The Wooden House Hotel Isabela

... and the kind of constant buzz for social and environmental "progress" and coming to an island that is the complete opposite left me feeling even more overwhelmed, if only for the fact that there was no cooperative effort to enact change. I was lost. Yes, a recent graduate, I am used to schedules and structure. I can do tranquilo, but this is beyond that, this is lack of opportunity and the drive to create it in its absence. Lack of motivation. No local effort. Any efforts come from ...

... crystal clear water. At the port we boarded a bus that took us to a lake, that looked more like a quarry, but nevertheless containing a handful of flamingo&#8217;s. There were about three that were pink, and about 5 or 6 that were white and grey, not your traditional looking flamingo&#8217;s. <br><br>A short time later we visited a Tortoise shelter which was just on the edge of town. It was a very educational visit where we were given a talk on how the tortoises develop and how ...

... alive; red crabs scrabbled their way along near the waters edge. We took video and pictures but I don't think anything could do it justice. We continued on and came to a bay where in one small area there was a penguin swimming with a sea lion and a big brown pelican diving for fish and then lighting on the water. Red crabs were everywhere and sea iguanas scampered among the black lava rocks ...

... not start well. His plane was delayed by 4 hours due to a problem with the engine. Once on his way the plane made a stop to pick up more passengers at Guayaquil. Soon they were on there way over the Pacific ocean to the Galapagos. Then the plane developed `a technical problem´ and had to return to Guayaquil. As the plane came into land it dumped its excess fuel from its wings which seemed to worry some people. After 30minutes on the ground the problem was reported to ...

... and have a few cocktails. Amazing. Day 2 in Isabel - - We took a 45 min drive to the bottom of a Volcano then went horseback riding up to the core...it was incredible. One of 7 active volcano´s on Isabel Island. We had a picnic lunch at the top provided by the tour, then took the horses back down. As it was meant to be, my horse was a real A$$. It kept picking fights with the other ones and even kicked Hutto´s horse with its back let. The Goucho finally got ...

... of sea lions (which Catriona kept chasing around the place. The blue footed boobies were class used to do this crazy dance to inpress each other lifting their feet and flapin their wings at each other they usually copied each other so when one lifted one foot the other copied twas seriously funny, they were really curious too and their crazy eyes were like they were on drugs eyes poppin out of their heads. Have to say snorkling was def my favourite thing ...

... numbers on some tortoises. There are a number of tortoises kept here for breeding, the rest are released into the wild when they are about 5 years old. So there are tortoises here ranging from newly hatched (about 3 inches long) to about a hundred years old (males weigh about 200kg). There is one tortoise who likes human contact. She was one of the original tortoises when the centre opened in 1993 so ...

Another Boat Trip - This time to the lava tunnels to the west of the island and this time the sun was shining! There were just three of us - Lucy, Jo and myself. The ride took about 45 minutes - it was quite bumpy and we nearly got into trouble with the coast guard as we didn't have lifejackets on. the first stop was this amazing area of undescribable landscape - it was ...

Another boat trip - this time out to Tortuga Island to the south of Isabela for more wildlife spotting and snorkelling. Tortuga Island is crescent shape - you can tell it´s the top of a volcano. The rock formation was fantastic and the wildlife we spotted was great too - the ...

... one are still active. There was an eruption in 2005. Apparently this makes it one of the most volcanically active places on earth. Fortunately for us it was a quiet day and we climbed up into the clouds - they are not massively high but Serra Negra has the 2nd largest Caldera in the world at 10km across....I will have to take that as true as it was rather too ...