Last weekend I was very lucky to have the opportunity to horse ride up to the top of Sierra Negra Volcano, one of Galapagos’s very active volcanoes and camp overnight on the edge of the crater.
Many visitors to Galapagos visit the Sierra Negra volcano on a day tour, where a Naturalist Guide leads the group on a 16km walk to the volcano caldera (edge of the rim), with the tour lasting approximately 5 hours. As a resident of Galapagos, I am in the unique position of having friends here who know people in the highlands that own horses. So when the offer was given to go with a couple of guides on horseback up Sierra Negra and camp overnight, of course we said yes.
Our group had a very late afternoon start, not leaving the Galapagos National Park checkpoint at the base of the volcano until 4:30pm. It was raining and we had been told that the ride would take approximately 3 hours with our group of 8 people and horses.
The horse riding learning curve was fast and steep. It was a muddy, uphill walk and for those of us not overly experienced with horses, there were a few slippery moments. Listening to the guides tell me to trust the horse, it will not slip over, hold the hair of the mane and the reins and grip with my legs meant the first hour was pretty tiring, especially as there was constant rain. But I learnt my horse and how to give direction, learnt control pretty quickly and was soon confident to be trotting and into a canter on the more flat areas.
As we left so late, the last 45 minutes of our ride was trotting in the dark to hurry up and get there. Whilst a little nerve racking, after having been on the horses for 3 hours everyone was happy to reach the top of the volcano as quickly as possible and set up camp.
Before leaving Australia I bought and packed a tent in my suitcase and brought it over to Ecuador. Many people thought I was crazy for packing a tent along with a projector and food processor, but I had hoped that we would have the opportunity to go on an adventure like this. The tent was great and we had it set up reasonably quickly in the dark. With the continuing rain a camp fire was unfortunately not possible, though we tried, so we instead enjoyed a picnic dinner of sandwiches with squashed avocados and tomatoes snug in the tent.
At 5am the next morning, we woke before sunrise to a clear sky and the promise of something spectacular. As we had camped on the volcano rim, on one side we could see into the Sierra Negra volcano centre scattered with continuously smoking sulfur mines. On the other side was another of Isabela’s volcanoes, Cielo Azul poking up through the clouds. Both Sierra Negra and Cielo Azul are very active volcanoes, with seismologists recently saying that both could erupt at any time. Over the past month Cielo Azul has had significantly increased seisemic activity and is predicted to be the first to erupt.
As the sun rose, the views were spectacular. Tourists who visit Sierra Negra on the day tour walk a different section of the caldera, so for many people in our group the formations around us were new and unexpected. This was my first time visiting Sierra Negra and I was overwhelmed by the views.
After breakfast we hiked down into the volcano crater to explore the sulfur mines. The sun was shining, the day was beautiful and we had gone from being cold and wet to hot and needing sun protection at 9am.
Never having walked inside of an active volcano before, it was a surreal experience for me, especially hearing the very active lava chamber was only approximately 2km beneath our feet and the sulfur we were walking across was so thin our footsteps echoed in some places.
Once we had explored the stinky sulfur centre, we hiked back to the rim. Our wet tents, sleeping bags, socks and clothes had dried in the sun and we packed up, mounted the horses and descended back down the volcano. We rode down into the rain and as with the day before the path became very slippery and a lot trust was placed in the four legs of our slipping and sliding horses to remain upright. Thankfully everyone made it back without incident and ended an incredible volcano weekend.
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