Isabela is one of the youngest and most volcanic islands in the archipelago. Its back bone is made of six volcanoes, out which five seem to be active, and this island alone represents 50 percent of the total land mass of the archipelago. It boasts large populations of both land iguanas and giant tortoises.
We started our morning with an excellent hike to the visitor site known as Urbina Bay. After a wet landing, we were ready to start our hike on the trail, which took us inland on a plateau that was uplifted in 1954. Today this area boasts large manzanillo trees, yellow cordias and large Palo Santo trees. We were greeted by Darwin finches and mockingbirds as we entered the forest, as we started our search for yellow iguanas and giant tortoises.
We were lucky enough to find our first land iguana basking on the trail. As we approached, the reptile seemed completely unfazed by our presence, and our guests had the incredible opportunity to take close-up photographs of this incredible animal. Not long after that, we spotted another one and another one—what an incredible place. We continued to move on through the deeper part of the forest and there it was, a giant tortoise resting beneath the branches of or large tree. We got closer and immortalized the moment with our cameras, and we soon noticed that there were two more giants nearby. What an incredible opportunity we had to see the two most representative retails of Galapagos a few feet from each other.
After a delicious Ecuadorian lunch, our guests prepared for water activities, this time at a different visitor site known as Tagus Cove. This is an eroded tuff cone whose western flank has collapsed, thus granting us entrance to this marvelous location within the cone. We offered kayaking along the walls of the cove, so our guests had the opportunity to see the nesting flightless cormorant, Galapagos penguin and several sea turtles as their heads poked through the surface. We offered deep water snorkeling and a hike as a last option of the afternoon, and for our guests who didn’t hike, we took them for a coastal exploration via Zodiac.
What a fantastic place—Isabela Island the jewel of the Galapagos crown.
