There simply can not be enough gushing about Isla Isabela in the Galápagos.  It is our favorite island of those we visited in the archipelago, and perhaps one of our favorite locations that we’ve visited cruising to date.  It is THAT cool.

Of the three islands we visited Isabela is the least built up.  There are fewer stores, the town is smaller, the roads are all sand.  It is also the largest island in the Galápagos with some of the most biodiversity.

Arriving in Port Vilamil you are greeted by loads of blue footed boobies on the

Penguins around the dinghy dock.

small rocky islands that dot the harbor.  And penguins!  The Galápagos has it’s own species of endemic penguin and you can find them swimming right around the boat!  Sea lions roam the harbor, though not in the numbers that we saw in San Cristobal they are still a common sight among the boats.

The Town and Harbor

For the first time since arriving in the Galápagos we had to rig up our dinghy and use it.  Neither of the other islands had decent dinghy docks and cruisers relied heavily on water taxis.  Water taxis were occasionally seen here but it wasn’t clear how to even hire one since many of them did not carry radios.

Simply getting to town was a mini wildlife adventure every time.  The dinghy dock attaches to a nice shaded platform with park benches under it where one could sit and wait and look over the harbor.  If, of course, the park benches were not entirely covered with sea lions which was almost always the case!

How very kind of the humans to make a shady sleeping spot for us!

The sea lions liked the dinghy dock as well, and it was not unheard of to have to step around or over one or to need to gently persuade one to allow you to pass to get off of it.  Many of the sea lions slept in boats around the harbor, fortunately few of them slept in dinghies at the dock though one could get the occasional unwelcome sleepy surprise if your boat was there long enough.  We were lucky…

The area around the dinghy dock was also a popular visiting spot for the penguins which were often spotted paddling at the surface or zipping around under water.  They weren’t particularly shy about coming near boats.

Once past the sea-lion gazebo there was one more bit of wildlife that frequently needed care to step around or over – the marine iguanas.  The wooden walkway to shore is an excellent spot to sun, apparently, as there was often an iguana or two laying on the walkway.

All this close contact with wildlife was really neat, you wouldn’t imagine being able to step over a wild sea-lion as something that would become routine.  Of course there was one downside…with all these large mammals and lizards about you had to watch your step.  They weren’t exactly housebroken and weren’t terribly discrete about entering the water to meet the call of nature.  Stepping in sea-lion poop in the dark while wearing sandals was not a highlight.

The dinghy dock is about a kilometer from the center of town and a pleasant and easy walk.  The center of town has your basics – the port captain to check in, a handful of restaurants, a post office (actually two post office “agents”), a few stores for food and home goods, tour agencies, internet shops, and a large church with stained glass boobies, tortoises and sea lions for the windows.

At the edge of town there is also a large pond.  This pond became a daily stop for us because it is often populated by wild Flamingos, ducks, lava gulls and other local birds.

We liked the town, with its sand streets and outdoor restaurants though you don’t come to a place like the Galápagos for the sidewalk cafes.  But it certainly is nice to have a base of operations with reasonable good restaurants, a good bakery, and basic supplies.

First Nature Walks

Much of the Galápagos is protected from random visits from blundering tourists.  In order to access them one needs an official, registered park guide – the general way to do this is through a tour booked through an agency.

On each island there are also many areas that are open to the public without a guide and Isabela has quite a few of these.  At the end of town is a dirt road with an “Iguana Crossing” sign, past this lie some of the open areas of the park.

Entering the park you can take a long, wooden walkway through a wild marsh leads to the tortoise breeding center on Isabela.  The marshlands are full of ducks, marine iguanas, fiddler crabs, and an assortment of other marsh and water fowl.   The walkway is clear, open and easy – as is the case with most of the walks in the public accessible areas of the park.

While most islands have (or had) their own endemic species of giant tortoise, Isabela is fortunate enough to have four different species on this large island.  Every populated island also seems to have its own tortoise breeding center (or centers) as well.  The reason is simple – very few Galápagos tortoises can successfully breed in the wild any more.

They reasons why not are a combination of introduced pests and encroachment on territory.  Rats, dogs, cats, and pigs will all eat or kill young tortoises.  Pigs and rates are adept at finding the buried nests and eating the eggs, and young vulnerable tortoises are easy play for inquisitive or feral dogs and cats.  Other animals such as cattle or goats may inadvertently step on tortoise nests and crush eggs – not actively hunting and destroying but still destructive when their grazing range intrudes on the tortoise habitats.

There is even one small population of tortoises that were rescued from harm’s way of an active volcano, their population is making a good recovery through the breeding center’s efforts.

We found the center’s frankness about their goals to be rather amusing.  The logo for the center, inscribed life sized on the building, is a line drawing of two tortoises in flagrante delicto and several of the informative plaques make tongue in cheek reference to the randiness of the rescued tortoise population that is making a striking comeback.

Some of the randy tortoises in the breeding center.

These centers are all doing good work, taking detailed pains to duplicate the natural birthing environment of the tortoises and raising them to a size where they can survive on their own in the wild again.  Today it seems like the only hope for these quiet, slow moving giants since wiping out the threats to their young is a virtual impossibility.

This is the first Isla Isabela installment.  Coming up are more trip reports ands pictures from tours taken to the Sierra Negro Volcano, a boat trip snorkeling to some lava tubes, and more walks, biking and exploration.