Sierra Negra

After touring the islands on a yacht called Estrella Del Mar (Sea Star) for three days I left the tour group and stayed on Isla Isabela.  This is the largest island in the archipelago but it has the smallest population.  This is partly due to the active volcano called Sierra Negra that causes problems every so often.  Climbing the southern rim of the crater is one of the main tourist attractions.  The crater has been formed over millions of years by the lava flow from countless eruptions.  The Galápagos archipelago is in fact a volcanic formation, big piles of lava rock jutting out of the sea.  In the picture above the mouth of the volcanic eruption is in the upper left.  The lava comes down and fills the valley and raises the temperature in the crater and the surrounding area immensely.  The last eruption was in 2005.  I hiked up the volcano with four other people, each of a different nationality.  The guide was Ecuadorian from Isla Isabela.  Then there was a Korean man who was fluent in Spanish but spoke poor English.  There was a girl from Sweden and another young man from Switzerland.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and a clear view of the entire crater.  On the way up we saw butterflies of various kinds and a bird called the vermilion fly eater, which is endangered.  Below is the vermilion fly eater.