What an interesting and exhausting day!
We did a scheduled 10 mile hike to inside the caldera of Sierra Negra volcano. It was was pretty amazing. Now, we're not talking lava explosion type of situation but it was still impressive. The last activity here was 2018 where lava flowed out fissures on the NE side for two weeks. The lucky folks that were on any boats on that side of the island got to see it. The previous activity was 2005 where lava flowed from fissures that filled up the caldera 5 miles across with a lake of lava!
We hiked to an area on the NW side called Volcan Chico that last saw activity 40 years ago. Most of the hike was through forested area around the rim of the caldera then as we entered the caldera it changed to cactus and scrubby stuff. We saw a few Yellow Warblers. The final mile was black lava rock that had zero vegetation. We put our hands into fumarole holes and felt the heat from the magma under the earth. In the distance we saw steam vents. We saw multiple types of lava rock (depending on conditions, lava cools into different shapes - rolling rope shapes, jagged rocks, tunnels, etc.). We also saw cinder cones caved in and coated with oxidizing iron. It smelt like sulphur in places too. It was a geologically delicious.
We made lots of new friends on the tour including couples from New York and Germany. And Simon our cutie guide was very knowledgeable of the Galapagos and the volcano.
After returning to the hotel we freshened up and skedaddled to a boardwalk trail over a lagoon that lead to a tortoise breeding center. We heard the center closed at 5pm (it was 4:40pm). Along the way we saw FLAMINGOS! Flamingos were definitely on the Must See list. We saw other birds - we think they were Black Winged Stilts and Common Gallinule. We also saw bunches of marine iguanas chillin on the boardwalk. It was a lovely walk, however, the tortoise center was closed when we arrived although we did manage to snap a few photos of one section before they shooed us away. We will see more tortoises later in our trip.
We had $10 four course dinner that had excellent juice, popcorn (1st) and soup (2nd) but the rest was blah.
Notes of Appreciation
— Washing Machines (how lucky you are when you can just pop clothes into a machine...hand washing your clothes sucks)
— Showers (for obvious reasons especially in a hot climate and some not so obvious...we just jumped into the shower wearing the clothes that need washing)
— Sunscreen (it's a magical gringo sauce that allows us to go places we couldn't otherwise...we brought a lot because it's like 40 bucks a bottle here)
— Electricity (the power went out for a while in the middle off the night which meant *gasp* no AC for a time
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