Day 403 – Isabela
Today we woke up feeling refreshed at our guest house, Punta Arena. We went into the kitchen and prepared some breakfast. We hired two bicycles from the guest house for $12 USD ($17.96 AUD) per bicycle for the whole day. At most other places, bicycles would cost $15 USD ($22.46 AUD).
Bicycle Tour of Isabela
We started our journey at 10.20am. The bicycles are in really good condition. Out of town, the path starts down the coast, along a sand covered road. At times we needed to push the bikes through the deep sand.
The trail is called Wetland Complex and Wall of Tears (Complejo de Humedales y Muro de las Lagrimas in Spanish). There is a checkpoint here, but it was unmanned in the morning. There are heaps of points of interest along the way, but we decided to go all the way to the end, which is the Wall of Tears first. It’s 5km from the starting point.
Along the way we stopped for the giant tortoises that were just walking or resting along the path. We walked past them in an attempt to not freak them out. However, as we approached, they always retracted their heads into their shells.
The Wall of Tears
The rest of the path turns into a rocky road which kept going up and down. It was quite fun. We reached The Wall of Tears at midday. We left our bicycles (locks are not required or provided) and walked down to the wall.
Isabela Island was a penal colony between 1946 and 1959. The prisoners lived in extreme conditions and were forced to build this wall. Many of them are reported to have died, due to the harsh treatment.
From the wall, there is a short walk up to a viewpoint. The landscape isn’t spectacular, since it’s arid and flat. There is also an abandoned US radar tower, which is now just some rusted iron beams. It was used during WWII.
Cerro Orchilla
We then cycled back towards all the sites we passed. The first stop was the viewpoint (Mirador) Cerro Orchilla. After ascending the handful of steps to the top, we had a nice 360 degree view.
El Estero
The next stop was El Estero, which is a nice swimming spot. After walking through the mangrove cave, we were on a small bank of sand. We got into the cold water and started swimming around here.
Manzanillos, small poisonous apples
As we were swimming a sea lion appeared ~5 metres away from us. We tried to get closer but it disappeared. Even without any sea life, it was a nice area to cool down in.
However, we started getting attacked by insects every time we surfaced, so we promptly got out of the water.
Poza Escondida
Poza Escondida, was a small lake that we could walk around. The water had a greenish tinge.
Poza Redonda
Poza Redonda, was similarly a small lake, but it was surrounded by more tougher plants.
Tunel del Estero
Our next stop was Tunel del Estero. There were some volcanic rocks that had formed into a tunnel. There was a marine iguana inside the tunnel which was hard to spot.
Playa del Amor
Then we visited Playa del Amor. It’s a small organic beach, which means that the ocean currents are washing in remains of shells, corals and urchins. There were heaps of marine iguanas chilling on the beach here.
Poza de las Diablas
Poza de las Diablas was another small lake.
We arrived back at the starting checkpoint at 3pm. There was still the beach path to cycle along though.
Flamingo Feeding Site
We then cycled up a small hill to a flamingo feeding site. There were 6 flamingos in the lake when we arrived at 3.40pm.
Arnaldo Tupiza Chamaidan Giant Tortoise Breeding Center
After some time with the flamingos, we went to the tortoise breeding centre which is nearby. This is nowhere near as large as the Charles Darwin Research Centre (Day 399). However, they do have plenty of tortoises.
There are also unique tortoises from a place called Five Hills that have squashed shells. They were rescued from a volcano eruption.
Back on our feet
We rode back to our guest house, Punta Arena which only took 15 minutes from the breeding centre. After showering and relaxing for a bit, we headed back into town on foot. We ended up booking two more tours for the following days. The first was for Volcano Sierra Negra and the second was for Los Tunnels. Both tours were the same or cheaper for us on Isabela than on Santa Cruz via a travel agency.
We then went to a few small grocery stores, near the main plaza to buy groceries so we could cook dinner. We went back to the guest house and started cooking. This is when we met a friendly German couple who were super friendly.