Puerto Villamil, Ecuador, South America

I had a great day today on Isabela! It started out with a snorkeling tour to Los Tuneles, which is a bunch of lava tunnels and formations. We took the boat out about 45 minutes to reach the site, and then we took a little walking tour with our guide Tamara (the same guide we had yesterday for the volcano) and looked at some of the wildlife. There were a lot of blue footed boobies, and it was amazing how unfazed they were about people being so close to them! We were literally only a few feet away, and they didn’t care at all.

From the land we could also see some sea turtles swimming around in the water beneath us. It was pretty incredible. It was like being at a zoo, but everything here is wild. It’s really amazing! We got back into the boat and moved to another spot where we could see some baby herrings feeding from their mother in a tree, and then we moved on to our first snorkel site.

At the first site we went out on our own and we were given about a half hour to check out the area and see what we could find. The most notable wildlife normally found here is seahorses, but depending on the temperature in the water, they can sometimes be as deep as 6m (18 ft), so with us just snorkeling we wouldn’t have much hope of seeing them. Luckily, one person spotted a single seahorse chilling in the seaweed, so at least we got to see one. The only problem with that was that everyone in the water was trying to see the same one, so it was nearly impossible to get close to it. I tried to get a shot of it with my GoPro camera, and then I just got the heck out of there.

I decided to move on where there were not so many people, and I managed to find a spotted eel, and then a couple huge schools of fish feeding. It was pretty cool. We headed back to the boat and then moved on to our next snorkeling place. We stayed at the second site for about 45 minutes, and this time we were told to follow the guide in the water. They’re usually better at spotting wildlife than we are, so we hoped to see a bit more. We came across a couple of golden rays, a small manta ray, and one shark. Unfortunately the shark was only around for a minute and then got scared off by so many people in the water. It appeared to be a white tip reef shark, so nothing too exciting, but still pretty cool.

We got back to land at about 1:30pm and said bye to John. He had to catch the 2:30pm boat back to Santa Cruz today, so he couldn’t join us any longer. Harry and I grabbed some lunch and then split up for a bit just to drop some stuff off at our hostels and pick up some bikes. We met up with Laura and Alyce and went for a bike ride that was recommended by Tamara.

We headed west out of the town on a little sandy road and came across a series of viewpoints and little ponds. There were some really pretty spots, and then some spots that didn’t really look like they should even be signposted. We followed it all the way to the end (even though we almost turned back about two minutes before we reached the end of the trail because it was too hot and uphill), and got to the Wall of Tears. Apparently this is a stone wall that was built by prisoners when the island of Isabela used to be a penal colony. I had no idea that had even happened here, but there ya go. The wall was nothing impressive, but we did spot two (!) wild giant tortoises just off the path leading to the wall. This was very exciting because we were told earlier today that there are only about 700 of these tortoises alive today, and about 500 are in captivity. So to spot two of the remaining 200 in the wild is pretty awesome.

We headed back into town and I had to go to the dive shop to get fitted for my wet suit for tomorrow. The gear at this shop is all brand new and the guy who runs it, Harry, seems really nice. It should be a great dive at Tortuga Island tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll see some hammerheads!

I grabbed dinner with Laura, Alyce, Harry, and a couple of other people we met on the snorkeling trip, and then I headed home. It’s going to be an early rise tomorrow, and then a boat ride back to Santa Cruz after diving, so I’m gonna need my energy!