More Isabela – Sierra Negra Volcano

We’ve seen a few volcanoes since we’ve been traveling.  From hiking up one in St. Eustatia, playing in the mud in the Cold Soufriere in Dominica, sailing over the Kick’em Jenny underwater volcano between Grenada and Carriacou (OK, we didn’t see that one), the Grand Etang in Grenada, sailing by Montserrat, and of course visiting the volcano lake on San Cristobal.  We had a discussion after this tour and couldn’t exactly agree how many we’d seen and walked around.  The volcanoes are a prominent feature of the Galápagos and we couldn’t pass on seeing the Sierra Negra Volcano.

While checking in to the available tours on Isabela we spoke with some agents about the Sierra Negra mountain tour.  We’d hoped for the “horse version” we’d read about, where part of the hike in is done on horseback followed by a walk in for the last, more rugged parts of the journey.  Also we’d read that depending on the weather and season it might be rainy, muddy, and have not much visibility.  The agency we first spoke with told us that horse tours were not running as it was too muddy.  The tour consisted of a bus ride to the head of the trail then an eight kilometer (not quite five mile) hike in to the caldera and to the Volcan Chico.

No horses were harmed in the production of this blog post, though a lot of socks got dirty.

There was some trepidation about this.  It seemed like the risk for a muddy, long sloppy hot hike was huge – which would only be worse if we got there and couldn’t actually see anything.  But groups were going so we signed up and were committed.

The day of hike dawned with light rain and cloud cover.  Not good for walking.  Maybe they’ll cancel?  We were concerned because it had been raining a lot and the town had a foot of water in some of the streets.  No dice, the bus was waiting for us at the dock…off we go, picking our way through the streets awash with rain water.

The drive up in the bus was an education.  In other posts I’ve talked about how stratified the Galápagos islands are in their ecosystems as you move from the coast to the highlands.  Nothing like a bus trip starting in the lava strewn lowlands and taking you through lush highlands, past farms and jungles to drive the point home.  As we got higher it got colder…actually cold sitting in an open bus.  This actually isn’t a bad thing as I’d expected to sweat out about a gallon on this 16 KM trek.

The Walk Up

We’ve done this before, right?  We’re prepared…we’ve got hiking boots or sturdy shoes, bug spray, water.  The day was overcast and a light rain was falling.  This made the trip a little wet.

The initial path was grassy but quickly switched to dirt, rocks and mud with some standing and running water from the rain.  But it was well packed below the trail and the mud wasn’t deep.  But it was slippery, I know wearing my “waffle stompers” saved me a couple of face plants.  A few people walking behind us were not so lucky, one pair of young women reached the top looking like they’d just gotten out of a mud wrestling pit.

With the light misting rain it was cool and comfortable walking, and most of the vertical ascent was made in the bus.  Our only real concern was the fog; as we climbed we were in the clouds and could barely see 50 yards past the edge of the path.  Fortunately by the time we reached the rim of the caldera this all changed, with a surprising rapidity the go lifted unveiling the stunning views of the surrounding lowlands.

Size Matters

The guides and the tour agents describe the Sierra Negra volcano as the “second largest” in the world.  I’m not sure by what measure – the caldera size, the cone size?  Either way it is hard to validate what they were talking about…but it’s not important.

This is one big volcano.

The Caldera is 10 km across (six miles) at its widest point and the far rim vanished into fog and clouds on this day.  The bottom of the caldera looks like a smoking black ruin.  I was poetically reminded of Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings crossing the plains for Gorgoroth in Mordor…an uninviting black, fume filled waste of razor sharp rocks and rubble.  Without all the armies of orcs  of course.  I was happy to be up on the rim with sunlight, clean air and green plants.

Sierra Negra last erupted in 2005, so when I say “smoking” and “fume filled” I am not referring to the clouds we were walking in.  This is smoke coming from the volcano itself which is quite alive and active.  The eruption left a large area on one side of the volcano almost sterilized.  Lava flowed down one side of the volcano and left the far edge pretty much alone; it remains covered in lush vegetation.

Volcan Chico

The 2005 eruption spilled down one side of the volcano and out some fissures on the North side of the volcano.  The Volcan Chico fissure formed a small cone on the side of the caldera amidst the ruin from the other lava flows.

The landscape here is surreal, after the lush foliage of the walk up the ground changes rapidly to mostly uncovered stone with sparse and scrawny growth.  There were several flows of different ages in this area and they can be easily differentiated by the color of the rock.  The older – as in thousands of years older – flows are dark and the newer flows from 2005 are red.  Different colors abound though and there is a stark beauty in this vast blasted landscape.  From the top you can see how the lava flowed down miles all the way to the sea.

You really want to click this one to make it big since it is a large panorama of the volcano down to the sea.

Volcan Chico is a fissure that has formed up into what looks like a small volcanic cone.  I’m no geologist, I don’t know if it is a separate volcano or just part of the big one, but it is sort of a scary looking hole that looks like it takes you someplace you down want to crawl into!

The Volcan Chico “crater”

The Volcan Chico are is a beautiful view of the surrounding country side.  It is a mix of verdant greens and laval blacks.  Given time the plan life will take over again the way it did on the South side but this is an active volcano still.  It may not have the patience for that.

The walk back went a lot faster than the walk up, but everyone was more tired and there seemed to be a lot more slipping and sliding going on.  But we all made it the whole 16 km and our group of four held our own well.

My words can’t do as well as the pictures so I’ll leave you with another gallery.  I’ll let you decide if we climbed one volcano or two!

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