Galápagos Cruises to Isabela

About Isabela

The caldera of Sierra Negra, ten kilometres wide, penguins standing on the lava at Tagus Cove, a cormorant that gave up flying because nothing here hunts it: Isabela is larger than every other island put together, and six of its volcanoes are still active. Five of them carry their own subspecies of giant tortoise. The cold Cromwell current runs up against the west coast, which is the reason penguins and flightless cormorants live on the equator at all. Forty-two of our itineraries call at Isabela across 16 ships, from $2,966 per person, on trips of 4 to 14 nights.

They do not all call at the same places. Sierra Negra and the tortoise breeding centre are reached from Puerto Villamil in the south, while Tagus Cove, Urbina Bay and Elizabeth Bay lie on the west coast and appear only on the longer western circuits. The crossing costs time, so Isabela is rare on the shortest departures. If one particular site matters to you, the route matters more than the ship.