Today, Tuesday, our last on Isabela we decided to walk along the coast and revisit a small beach we had discovered on one of our bike rides. This was a river beach, hidden in the mangroves. In a small clearing a fresh water stream, the water clean and cold as it must have come from an aquifer deep below the hillside. The river wound through the mangrove, sometimes only inches deep, in other places we had to swim. It arrived at the coast at the head of a small inlet, the water getting more salty the further we went. In the inlet we found turtles and pelicans in the shallows. We retraced our steps, enjoying the cool fresh water before the long walk back along the beach to the boat.
The mangrove swamps line the tidal edges of the islands, happy in fresh or salty water they drop branches down from the canopy which become roots. They provide an unique environment which both protects the island from erosion and provides a safe place for juvenile fish and other creatures to grow and birds to roost. We have come across them in Australia but there we avoided them as they are home to salt water crocodiles, not something we wished to get close to.
Another good day and a beautiful end to our visit to Isabela.
Tomorrow we move on to Floreana.