Almost as soon as we got off the Beluga and back to Puerto Ayora we were on another (smaller) boat, back to Isabela Island for a few nights. The trip was a bit of a comedy from start to finish and we should have known something was up when we boarded a small boat with the somewhat dubious name of “Capitan Freud” that had a double mattress on the roof….
The boat took about 15 passengers and was powered by two 225hp Suzuki 4-stroke engines so, as soon as the power went on, the boat was on a tilt and went like a mad thing. In addition to this, the Captain was barking mad. Absolutely barking. As soon as he was out of the control area of the port, he just rammed the throttle down, the boat tilted upwards immediately and there was this massive bang and crash and I turned around to see a double mattress flying through the air and landing in the sea behind us. It didn’t take long for the Captain to realise and immediately he was left-hand hard down on the steering wheel, a move that had me (sitting on the side of the boat) looking straight down into the water! I thought we were going to flip, no joke!
Despite the mattress incident, there was no let off on the power and I noticed the elderly chap sitting next to Euan cross himself and start praying very early on. I’m not kidding. He didn’t stop murmuring to himself the entire journey and crossed himself more than once. I’m well used to boats but the cracking of the hull on the waves was just awful and after one particularly bad crack the Captain powered off and turned slowly to look at his passengers. We were all there so he continued. He slowed down slightly but were we glad when that journey came to an end.
Puerto Villamil is a very basic place with sand streets, half-built buildings everywhere and hardly any people. To give you an idea, this is the main square
and this the main street. Get the idea?
We were here to do one thing. Ascend Sierra Negra and see the caldera, the second largest in the world apparently. The weather was completely against us, tipping it down that night and into the morning. We decided to ride up on horses and there were 10 of us in the group. I was the only one who could ride so it was always going to be interesting but I didn’t expect it to be as entertaining as it turned out to be. I haven’t laughed that much and for so long in a long time. This was the motley bunch of ponies that greeted us (you can see what a shite day it was)
and I don’t think I have ever seen a horse stand relaxed with its hind legs crossed!
I found the whole horse assignment very funny (note the hot pink jacket and red cap – that’s Antonio, a designer from Italy who was great value)
and we joked about who was going to get the lone mule but we soon ate our words as it turned out to be the most mentally stable and sure-footed animal of them all.
Euan actually got quite a nice little pony
but I don’t think mine was much more than a year old. I felt awful as its shoulders were so narrow and she only stood as high as my chest.
We were herded (there is no other way to describe it) up the mountain on these ponies and the rudimentary path was incredibly rutted, muddy and slippery. One poor English girl had a horse that didn’t like water and slipped on almost every 2nd step, had her through trees, up banks and in bushes – all to avoid the water. Antonio's wife, well, her horse went like a mad thing for anything that came near it, latching on with its teeth and bringing on a massive round of swearing in Italian that sounded very impressive. No one, absolutely no one, had control of his or her horse and I didn’t bother trying, just happy to sit there and let her pick the best route. It was mayhem, with horses barging their way through, slipping and sliding and people hanging on for dear life.
The funny thing was, when we got to the top, this was the first view we had of the crater.
We rode in single file along the top until the horse ridden by the English girl (Helen) decided to side-swipe a tree and Helen, trying to avoid the tree, lent to one side and the next thing she knew she was on the ground with the horse standing all over her before taking off. I was so impressed that she got back on.
Euan had a quiet moment with his horse at the top (it really was quite a sweetie)
and we all got off to walk the rest of the way. That’s when it started to rain and it barely stopped. We did, however, see some interesting landscape through the mist, walked on lava that was 2,000 years old and 30 years old and saw some great lava tunnels.
We’d never heard of lava needles before but we were impressed that these were still intact despite falling through the air.
There was yet more lava art
but the colours were more spectacular although the light wasn’t great.
We couldn’t believe it when we got back to the crater that the clouds and mist had cleared briefly, allowing us a (brief) view of the crater
The last eruption was in 2005 and it basically filled the caldera with lava
and we could see the fumaroles smoking away. It was no White Island (NZ) but it was pretty cool nonetheless.
On the way back the horses were in even more of a hurry so the bumping and barging increased and at one point we heard the thunder of hooves and it was just Helen's horse going hell for leather (Helen hanging on for dear life) to catch up with mine (which I suspect was its foal). The rain increased on the way down to the point that all the horses simultaneously turned their rumps to the rain and refused to go further.
In the end, it was deemed too dangerous and we had to get off. The horses took themselves down the hill (you can see the state of the weather)
and we carried on hiking around the edge of the crater. We did get to see the crater sides
and by that stage we were absolutely drenched.
The worst thing was that the place we were staying didn’t have hot water (we forgot to check – been on the boat too long and got complacent!) so we had cold showers before heading out to see if there were any flamingos in the lagoon nearby.
There were
and the sun even came out for the evening so we spent it on the beach.
