When the rest of the crew left to take the boat to San Cristobal, Marieke and I found a cozy and clean guesthouse, with air conditioning as a much appreciated bonus!  Rested up, we rented a couple of mountain bikes and set off.  Isabela is a great place to ride a bike as there are so few cars and lots to explore, but it was hot.  We definitely didn’t bring enough water.  We passed beach after secluded beach, but decided to keep going for the viewpoint.  About 100 stairs later, we made it to the top and had a stunning vista of the island.

With no shade to be found, we decided to skip the Wall of Tears, as it was another few kilometres away, and we were out of water.  Half delirious, we pedalled down the dirt road, pushing our bikes up the hills, until we finally encountered a beach.  And a security post selling water!  The guard kindly looked after our bikes while we swam in the turquoise water and lay on the beach, the only people around as far as we could see.  It was awesome.  The lovely guard even took a couple of great photos of us before we left!

Returning our bikes, we headed back to our room to take advantage of the A/C.  An hour later we heard the unmistakeable sound of rocks being thrown at our window.  We were being fetched by our friend Colin, who whisked us away with the promise of a swimming pool and bottle of wine.  Getting louder as the bottle got lighter, the guests checking in to the fancy hotel didn’t look super impressed.  Feeling a bit out of place, it was time to leave the pool.  And with flights booked out of San Cristobal a couple of days later, it was time to leave Isabela.