Bike trip to the Wall Of Tears and adios, Isabella 2/25

Up bright and early after a restful night (our first and only one on Isabella). Feeling refreshed we headed off to the bike rental shop to collect our bicycles for a road trip. Nine of our twelve person crew decided to participate. Isabella was originally a prison island and a small group of citizens arrived to act as guards and support personnel. About 12 kilometers outside what is now Puerto Villamil the prisoners were forced to work at hard labor building a large wall in the middle of nowhere. They broke up lava rock with sledge hammers and then piled up the rocks to form a wall. This is now known as “The Wall of Tears”. This would be our final destination on the bike trip. We headed out of town with a map and instructions to make sure to stop at one particular beach. The bicycles were not the best – gears didn’t shift very well but we were riding on basically flat sandy land for the beginning of the trip. We stopped at a lava tunnel another iguana nesting area and observed several lagoons along the way. All along the left side of the road were some pretty spectacular beaches. Another stop was at a salt water estuary where we watched a fisherman clearing his nets. Not quite sure if this guy was supposed to be fishing in a National park area – not my problem. He was gutting his catch and throwing the stuff to a flock of birds that watched is every move. We were able to observe pelicans, frigate birds, some herons up real close. Also along the way was one of the largest mangrove trees in the world. I should mention that it was HOT. Connie had mentioned that I should have filled up my water bladder but I of course only filled it half way. We eventually arrived at the Wall of Tears but no one wanted to spend much time there. I climbed up a large stone stairway beside the wall to see the view. Not much to see – just a canyon with some scrub brush. There was another nice view of the ocean in the distance but al in all the climb up was unnecessary. People were ready to head back to town and now the fun started. It seems that Rich’s bike broke - the entire pedal mechanism on one side fell off. He had pedaled with one foot and then pushed the ground with the other foot. Not a real efficient method of travel. I volunteered to “ride” his bike back to town and he went on with my bike. Everyone was real keen to have a swim at that real cool beach. I rode back with Luis and we stopped to see that mangrove tree that we had missed on the way out. The pedal would fall off about every 50 feet or so and we’d try to smash it back on…… In the mean time a replacement bike was to be delivered to us. They came with the new bike just before we met up with the rest of the party at the beach. One of the girls’ bikes had a flat tire by this time as well and no replacement for that. We now had 6 people left and 4 functioning bikes. The two girls rode back to town in the truck and we swam for about a half hour at what was to this point the nicest beach I had ever been on. Back to town where we returned the bike – not without more drama. It seems that when they loaded the broken bike into the back of the truck they lost the pedal. They demanded we pay for it and we refused – eventually they were convinced to go look for the pedal. We had a nice lunch at a local restaurant – rice and seafood and then checked out of the hotel and were taken to the pier. The 2.5 hour trip back to Santa Cruz took only 2 hours and we were taken right to the pier of our hotel for the next four nights. The Angermeyer Waterfront Inn is a really nice place – first thing I checked was the internet connection so we’ll be able to post better. Too tired to do anything last night – nice diner and off to bed. More later……