Why Isabela Island
Isabela Island is the largest landmass in Ecuador's Galápagos Archipelago, extending 100 kilometers (62 miles) in length and covering an area of 4,586 square kilometers (1,771 square miles). Situated directly on the equator, this seahorse-shaped island is larger than all other islands in the chain combined and nearly four times the size of Santa Cruz. Today, it supports a permanent population of slightly under 2,000 inhabitants.
Originally called Santa Isabela in honor of Queen Elizabeth of Portugal, the island was renamed Isabela Island in 1892 during Ecuador’s quadricentennial commemoration of Christopher Columbus's initial voyage, shifting its namesake to Queen Isabella I of Castile. English buccaneer Ambrose Cowley had previously named it Duke of Albemarl’s Island or Albemarle Island in 1684. Permanent settlement began in 1893 with the founding of Santo Tomás and Puerto Villamil, the latter of which sits on the southeastern tip and is the third-largest settlement in the archipelago. Early local trade relied on sulfur extracted from fumaroles, lime derived from coral, and tortoise meat and oil.
Geologically young at approximately one million years old, Isabela lies on the western margin of the archipelago near the Galápagos hotspot. It was formed by the joining of six shield volcanoes: Alcedo, Cerro Azul, Darwin, Ecuador, Sierra Negra, and Wolf. Except for Volcan Ecuador, all of these volcanoes are active, making the island one of the most volcanically active locations on Earth. Volcan Wolf is the island's highest point at 1,707 meters (5,600 feet) and, like Volcan Ecuador, straddles the equator. Significant geological features include tuff cones at Tagus Cove, pumice deposits on Alcedo and Sierra Negra, and coastal uplifts at Urbina Bay and the Bolivar Channel.
Due to its recent lava fields, Isabela's terrain lacks the nutrient-rich soils of older islands, though the elevated peaks of Volcan Wolf and Cerro Azul rise above cloud cover into dry environments. Nevertheless, the island hosts remarkable fauna, including penguins, marine iguanas, cormorants, boobies, pelicans, land iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs, Galápagos hawks, doves, and Darwin's finches. Isabela holds more wild tortoises than all other islands combined; physical barriers such as lava flows isolated populations within the calderas of its volcanoes, causing multiple distinct subspecies to develop. Native vegetation has rebounded significantly following the eradication of over 100,000 introduced goats in 2006–2007 by park authorities and the Charles Darwin Foundation. The waters of the Bolivar Channel off the west coast provide the premier location in the archipelago for observing whales and dolphins.
Among the key points of interest in the south are the Flamingo Lagoon, known for its resident flamingos, and the Wall of Tears (el Muro de las Lágrimas), a stone wall constructed by inmates when Isabela functioned as a penal colony.
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