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We took the ferry to Santa Cruz, a two hour crossing, landing at Admiralty bay. The town of Puerto Ayora is not as nice as Puerto Baquerizo on San Cristobel where we are anchored. We are very glad that we chose San Cristobel. Puerto Ayora is busy, very touristy and more expensive. Jim and Nancy caught the afternoon ferry from Santa Cruz to Isabela, William And I stayed overnight in Santa Cruz, going to Isabela next day. While in Santa Cruz we visited the Charles Darwin research station, a breeding centre for giant tortoises and land iguanas. It is home to Lonesome George, the last of his kind. Extensive searches of Pinta Island, George's home, have failed to find a female tortoise, so he has been given two females from the type believed to be most closely related. However George has shown no interest in his wives, hence no happy event. As a last resort they are going to clone him. Next day William and I walked to Turtle Bay, a beautiful white sand beach, leading to a lagoon where the local people were swimming. I paddled up to my knees, to watch manta rays, spotted rays, sting rays and white tip sharks swimming close by. The locals assured me that White tips are not dangerous.
Meanwhile on Isabela, Jim and Nancy took a taxi and toured the area around Puerto Villamil, visiting the Wall Of Tears, a huge wall of lava rocks constructed by prisoners in a penal colony in 1944. Many prisoners died and condition were very harsh, hence the name. We met with Jim and Nancy at the same hotel in Puerto Villamil. This is a nice small town, with not too many tourists and sand on the roads. Isabela is the biggest island of the archipelago, half of the total area. It is only 700,000 years old, hence the landscape is far less eroded than San Cristobel. Isabela has six main volcanos, five of which evolved into calderas. All are considered very active.
William and I, with our friend Lynn who we met on the ferry, took a tour to Sierra Negra, which at 10 km in diameter is the second largest caldera in the world. The trip involved a bus ride in a typical Ecuadorian open sided bus along some very rough roads, followed by over an hour on horse back. We walked on the lava field for a couple of hours. It was fascinating, like a lunar landscape. Then back down on the horses again. I have never ridden a horse before and my horse knew it. It soon became evident that the horse was in charge and went where it wanted to go. It insisted on being at the front of the pack and trotted through with me shouting stop and hanging onto the saddle. I was advised to pull up on the reigns to stop it as it doesn't speak English! It took the opportunity to bite some of the other horses as it barged through, including William's horse and William's leg as we passed by. Great fun, I haven't been able to sit down for two days.
We all visited Las Tintoreras, small islands just off the coastof Isabela, where we saw Galapagos penguins, Blue Footed Boobies and lots of marine iguanas, which were nesting. The highlight was an inlet which is the resting place for White Tip sharks. We snorkeled off one of the islands, the water was cold, Nancy was wise enough to wear a wet suit. We went to a tortoise breeding centre on Isabela. This one is very successful raising lots of babies, most of which survive and are being released back into the wild. Unlike Lonesome George, the male tortoises here were very keen to perform, though the females didn't seem too happy and tried to escape the amorous attention by hiding in the bushes. Male tortoises can weigh up to five times females so who can blame them.
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