Galapagos – Jour 3: Volcan Sierra Negra et balade à vélo

Our galapagos diary continues, see all the articles at the end of this one.

Galapagos Journal - March 8 2020:

After a good night's sleep, we get up around 6:30 a.m. for a hearty breakfast, perfect for the day ahead. Granola, fruit, yogurt, bread, eggs, etc.

A bus picks us up to take us on a hike and visit to the Sierra Negra and Chico volcanoes. On the bus route, we pass through 4 different environments: the mangrove swamp, a more desert-like area, a more vegetated area with fruit trees and the mountains, all in just 45 minutes! A 16 km walk awaits us, with only a slight gradient. 

The start of the hike is a forest landscape. We reach the top of the cliff overlooking a gigantic caldera. The caldera was formed by the numerous eruptions of the Sierra Negra volcano and is around 10 km in diameter. During the last eruption (2018), lava flowed into the caldera. Sierra Negra is one of the archipelago's most active volcanoes.

As we continue on our way, the landscape gradually transforms into a lunar landscape. We find ourselves in the midst of volcanic rock, where the only vegetation is cactus. We cross these ancient lava flows, the oldest with a little vegetation, the most recent completely barren. Oxidation of the rock (orange color, see photo)

 If you look at the rocks, you can see the path followed by the last lava flows. 

After about 3 hours' walking, we reached the summit where we had our lunch. A simple sandwich, a little canned juice, a cookie and an apple.

We also meet a French couple who are doing a volunteer agronomy project with an indigenous community in Ecuador (on the mainland). They're very interested in maple syrup cultivation, and ask us lots of questions to which we don't have the answers. Marie's dad will have his work cut out for him!

The descent is quicker and we get caught in the rain with 1 hour to go. It's far from being a Breton drizzle (Marie likes to plug that expression)! Then it's back by bus to our hotel in Puerto Villamil, where we're far from the rain and the sun is beating down.

Full details of the activity here (coming soon)

Afternoon bike ride

We borrow bikes from the storeGalapagos bike and surf"We'll then take a walk to the Las Lagrimas wall. Here are the points of interest we pass along the way.

• Playita: a beautiful, quiet little beach where a family party is in full swing. You forget it's Sunday!
• Playa del amor: giant aquarium where you can soak yourself to the skin. The fish tickle our feet and are not afraid of us. There are plenty of marine iguanas around us on the beach and on the rocks. We love watching them move around with their funny gait and also when they spit sea salt out of their nostrils! In fact, these curious iguanas have adapted to their hostile environment. They've developed their own respiratory system so that they can dive into the water and eat the moss on the rocks, all because there's so little vegetation on the island's mainland.
• Swamps and mangroves where many birds feed.

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On the road, as we rounded a corner, we saw 2 people stopped, seemingly observing a large pebble. In fact, it's a huge land tortoise, eating little apples along the way! It's a magical sight. One wonders how such a slow, prehistoric-looking animal could have survived the passage of time. Its main food is small apples, which are poisonous to humans. It protects its food from human invasion! After 25 minutes of observation, we continue on our way.

• Hilltop view of the sea
• Mur de las Lagrimas: the 100-meter-long Wall of Tears was built by prisoners in inhumane conditions. The penal colony closed in 1959. The wall bears witness to a dark period in the islands' history, when many prisoners were sent there.

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Dinner at Encanto De la PepaA traditional restaurant with a menu at 10$ US including an excellent tomato soup, main meal (fish, seafood, chicken), fresh fruit juice and dessert (small banana cake). We like this friendly place, where the service is fast and the food is good value for money. We go to bed early, tired after a long day of sport!

Galapagos Journal:
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