Urbina Bay (Isabela Island)

Urbina Bay has one of the best eco-trails in the Galapagos Islands. It is quite long, with length of more than three kilometers and runs mainly among spinney. Do not forget to take anti-mosquito spray.

The place is named after the President of Ecuador José María Urvina (1851 - 1856). There are two variants of the title: Urbina and Urvina, first one is more common.

Who lives here:
 - land iguanas
 - land turtles
 - galapagos finches

In 1954 there was uplifting in this place and about a kilometer of the ocean floor became the shore. So sometimes you can find on the ground some sea elements, like shells.

This is the best place on the islands to observe the land iguanas. Actually, we did not see them anywhere else, except nurseries. And here big yellow iguanas are sitting right along the ecotrail. They are cold-blooded and therefore prefer to bask in the sun all day.

Compared with marine iguanas land iguanas are really big. If you move carefully, then can approach very close. And if you really careful, then try to make such photo :)


Besides that iguanas land turtles can be found here. Their population is about 5000 units. But not so long ago the turtles were on the verge of extinction. Since 1968 on the Isabella island appeared farm animals: goats, pigs and donkeys. They went from the people and became wild, bred quickly and upset the local ecosystem. Number of turtles rapidly decreased from 100 thousand to several thousand! For their survival the population of goats and donkeys was completely eliminated in 2004-2005...


There are also large ones, for example here some time ago died pretty big turtle and remain shell.


During our walk was high tide which cause...


Sometimes the depth was about 60-70 cm, but it was funny :)


Getting there: It is one of the farthest points on the islands, you can visit it only as part of a cruise.