Thursday
After another early departure from the hotel, we had a 2 hour boat ride to Isabella Island. The ride was smooth as the delegation left in two boats.
Upon our arrival on Isabella Island, we went to the Volcano Hotel, put our luggage into our rooms and quickly departed for a walk to the “Wall of Tears” which is a historic site. “Between 1946 – 1959 Isabella was a penal colony for Ecuadorian prisoners. The men built a wall of HUGE blocks of lava as punishment for their crimes. The wall still stands and is100 meters long, 7 meters high and is 3 ½ meters wide.
After lunch we went on small boats to Puerto Villamil where we had the opportunity to go snorkeling in the most amazing location. There were seals and penguins swimming among us —- this was truly the highlight of our journey throughout Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands!
Near where we went snorkeling was an area called, ”Las Tinteraras – which is a rocky outcrop of volcanic rock. As we walked among the rocky area we saw a colony of white-tipped sharks.
While returning to the “main Island”, we went by an area that had many bluefoot bookies. The ydo have the most amazing feet.
We then went to a tortoise breeding center, where we were able to observe the development and growth of tortoises,
Finally it was time to come home to showers, dinner, walks on the beach and looking at the few shops on the main street
It was a GRAND day!