The ‘ferry’ back to Santa Cruz was another overpowered boat but this time we sat facing inwards which meant there was a steady creepage of people on the seats from front to back. Not a pleasant journey and when I suggested we go to San Cristobal, an island we’d not visited, Euan just gave me this look and said absolutely nothing.
The boat took about 15 passengers and was powered by two 225hp Suzuki 4-stroke engines so, as soon as the power went on, the boat was on a tilt and went like a mad thing. In addition to this, the Captain was barking mad. Absolutely barking. As soon as he was out of the control area of the port, he just rammed the throttle down, the boat tilted upwards immediately and there was this massive bang and crash and I turned around to see a double mattress flying through the air and landing in the sea behind us. It didn’t take long for the Captain to realise and immediately he was left-hand hard down on the steering wheel, a move that had me (sitting on the side of the boat) looking straight down into the water! I thought we were going to flip, no joke!
Despite the mattress incident, there was no let off on the power and I noticed the elderly chap sitting next to Euan cross himself and start praying very early on. I’m not kidding. He didn’t stop murmuring to himself the entire journey and crossed himself more than once. I’m well used to boats but the cracking of the hull on the waves was just awful and after one particularly bad crack the Captain powered off and turned slowly to look at his passengers. We were all there so he continued. He slowed down slightly but were we glad when that journey came to an end.
Puerto Villamil is a very basic place with sand streets, half-built buildings everywhere and hardly any people. To give you an idea, this is the main square
and this the main street. Get the idea?
We were here to do one thing. Ascend Sierra Negra and see the caldera, the second largest in the world apparently. The weather was completely against us, tipping it down that night and into the morning. We decided to ride up on horses and there were 10 of us in the group. I was the only one who could ride so it was always going to be interesting but I didn’t expect it to be as entertaining as it turned out to be. I haven’t laughed that much and for so long in a long time. This was the motley bunch of ponies that greeted us (you can see what a shite day it was)
and I don’t think I have ever seen a horse stand relaxed with its hind legs crossed!
I found the whole horse assignment very funny (note the hot pink jacket and red cap – that’s Antonio, a designer from Italy who was great value)
and we joked about who was going to get the lone mule but we soon ate our words as it turned out to be the most mentally stable and sure-footed animal of them all.
Euan actually got quite a nice little pony
but I don’t think mine was much more than a year old. I felt awful as its shoulders were so narrow and she only stood as high as my chest.
We were herded (there is no other way to describe it) up the mountain on these ponies and the rudimentary path was incredibly rutted, muddy and slippery. One poor English girl had a horse that didn’t like water and slipped on almost every 2nd step, had her through trees, up banks and in bushes – all to avoid the water. Antonio's wife, well, her horse went like a mad thing for anything that came near it, latching on with its teeth and bringing on a massive round of swearing in Italian that sounded very impressive. No one, absolutely no one, had control of his or her horse and I didn’t bother trying, just happy to sit there and let her pick the best route. It was mayhem, with horses barging their way through, slipping and sliding and people hanging on for dear life.
The funny thing was, when we got to the top, this was the first view we had of the crater.
We rode in single file along the top until the horse ridden by the English girl (Helen) decided to side-swipe a tree and Helen, trying to avoid the tree, lent to one side and the next thing she knew she was on the ground with the horse standing all over her before taking off. I was so impressed that she got back on.
Euan had a quiet moment with his horse at the top (it really was quite a sweetie)
and we all got off to walk the rest of the way. That’s when it started to rain and it barely stopped. We did, however, see some interesting landscape through the mist, walked on lava that was 2,000 years old and 30 years old and saw some great lava tunnels.
We’d never heard of lava needles before but we were impressed that these were still intact despite falling through the air.
There was yet more lava art
but the colours were more spectacular although the light wasn’t great.
We couldn’t believe it when we got back to the crater that the clouds and mist had cleared briefly, allowing us a (brief) view of the crater
The last eruption was in 2005 and it basically filled the caldera with lava
and we could see the fumaroles smoking away. It was no White Island (NZ) but it was pretty cool nonetheless.
On the way back the horses were in even more of a hurry so the bumping and barging increased and at one point we heard the thunder of hooves and it was just Helen's horse going hell for leather (Helen hanging on for dear life) to catch up with mine (which I suspect was its foal). The rain increased on the way down to the point that all the horses simultaneously turned their rumps to the rain and refused to go further.
In the end, it was deemed too dangerous and we had to get off. The horses took themselves down the hill (you can see the state of the weather)
and we carried on hiking around the edge of the crater. We did get to see the crater sides
and by that stage we were absolutely drenched.
The worst thing was that the place we were staying didn’t have hot water (we forgot to check – been on the boat too long and got complacent!) so we had cold showers before heading out to see if there were any flamingos in the lagoon nearby.
There were
and the sun even came out for the evening so we spent it on the beach.
The ‘ferry’ back to Santa Cruz was another overpowered boat but this time we sat facing inwards which meant there was a steady creepage of people on the seats from front to back. Not a pleasant journey and when I suggested we go to San Cristobal, an island we’d not visited, Euan just gave me this look and said absolutely nothing.
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