January 18, 2012

DAY 62


ISABELA ISLAND

Hiked up to the top of the volcano. It was sunny on the beach but cloudy and rainy at the top of the volcano. Standing on the rim, I could only see fog with about 20 foot visibility. A bit of a wasted hike except for the exercise. It was cold, rainy and the trail was muddy, I would have preferred to skip this altogether had I known. After the hike there was an apparent schedule change for the day and we were dropped off at beach for 5 hours. It was a beautiful beach with very few people around, a short walk down the beach and I was isolated with white sand and emerald green water. I ended up picking up lots of trash along the beach until both arms were full.

From what I have gathered the locals are bad about trashing the place, there was even a sign put up encouraging locals to put trash in the trash containers, it was in Spanish and said something like "we can do better". The worst impact on these islands are the locals who do not appreciate were they live, the travelers who come here are helping to preserve the place with the money that goes into the park system and pays for the park rangers and helping to preserve this area. I thought the tourism industry was destroying this place but it is really the locals. When you talk to local folks they are pleasant and seem like good people overall but just very much unaware.

I ended up sleeping on a bench for a couple of hours and a sweet dog came over to be with me. I petted her some and then she went to sleep under my bench.

 


Frigate

 

 


The hike up to the volcano

 

 

 

 


My view from the bench where I took a nap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far I think this is the trashiest island here. I only photographed a few examples, there is also a lot of trash strewn about the roadsides too.


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