ISLA ISABELA

Isla Isabela is a volcanic island about 40 miles west of San Blas Mexico. It is only about a mile long and at the narrowest maybe a quarter mile wide. It is wider at the tips. The island is a major bird sanctuary especially for frigate birds. The biologist on the island told another cruiser that there are 5 million frigate birds that call the island home! I know from walking the island that there are a lot, but 5 million! He said it is THE island for frigate birds. It is also home to the Booby and other sea birds. We saw yellow footed boobies and blue footed boobies and what I thought was a light green footed one and brown ones. I'm not a birder so I really don't know how many different varieties there are. I checked the small book that we have but it only showed the blue footed ones. We saw two female blue footed booby sitting on their eggs, actually one on eggs and one with a very small chick. It's interesting in that they don't build nests, they just lay their eggs on the ground, sort of in a hollowed out space. Of course the island is covered with shrubby looking trees and grass so the mostly likely place to lay the eggs is along the path!! We were very careful to back off and go another way. We saw a lot of frigate bird nests with young of various ages. We also saw quiet a few iguana. We took a lot of pictures so the rest of this page will be pictures.

There is a fishing camp on the island and biology students from various places come and camp on the island to study the birds. We also talked to a man that said he had taken a camping tour of the island. They bring you over from the main land and leave you there with all your camping gear for however long you sign up for. There are no facilities on the island but they did set up out door toilet facilities. They also built a large cement area with a roof but no sides to camp in and for the students.

The other thing on the island worth seeing is "crater lake". The island is volcanic and there is a lake or lagoon in one of the mountains. They are very small mountains so we hiked up to the top of the one with the lake. The water was the ugliest gray/green I have ever seen. The pictures do not truly show the color of the water. It was a neat hike though. We took a picture of the stairs that go most of the way up the side. We only went ashore the one time as the island is so small that we saw all there was to see!!

So, we went ashore just the one time but we really got to see a lot. Below are just a couple of pictures of the Boobies we saw.

And we saw a lot of iguana. Below are a few of the ones we saw and a couple of shots of the terrain.

These are just a few of the pictures Rick took. He's getting really good at taking pictures too. Because I have to shrink the pictures to get more on the page it's hard to really see how awesome the island topography is. And the birds!!! Anyway, we plan on going back again next year, maybe earlier in the year when there are a lot of young chicks.