May 31, 2019
Today was our last day on Isabela Island and we decided we wanted to hike part of the trip called the Wall of Tears. Ecuador at one point in the past used Isabela Island as a penal colony and used the inmates to build their own jail. This that could work were killed and the saying became, “The strong cry, the weak die”. The environment is unforgiving in this area and the heat and humidity were blistering.
Before we went on our hike Kevin wanted to also find an excursion for the afternoon. We stopped in one tour operator shop to inquire about a trip to the Tintoreras, he tried to talk us out of it mainly because he didn’t have any open spots to sell. Luckily for us, the operator two doors down had four spots open. So Kevin convinced the rest of the group to do another snorkeling trip and outing.
We went back to the hotel and gathered our hiking gear. We started with a taxi ride to the entrance of the walking trail and proceeded down the path. To the left and the right of the path, there are excursions that lead to different beaches and to different points of interest. Instead of going all the way to the wall, which we were told was not too impressive, we were told to stop at branches of the path and see those sites.
The first offshoot took us down to an amazing small beach with dozens of marine iguanas crawling out of the surf and sunning themselves on the rocks and beach. It was hard to keep the kids out of the water, even though they say they don’t like salt water, they are in it as soon as they see it.
The second offshoot to the trail was yet another beach, however, this one was surrounded by lava flow and it created ride pools as the water rises and falls. The tide pools were full of fish and hundreds of tiny hermit crabs. All around the pools marine iguanas rested in the sun warming themselves. On the edge of the pools, there were mangrove forests where pelicans nested. The pelicans would fly close overhead and land in the mangroves.
The next two offshoot trails lead to more flamingo salt marshes without flamingos. Our final stop on the trail, for us, was a lava tunnel that flooded with the rising tide. After we stopped here we decided to head back, on the way out of the tunnel we meet a very nice lady from Ireland, Veronica, later we would run into her and her husband Hue on the boat tour we were taking.
We returned to the hotel and then walked several blocks to get lunch. After lunch, we returned to the hotel to rest up for our tour of the Tintoreras. The bus arrived to pick us up and off we went to the pier, where we were meet by a sea lion and her 2 pups playing on the steps.
The Tintoreras is a collection of lava flows that provide a natural break for the harbor of Puerto Villamil. Swimming around the harbor were sea lions and Galapagos penguins. The penguins supposedly like the noise and business of the harbor and as the harbor had gotten busier the populations of penguins have also increased. We again sew a multitude of blue footed boobies perched on the rocks. The guide took us around the harbor where we observed sea lions, Galapagos penguins, and blue footed boobies.
We were able to see the penguins dive underwater and the climb up and waddle across the rocks. We also saw the boobies fishing for sardines. The guide decided to take us to an area that is rarely snorkeled and required a technical crossing of a shallow area and the reason few boats venture to the area to snorkel.
For this snorkeling excursion, we were given free rein of the area to explore. Immediately off the boat, we found stingrays and schools of little fish that would murmuration through the water as a school. Noah and Sarah only stayed in the water for half of the snorkeling and returned to the boat. Anna and Kevin stayed in the water the entire time and were greeted by a school of parrotfish eating on the ocean floor.
After the snorkeling, we had a dry landing on a lava rock outcropping. The landscape here was surreal with spires off lava rock covered in white lichen edge to edge of the little island. Amongst the rocks, there were hundreds of marine iguanas scurrying about, most of which were juvenile and still had fear of people.
Through the island, there is a large crevasse filled with seas water where white tipped reef sharks spend the day sleeping. On our way back we again saw penguins and boobies. We returned to our hotel and then went out to get dinner. After dinner, we packed our bags for the 6am ferry back to Santa Cruz from Isabela.