Climbing volcanoes seems to have become a regular feature of our travels and on our third island; Isobella, we were able to carry on our tradition. Sierra Negra is probably the most active volcano we have been on, with the last major eruption only 4 years ago in 2005. It was a beautiful day and the blistering heat, added to the warmth coming up through the, occasionally still steaming, lava made us all start to get a bit tetchy with our guide, who insisted on stopping every two minutes to tell us about another kind of lava or quiz us like school kids, scolding us, if we weren't paying attention. I was all for throwing him into the crater, but Nic managed to calm me down and we enjoyed the walk over lava flows, fissures and craters, until we were all hot, grubby and thirsty enough to demand to be taken for a well earned beer on the beach.
On our second day on Isabella, we wandered on a small island just off the coast, which as it is free from introduced species, is a great breeding ground for the marine iguanas. They are everywhere, you have to watch your feet so you don't step on them. It's like that scene from Jurassic Park, I kept waiting for them to pick off a straggler and swarm him, knawing all the meat off his bones. I know they're supposed to be vegetarians, but I was carefull not to end up on my own at the back, just in case. There is a small channel in the island, where the reef sharks come to rest during the day, preferring to hunt at night. You can see them, just under the water, lazily swimming up and down, occasionally a sea lion, entertains itself by pulling on their tails and chasing them out of the channel, it's amazing to watch.
The same guide I'd wanted to kill the day before, then took us on an extreme, endurance snorkle. Usually these things are done slowly, moving carefully through the water, giving you best chance of seeing the marine life around you. Not this time. Pablo was determined to cover as much area as possible, exhausting us and scaring away anything we came across with our frantic paddling. Still, we managed to spot a load of fish, a couple of turtles and two very cool star fish, and a few sea lions tried to keep up with us too.
