AM.: The islet Las Tintoreras is located south of Puerto Villamil. It has a small bay of completely calm turquoise waters, where you can appreciate sea lions, sea turtles, marine iguanas, rays, etc. The bay is connected to a crevice of crystal clear water, that’s shallow and when the tide is low, the entrance closes. In this crevice, you can see how reef sharks swim along with other small fish and sea lions. Most of the trail is lava AA, except for a white sand beach and a black stone beach. In the first beach there are colonies of sea lions, its also a nesting site for marine iguanas, during the nesting season. The second beach is entirely surrounded by mangroves, button mangrove (Conocarpus erecta) and white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa). Throughout the trail you can see many marine iguanas in the rocks or under the mangroves.
The visitor site “Wetlands”, is a complex of trails that include the following sites: Cerro Orchilla, a lookout which you can access via a staircase; from this site you can see the bay and the town of Puerto Villamil, Sierra Negra Volcano, the Cerro Azul Volcano, islets and rocks. These sites form spectacular scenery. El Estero is a 227m path of lava rocks, 1.5 meters wide. It consists of a picnic site where the people come to do leisure activities. On this site you can see the four species of mangrove found in Galapagos and a small majagual forest.
It forms part of the stories and legends of the penal colony era on Isabela. La Poza Escondida is a path of stone and wood, where the main attraction is a mangrove forest and at the end of this path is a this pool. Poza Redonda, is a path of 50 meters long, of lava plates leading to a pool formed inside a collapsed lava tube. Tunel del Estero, a path 75m long and with adequate lava plates ending in a staircase inside a lava tunnel. Above the tunnel you can see the intertidal landscape that offers a tapestry of Galapagos Sesuvium between “El Túnel del Estero” and Love Beach. Love Beach, has a rocky sea access, is a site frequently used by the community of Isabela. Los Tunos Viewpoint and Pozas Verde are paths with several lookout points that allow observation of birds and plants. La Playita: Is a path that leads to a small beach that is part of the greater beach in Villamil. The Tortoise Breeding Center of Isabela is located 1.5 km from Puerto Villamil. You can walk or drive. In this Breeding Center populations from South Isabela (Sierra Negra Volcano, Cerro Azul):
Cazuela, Cinco Cerros, Roca Union, San Pedro, Tables and Cerro Paloma have been reproduced in captivity. In total there are 330 between juvenile and adult tortoises. From the population of Cerro Paloma, there are 4 males and two female Galapagos, which, so far, are the only survivors.
Cinco Cerros has a giant tortoise subpopulation quite different. Locally it is known as “aplastada” (flattened} by the peculiar shape of its shell. The tortoises are fed three times a week, based on an Otoya (Xanthosoma saggitifolium) plant diet, and cachimuela (Potomorphe peltata). The water they drink is from small artificial ponds that exist within the corrals. The Breeding Center has beautiful gardens consisting of native plants, as manzanillo (Hippomane mancinella), mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), prickly pear (Opuntia spp), palo santo (Bursera graveolens), lime prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum Fagara), thorn shrub (Scutia pauciflora) Galapagos croton (Croton scouleri), Glorybower (Clerodendrum molle), sea island or creole cotton (Gossypium barbadense), Radiate-headed (lechoso) (Scalesia affinis), yellow cordia (Cordia lutea), snowberry or milkberry (Chiococca alba), myrtle (Maytenus octagon), nickerbean or nickernut (Caesalpinia bonduc) and Darwin’s Daisy (Darwiniothamnus spp).