Puerto Villamil, Isabela Island

We have our first stop on Isabela Island at Puerto Villamil today. In the morning we hike to the rim of the 10km (6 mi) wide crater of the Sierra Negra volcano, which has the largest basaltic caldera in the Galápagos.

We had a short wait for the bus after we landed at the pier.

The volcano last erupted in June 2018, making it the most recent eruption of the Galápagos. This hike is 7km in total (3.5 km each way).

We saw a Brujo Flycatcher on the way up, which is similar to the Vermillion Flycatcher seen in the US.

It was very foggy with the rain coming in, so there isn’t a good picture of the crater.

It started sprinkling shortly after we got to the crater and rained hard on the way down from the crater, we had ponchos along, but the rain soaked our hiking boots. Donna and I were part of the group that walked down more slowly to avoid slipping and falling in the mud.

In the afternoon, after lunch, we had some time to walk around town in the rain.

Antonio Gil founded Puerto Villamil in 1897. His statue is in the town square.

We found an ice cream shop and had ice cream, chocolate, mango, passion fruit.

We had a 15-minute visit to the town’s wetlands were we saw a few birds, among them a

Then back on the bus for a short trip to visit the Arnaldo Tupiza Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre. With the giant tortoise on its way to extinction in the late 1950s, this program was established to protect these noble creatures.

The wind and waves were bad when it was time to return to the ship, and the pangas couldn’t come to get us. They got a water taxi to take us back to the ship as it was a bigger boat. It started raining hard on the 15-minute trip back and folks on one side of the boat got wet.