NATURALLY ISABELLA

By Nellie Gopaul

Little Henry Pinto had never been so happy to see land. For the past two-and-a-half hours, he had been on a small fishing boat, snuggled up to his father. The seas were exceptionally choppy that day, and many times it seemed as if the 4-year-old wouldn’t be able to continue.  Eventually, the boat approached the pier of a palm-fringed village.  It eased into the dock as three sea lions frolicked past.  Little Henry’s treacherous ride was over.   He had finally reached Isabela Island. 

The long and sometimes arduous journey to Isabela Island in the Galapagos helps explain why it is less frequently visited than some of the other islands.  The least densely populated of all the islands, it is perhaps one of the Galapagos’ best-kept secrets.  Full of unspoiled natural beauty and rarely-seen exotic animals, Isabela rewards its visitors with open arms and pristine beaches. 

Isabela is actually comprised of five sporadically active volcanoes, and remains a relatively unspoiled place to live, work or play.  It has only one real town, Puerto Villamil – where Henry and his family disembarked – with a population of roughly 2,000 people.   Tourism is the backbone of this former fishing village’s economy, and luckily for los Americanos, the U.S. dollar is the currency in Ecuador.

Tourists get their first hint at the natural wonder that is Isabela in the shallow waters of Puerto Villamil’s dock.  Here the Galapagos sea lion, with its playful nature and lack of fear around humans, first makes his appearance. Descended from the California sea lion, the Galapagos sea lion is endemic to the islands and spends its days hunting for fish, playing with other sea lions, posing for passersby, and sneaking up on unsuspecting tourists.  It is not uncommon to catch a glimpse of these lively creatures swimming on their backs in order to thrust their flippers into the air.  This helps regulate their body temperature; as the sun beats down or a breeze circulates cooler air around the exposed flippers, the sea lion can heat or cool itself.  “We were snorkeling near the dock, and the sea lions were swimming all around us,” exclaimed first-time visitor Andrea Raetegui.  “It was really cool.”

For a bit of leisurely sightseeing, vacationers can head to the Galapagos National Park’s Wetlands Preserve, which is the only part of the National Park you can visit without a certified guide. In the wetlands preserve, marine iguanas, white-cheek pintail ducks, yellow warblers and lava lizards search for shelter and sustenance, unfettered by the sounds of human footsteps approaching.  Mangroves help filter the brackish lagoons, and the poisonous Apple tree offers shade to passersby.  Also located in the wetlands preserve is the Arnaldo Tupizo Chaimandan Tortoise Breeding Center.  Visitors can observe caretakers tending to the Galapagos tortoises, from which the islands received their name, and learn more about these unhurried creatures through interactive displays.  Two of the five tortoise species found on Isabela are considered endangered, and the Breeding Center is working hard to change that.

A little farther out, Galapagos penguins, white-tipped sharks, turtles, stingrays, sea lions and snorkelers peacefully occupy the same body of water.  The biggest agitation, according to National Park Guide Daniela Iglesisas, occurs when the sea lions impishly decide to play with anything in its proximity.  They have even been known to take hold of the sharks’ tails with their mouths and jerk the sharks around!  Isabela is one of the better places in the Galapagos to spot the Galapagos Penguin; occasionally seen around other islands, they are most often sighted in and around the waters of Isabela and Fernandina, the only two islands where they breed. 

For a drier outing, the Wall of Tears can prove an excellent half-day adventure.  Outdoorsy types may enjoy the 5-mile bike ride there, but arranging for a taxi is also customary.  Back in the 1940s, shortly after WWII ended, 300 prisoners headed toward Isabela, condemned to a life of backbreaking manual labor.  They slept on a concrete foundation built for the US troops that had been based there during the war and erected several pieces of lumber and tarp to serve as their only protection from the elements.  The prisoners hauled large chunks of rock from the surrounding mountainside, and over time, constructed the first wall for the prison that would eventually house them.  Only that first wall was assembled; the penal colony was closed in 1959, after most of the convicts escaped to somewhere near Panama.  That wall is now named the “Wall of Tears,” since so many men died while working on it.  “What struck me about the Wall,” recalls 20-something Nadia Kijanka, who hails from Coral Springs, Florida, “is how much the Wall relates to the unfinished things we all have in our lives:  an unfinished project, a dropped class, a failed relationship.  We all have our own Wall of Tears that we suffered through but may not have turned out the way we wanted.  But it’s comforting to know that the story still goes on, good or bad, and that you’re remembered for the work that you do.”

The many visitor sites on Isabela provide something to do for the relaxed vacationer, the adventurous sightseer and anyone in between.  Its flora and fauna are like nothing anywhere else on this earth. When little Henry Pinto returns home, he will have more than a protective father to cling to during the bumpy boat ride back to civilization.  He will have memories of a dream come true.