Day 5 in the Galapagos:Isabella Island

Day 5 was a visit to Isabela Island. It is the biggest island and hosts one of the few inhabited towns in the Galapagos.   We started early and went to the southeastern corner of the island for a walk along its coast.

fish checking out our boat.

We knew we were witnessing something impressive when our guide was taking pictures of the animals.  The following three photos are possibly signs of evolution.  We found two lizards and one iguana sprouting a second tail. He had never seen this before (especially three of them!) and whipped out his camera phone to show this to the scientists at the Darwin Center.

another angle of the second tail

this is a mixture of sand, seashells, coral, lava rock

a small inlet where reef sharks roam

We went snorkling after the walk and saw more goodies.




The second half of the day was rather a waste of time. Our first stop was a man-made lagoon that attracts migrating flamingos.  Not as impressive as in Bolivia, but it is nice to see these pink birds.

The turtle breeding center is run by one man, with local school children adopting a turtle to care for during their childhoods.

turtles do fight.  The guy on the topleft was bullying the others for space.

this baby turtle is one week old

the development process from egg to turtle

a face off of dueling turtles

lizard hanging out at the center

lizard hanging out at the center

My tour agent told me that there would be no drop-off or pick-up of passengers midway through the trip, but that is what happened.  A couple of people only booked five day tours and had to be let off on Isabella.  As a matter of convenience, the tour guide's family got picked up to join us for the rest of the tour. During this time we were granted two hours to hang out in Puerto Villamil.  There really wasn't much to do except walk along the beach and check out how the town lives when not catering to tourists.  Not much to see, but below is their nautical themed church. Check out the stained glass windows

that is just a replica of a turtle in the front.