Isabela, at 4,588 sq km [1,766 square miles], is by far the largest island and boasts the tallest point of the archipelago, the 1,646 m [5,487 ft] Volcan Wolf. Stretching 132 km [83 miles] from north to south and 84 km [53 miles] at its widest, the island includes more than half of the land area of the Galapagos. A wild and inaccessible place of rumbling volcanoes, the island supports a population of about 1,000.

Places to visit.
Puerto Villamil
The main settlement, Puerto Villamil on the southeast coast, has a grim history and some visitors feel a dismal, end-of-the-world feeling hanging in the air. Not many cruise boats visit Puerto Villamil because of its distance from the main tourist areas and because of the difficulty entering the bay in rough weather. A few kilometers west of the village is the site of a penal colony, now destroyed, which had a reputation for cruelty. Little remains except an enormous basalt wall, known as the Wall of Tears, which was built from lava blocks by prisoners. Further on from here there’s an airport which had to be abandoned because the runway was badly positioned.

Despite its size, Puerto Villamil has a few shops, one or two excellent budget hotels, and the odd bar and disco. A short walk from the village is the white sand Lover’s Beach and a lagoon, said to be the best place to see water birds in the Galapagos. Puerto Villamil might well turn into a major tourist area like Puerto Ayora.

From Puerto Villamil, visitors can take a bus or a rental truck to the little hamlet of Santo Tomas on the slopes of the volcano of the same name [but also called Sierra Negra]. From there it’s a nine-kilometer [just over five-mile]-hike or horse ride [horses can be rented in the hamlet] to the rim of the volcano. The views here are magnificent — weather permitting. It’s a further eight-kilometer [five-mile]-hike around the rim to see the belching fumaroles.

Isabela is well known for its population of several thousand giant Galapagos tortoises. Tortoise subspecies on the island have developed over hundreds of years around each volcano. Intervening fields of jagged lava rocks has prevented tortoises lumbering from one volcanic area to another, intermingling the species. Feral goats, descendants of domestic animals brought by humans, are more agile and able to cope with the rugged terrain. Goats eat cactus, the staple diet of the tortoises, and thus threaten the older inhabitants with extinction. In an attempt to prevent such an ecological tragedy, shooting parties regularly venture to Isabela to control the goat population.

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Cape Marshall
Crossing to the south side of the equator a fabulous dive site lies on the eastern side of Isabela Island. Manta ray sightings are not uncommon here, but if you don't get to see these magnificent creatures, there are plenty of white-tipped reef sharks, schools of endemic black striped salems, yellowtail surgeonfish, creole fish, parrotfish, scrawled filefish and turtles to keep you busy.
The rocky volcanic cliffs drop down to the ocean floor with areas of obvious lava flow. Other areas are covered with square rocky fingers that are stacked vertically across the wall decorated with tufts of black coral.
Interesting colonies of anemones grow on the rocks and branches. Also found here are marbled rays, pacific boxfish, tiger snake eels, and even black & white zebra morays. The ridge of rocks slopes up so close to the surface that you can enjoy this dive even while doing the safety stop.

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Shipton Cove
The best place to see giant tortoises is on Volcan Alcedo, home to the biggest population on the island. It isn’t a quick and easy journey. The usual procedure is to join a boat in Puerto Ayora that takes you to Shipton Cove, halfway down the eastern coast of Isabela. From the beach, a three to five-hour hike takes you to the rim of the volcano, the last steep haul being particularly difficult because of loose volcanic scree. The slopes of Alcedo become very hot in the middle of the day so it’s advisable to start your climb before dawn. With little shade en route, you must bring water and other supplies with you. If possible, arrange to camp for one or two nights on the rim of the volcano from where there are wonderful views across the island and down 200 m [670 ft] into the immense lava field of the seven-kilometer [four-and-a-half-mile]-wide caldera itself.

Walking around the rim for another three or four hours, you will come to fumaroles of spewing vaporous gases. Tortoises tend to hide under bushes or in burrows in hot season to avoid the sun, but during rainy season, from June to December, hundreds of giant tortoises can be seen in or around the caldera wallowing in muddy pools.

Isabela is also a breeding ground for the world’s only flightless cormorant. Occasionally these rare birds can be seen around Punta Garcia, further northwards up the coast from Shipton Cove, but the birds may have deserted this area for the more populous and inaccessible colonies in the west of the island. Moving up to the northern tip of Isabela, Punta Albemarle is a remote and seldom-visited promontory, which was an American radar base during World War II. It was one of the few places on the planet from which to see the total eclipse of the sun on February 26, 1988.

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Tagus Cove
Unless you spend a few weeks in the Galapagos Islands, you are unlikely to have time to discover the desolate charm and teeming bird life of western Isabela. But if your heart is set on seeing the unique flightless cormorant, you can find several colonies along the coast. The other flightless bird, the Galapagos penguin, also resides here. One of the best places to see them is from a boat off the cliffs of Tagus Cove. Here there is an opportunity to see marine iguanas, sally lightfoot crabs and sea lions. As with many sites blue footed boobies are in abundance.

Some of the cliffs and the rocks of the cove are covered with names of boats and people inscribed by sailors who used the bay for refuge. If you land here you can take a wooden stairway to a viewpoint overlooking Darwin Lake, a circular, lagoon which was raised above sea level by tectonic movements. Walking on further, you come to another panoramic viewpoint. So jagged are the lava rocks here you could lose the soles of solid boots if you walked over them for more than four kilometers [two and half miles]. Wild dogs in the area have adapted to their environment by growing extra-thick pads on their feet and acquiring the capacity to drink sea water.

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Urvina Bay
South from Tagus Cove and still on the West coast is Urvina Bay. The waters of the bay are a good place to see turtles and rays and ashore is a short trail leading to a coral reef, which is evidence of an uplift from the sea which occurred in 1954. Marine iguanas, flightless cormorants and pelicans can be seen at this site.

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Elisabeth Bay