Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - Isabela, Monday May 13th
The longest walk of the trip sees us walking along a pleasant grassy track in the atmospheric early morning mist on the side of the Sierra Negra volcano, passing rare vermillion fly-catchers, accompanied by the sound of chirruping insects and a local guide with a large machete. Although we're walking alongside (allegedly) the second largest volcanic crater in the world (after the Ngorongoro Crater in Africa), we don't really see it until suddenly the mist clears and we spot the other side 10km away in the distance, across a black lava-strewn floor speckled with yellow sulphur patches.
Once back down the hill, the heat builds as we spy on flamingoes in a shallow lagoon, take a wooden path through the wetlands past noisy black and white stilt birds and Galapagos ducks and head on to a Tortoise Breeding Centre, where we see giant tortoises of all ages, from very small babies to 120 year old behemoths, all of whom are protected to help re-grow the population across the islands.
As if that weren't enough for one day, two more side-trips take us to see the lava tunnels that run into the sea, a relic of a past volcanic eruption and the Wall of Tears, a back-breaking and soul-destroying monument to countless resilient Ecuadorian prisoners sentenced to hard labour in the searing heat of the islands in the 40s and 50s.
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