Southern Isabela
Today we visited the “2000 inhabitant village” of Puerto Villamil. In the morning, while some of our guests were visiting the Highlands, others like me, stayed on the lowlands to call on the National Park Service breeding center. Our adventurous journey up in the highlands was a combination of the different vegetation zones and the drastic desolated volcanic landscape to finally reach the rim of sierra Negra volcano. The muddy trail didn’t discourage our guests to continue walking to Volcan Chico, which is located half an hour further from Sierra Negra’s caldera. The hike through the forest area was surrounded by ferns and endemic plants like the giant daisy, known by the scientific world as Scalesia. This is the perfect habitat for different species of birds like finches and the famous vermillion flycatcher of which we found a male and a female. The view of the top of the caldera was like searching through a geology textbook. The colors of the volcanic rocks in the basin, the heat, the fumaroles and sulfurous smell in the air made our senses work at their full capacity!
On the other hand at the breeding center, we had the opportunity to learn about the conservation programs that have been developed here. Luckily, the decimated population of 70 giant tortoises from Cerro Paloma had increased to 436 individuals. In three more years, once they reach a certain size on the carapace, they will be released in their natural habitat. Once the ping-pong ball-size eggs are laid, they are immediately taken by the park rangers and carefully placed for incubation. In the wild, the complete development of the embryo takes about 6 months, and this occurs during the dry season in the islands. The process of incubation at the breeding center takes only 5 months, as they can control the incubation temperature and accelerate it. The picture shows a two-month-old embryo in a jar that some of the personnel working at the station showed us.
On our way back from the breeding center, we walked along a boardwalk through the true wet lands of the islands. This area is mainly surrounded by button and white mangrove and several species of shore birds were spotted.
Today we visited the “2000 inhabitant village” of Puerto Villamil. In the morning, while some of our guests were visiting the Highlands, others like me, stayed on the lowlands to call on the National Park Service breeding center. Our adventurous journey up in the highlands was a combination of the different vegetation zones and the drastic desolated volcanic landscape to finally reach the rim of sierra Negra volcano. The muddy trail didn’t discourage our guests to continue walking to Volcan Chico, which is located half an hour further from Sierra Negra’s caldera. The hike through the forest area was surrounded by ferns and endemic plants like the giant daisy, known by the scientific world as Scalesia. This is the perfect habitat for different species of birds like finches and the famous vermillion flycatcher of which we found a male and a female. The view of the top of the caldera was like searching through a geology textbook. The colors of the volcanic rocks in the basin, the heat, the fumaroles and sulfurous smell in the air made our senses work at their full capacity!
On the other hand at the breeding center, we had the opportunity to learn about the conservation programs that have been developed here. Luckily, the decimated population of 70 giant tortoises from Cerro Paloma had increased to 436 individuals. In three more years, once they reach a certain size on the carapace, they will be released in their natural habitat. Once the ping-pong ball-size eggs are laid, they are immediately taken by the park rangers and carefully placed for incubation. In the wild, the complete development of the embryo takes about 6 months, and this occurs during the dry season in the islands. The process of incubation at the breeding center takes only 5 months, as they can control the incubation temperature and accelerate it. The picture shows a two-month-old embryo in a jar that some of the personnel working at the station showed us.
On our way back from the breeding center, we walked along a boardwalk through the true wet lands of the islands. This area is mainly surrounded by button and white mangrove and several species of shore birds were spotted.
