Off to Isabela we go ⛏️

22/1/23

Ay ho ay ho, its off to work we go 🎶

Today I was moving to Isla Isabela to begin my first ever workaway. I had an early ferry to catch so naturally woke up every hour to check I hadn’t missed my alarm, despite only going to bed at 2am and having to be up at 6am.. NICE. I skipped breakfast, since I was more concerned about finding the correct boat at the right time and headed to the harbour, where there were loads of people queueing without knowing what exactly they were queueing for (myself included). Everyone loves a queue, aye?! Eventually, I made it to the front of the queue, just about made it through security after being made to scrub my trainers (that were a little muddy post turtle farm). Each island is its own delicate ecosystem, so they don’t want anything being brought from one island to the next. We got a taxi boat to the ferry and had to pay a dollar for the privilege. Then we set off. Two long hours in the bowels of a very bouncy boat with no windows. Gross. We then got another taxi boat from the ferry to the harbour requiring another $1 (which I paid with a $20 note, my final one as it turned out!). I was SUPER excited to see a penguin swimming in the dock – eeeep! We landed, paid our island tax ($10) and then headed off to walk into town.

It was a hot walk along a road with not much but a couple of houses and a dog and cat sterilisation centre. In town was a cute square and plenty of restaurants. I made my way to Bar de Beto, a bar and hostel that I was going to be doing my first ever workaway for a week, 4 hours of work a day in exchange for free accommodation. Shout out to Kevin who I met years ago in Laos and who told me about the workaway (as well as everything else I could do in Ecuador!). I ditched my bag in the room and went to meet Fiorella, the daughter of the owners and the previous workawayer, Camille, a French girl, equally cool to the Camille in Emily in Paris! They did a little video with the beach in the background of the bar on coco locos, an Ecuadorian drink consisting of coconut water and cana, a sugar cane spirit mixed inside the coconut. It tasted pretty nice and we enjoyed it after the video was done.

Then began my first mission, trying to get cash! Stupidly, I hadn’t realised how low on dollar I was, so rocked up to the island with one ATM with basically no money. Of course, the ATM was broken, and so begins the ATM check ups! Edit(h), the owner of the bar suggested a shop on the other side of town which sometimes gave money out like cashback. I wandered around looking for it, passing some flamingoes on the way, asking various people for directions there, but then not understanding exactly what they said. Eventually, a kind elderly man who was sat in the street chatting with his friends cycled halfway with me and pointed me in the correct direction of the shop. When I got there, they said they could only do it for Ecuadorian banks – typical! I went back to the hostel/bar and chilled and the owner Alberto said he would give me cash if I paid card with some tax. Sorted. I watched sunset while painting from the beach bar and then went for empanadas with Pia, a Danish girl in my room and we met another woman Marilyn from France there too. I had a prawn empanada with gloriously spicy salsa and we had a good long chat before Pia and I headed back to chill.

23/1/23

Today I got to work early, starting to paint by 8am after a quick breakfast of granola and freshly ground coffee. I was of course painting again, on the top floor which had a beaut view. I finished by 12pm, was given watermelon by Edith, and then after some more snacks, I headed out snorkelling at concha de perla – I tried at least! My snorkel’s seal around the mask was broken so it wasn’t long before I gave up. After a swim, I headed back to town. On returning back to the hostel, I realised that $50 had gone from my purse which was sat in the dorm room. The only people who had been in there were the cleaners and I was pretty sad. I told Edith and she investigated, but with no luck. Afterwards, I decided it was a less traumatic way to ‘spend’ $50 than to have to spend it on rabies shots and maybe I should be grateful it wasn’t in a armed robbery.. Its all swings and roundabouts I guess.

Literally couldn’t tell you what I did next! But I watched the sunset and cooked pasta. Then I chilled! Time has flown here in Isabela!

24/1/23

Today I was up early to go to the Wall of Tears, a wall built in the 1940s and 1950s by prisoners, who were sent to Isabela as punishment. They had to make a 25 metre wall in the blazing heat. Of course many died in the process and there was a memorial for them.

I cycled there and started early to avoid the sun. I biked all the way there, stopping only for one viewpoint before hiking the final bit to a beautiful viewpoint. Wowwww. On the way back, I stopped at various beaches and lakes and trekked another few kilometres to a volcanic black beach with only me, the iguanas and the pelicans. It was very cool. On returning back, I ate the rest of the previous nights pasta and set to work painting again.

In the evening, I went for dinner with Pia again, and another girl from Germany who was heading back to Santa Cruz in the morning. Both of them had lived in Auz and had enjoyed it…

25/1/23

Today I had booked to go on a tour of two of Isabela six volcanos with Pia. Pia had kindly lended me the money so I wasn’t counting my pennies until the ATM worked again. I had an early breakfast and then we were collected nearly an hour late (classic), before heading over to Sierra Negra. When we got there, there were heaps of people! Maybe thirty five or so! After being given a lunch box each, we all set off together as one big group, and at quite a pace! Me, Pia, two German girls, one older German lady, and another German girl (whose boyfriend likes to walk really quick), all ended up at the back of the pack. When we arrived at the first viewpoint, we were told, there was no time to stop for photos and that we could stop on the way back if we wanted. We carried on walking past, bemused. At the second viewpoint, we stopped briefly to be split into two walking groups. They tried to put some of us (the people who had arrived last) in the first group. The guide even shouted at the older German lady that she needed to move now, when she had literally just arrived, and had a lung condition, we were later told. How ridiculous. I said it was ridiculous and thankfully, a British couple volunteered to go in the first group instead.

We set off again in our supposed groups and within minutes, our guide was nowhere to be seen! For people that walk with me, you would know, I’m not a slow walker, so this guy was really in route March in sweltering heat territory! I was sure, he just wanted it to be over as quick as possible so he could return to his house with AC and watch Netflix for the remainder of the day – typical! Sierra Negra is one of the biggest crators in the world and its still fairly active. I learnt on my snorkelling tour that Isabela is the biggest island in Galapagos because it has six volcanoes. Originally, it was six separate islands, each with their own volcano, but overtime, with the lava from the volcanoes, the islands joined together to become one mass. I chatted a long time with a German girl whose boyfriend was ahead. She had travelled extensively through South America and now had a year sabbatical from work (an NGO).

We stopped to take pics (when we were allowed), meeting back up with Pia and the two other Germans in our hostel, Tamara and Duygo, as well as the older German. We then walked over cooled lava flows and past a cooled lava waterfall to reach the second volcano, Volcan Chico. We caught up with a better guide and listened to him for a bit before we reached the summit and our guide rounded us up threatening to leave without us if we didn’t run along side him. Pah! When we returned to the car park, he was still trying to leave without people so we refused to get on until everyone was back from the walk. Utter madness! On the bus back I got talking to an Israeli, whose ears pricked up when I was telling Pia about my trip last year which included Israel. He had been travelling for ten years after selling his business at home. What a life!

On returning to the hostal, I showered and then got straight to work painting on the verandas. I watched the sunset over the sea from the rooftops and then headed to get empanadas at a local place near the market. Strangely the empanadas were nowhere near as good as the ones on the main street aimed more at tourists. Lesson learnt (a one time only thing). I called in at the pastelleria (bakery) to get a lil sweet snack and checked in on the ATM too. Then it was bed time.