Puerto Villamil

Another early start and we're on land for the day, starting on a bus, its nice to have a change of transport. This is actually where we will be leaving the cruise so we said goodbye to our cabin and the crew with a tear in our eye. Our first stop is up at the Volcano Sierra Negra, the second largest Caldera in the world. As our luck is changing the Volcano was completely in the clouds. We stayed for about half an hour and saw a few Finches and Mockingbirds. The clouds parted a little so we could see a glimpse of the lava field inside the Volcano but we didn't get to admire its full speldor.

Next up was the Tortoise rehabilitation centre, back in the late 1800's and early 1900's the whaling boats used to stop at the islands and load up on the Tortoises as a food supply during their voyages. On a few of the islands the number of surviving animals went right down to single digits, The Cerro Paloma species for example had only 3 Female and 5 Males, in the wild they may never meet to reproduce so the National park removed them all and keep them in captivity to ensure they mate and replenish the species. In the last 20 years they have produced over 3000 hatclings, and once they reach 5 years old they are put back in the wild in the hopes that they will once again thrive.

After wander around the small town we headed back to the pier and said our final farewells to the rest our our group as they will be continuing on the cruise for another 2 nights. Very bitter sweet as they were all fantastic people and we very much enjoyed our home for the last 5 nights, but the sea looked a little choppy and we are happy to have a bed on stable ground for a change.

After an incredible night's sleep (dry land definitely suits us more than boat life) and even a little lay in, we rented some bicycles to head out along the coast. 6 km from town is the Wall of Tears, all that remains of the former penal colony that existed in the island in the 1950s. As punishment for various crimes the guards forced the inmates to build a ludicrously large and pointless wall. A bit of a foreboding monument to the islands history but there is an incredible view point of the islands Volcanos and the small town below. Back on the Bikes and we stopped off at a Natural cave / tunnel created by the lava flowing out to the sea and a small Mangrove were we spotted more sea lions and iguanas. Its quite fun cycling next to the beach and having to dodge the Iguanas and Tortoises.
Despite being very small, barely a village, we quite enjoyed Villamil, maybe its just nice to be on dry land again.Read more