smaller portions, and were quite unimaginative... For our last dinner on the island (shame on us) we decided to go for a pizza (in one of the few places that still had ingredients to make one), which was surprisingly good! We were a bit ashamed that we had only lasted 11 days in South America without resorting to this backpacker staple, but we couldn't stand the thought of another mini piece of fish with some rice and soggy fries.
One of the funny things we knew to expect in South America was how the missionaries had adapted the Christian faith to the local culture to make it more acceptable – leading to artwork that is very unusual to the Western eye. The church altar on Isabela is a prime example of this, with Jesus surrounded by palm trees, and decidedly un-Levantine sea lions, iguanas and blue-footed boobies. Unfortunately, we don’t have a picture to share though as we onsistently forgot our camera in the hostel when we bypassed this church…
The final activity that we participated in on the island was a volcano tour of the world’s largest basalt caldera. We chose the shorter option, which was ‘only’ 5 hours – for the longer, 7-hour, tour you need to book in advance as it is apparently considerably less popular… We were lucky with the weather and were covered in clouds all the way up, with an occasional spell of drizzling rain, which kept the temperature manageable. This also prevented us from seeing any of the stunning views, but the guide promised us that the visibility would be much better in the afternoon on the way back. I’m not sure how much of that was experience vs. trying of calm tourists, but he was right. Also, despite the constant clouds and fog, the sun did have quite a bit of strength as we realized later that day! Since then Renata is “wearing” a pair of white shorts on her legs on the area that was covered hence the sun could not burn.
We had some amazing views of different types of lava flows, the most recent of which was from 2005. As this was a shield volcano, the lava just starts flowing from the usual crack in the caldera, as opposed to blowing half the mountain off – so you needn’t worry about us being caught in the explosion! We were told about the two types of cooled lava present: “aa” lava, named by Hawaiians after the sound people made when walking barefoot on the sharp edges; and tongue lava which is as smooth as your tongue. It was fascinating to hear the guide ‘read’ the different colours of the lava: yellow means high concentrations of Sulphur, and the redder the flows are, the old the flow is since the iron in it starts to rust with exposure to the elements.
All in all, we had a very adventurous trip to Isabela, with lots of surprises – some good, some less so; but the scenery and the closeness of the animals made it all worthwhile! I can understand why it has become the third must-see island on the Galapagos over the past 10 years (tourists started coming to see the volcano eruption in 2005), and it would be interesting to see how it continues to develop over the next 10 years and whether all the animals will still be visible so close to the town!