Isabela island

Continuing our streak of early rising, we were at the dock by 6:30am for our 2 hour boat ride to Isabela ($30 one-way; plus $1.50 in water taxi fees either side). The inter-island trips are notoriously bad and Kolya flew to Isabela after the cruise as his first experience had been so bad. I was therefore a little apprehensive as I'd been up all night with a dodgy tummy and my cold was in the blocked throat stage but I needn't have worried, my sea legs did me proud. About a third of the passengers weren't so lucky and sick bags were being passed around everywhere while we bumped across the high seas.

After paying the $5 dock tax we joined a tortoise scientist in a taxi for the short ride to town. The driver recommended the Hotel Volcano for us ($40) which had a double sea view due to an empty plot of land in front of the hotel. The room was ok but could do with a spring clean, the wifi was pretty much non-existent and the shower was either boiling or freezing and cut out completely at times.

After a bit of downtime we went for a wander around Villamil, the main town of Isabela, the biggest but least inhabited / developed of the 3 main islands - the 'boardwalk' is a 20m wooden bridge over nothing! Apart from the beautiful wavy beach which stretches for miles, there was very little to see, a lot of places seemed to be closed and there were few tourists around. We did see a solitary flamingo on the stinky lake behind our hotel.

We went back to rest some more and then went out for dinner on the main 'strip' of restaurants. Just after we had ordered a pizza to share, Maya and Sabine turned up! And then Kolya and Lisbeth. We hadn't been able to check our emails due to no wifi but had struck lucky. We had a lovely dinner and then sat on the beach and drank coconuts spiked with Kolya's rum. Lovely to have friends for company for the evening for once.Read more