Penguins and flamingoes in the same place, and we are not talking Bronx Zoo, baby! Cacti trees with lollipop branch’s growing right out of surf pounded lava rocks. All next to a surfer styled beach community of waterfront bars and miles and miles if deserted sandy beach.

That’s Puerto Villamil, Isla Isabela - the smallest settlement you can visit on your own boat. We could see penguins through binoculars on the rocks near our boat. After we cleared in yesterday, we went ashore for a walk around town, the flamingo lagoon boardwalk and the longer trail past the three Pozas to the tortoise pen.

Along the poza trail there was a sign that read, in English and Spanish, “stay away from the small apples.” There was more text explaining that the tree and its fruits were poisonous, and the milky sap was a skin irritant. Only Galapagos tortoises can eat the fruit. So Robin immediately picked a fallen poison apple and put it on the sign to get a picture. I told her I was not holding her hand for the rest of the day.

In the pozas we saw more flamingoes, Black Necked Stilts, and white cheeked pintail ducks. A menu del dia lunch and a trip to a family owned tour operator with our port agent, Manuel, finished out the day.

Today we took the Rosedelco tour boat to Cabo Rosa and Los Tuneles, a formation of flooded lava tubes that you can snorkel through. Los Tuneles has the most jarring landscape - black lava rocks forming natural arches over turquoise water, with lollipop and squash shaped cactus trees improbably sprouting on top. The trip was pretty cool - in addition to close encounters with sea turtles we got to visit some white tipped sharks in their caves. I could swear one of them was smiling at me. We are assured that they are friendly, though the Israeli tourist on the boat with us claimed the same kind of shark ate two tourists in Sinai this summer. They did not look big enough to eat us.

The boat that took us on this trip was a planing outboard monohull. I had forgotten how bone jarring an experience riding a planing power boat in waves can be. It was an exciting entrance to Los Tuneles, through a pass in the surf and then into an intricate maze of natural canals through the lava rocks. To get back out, our captain gunned then stopped the engines to time our passage out through the breaking waves.

Back in port I asked the captain how much gas we used for the 30 mile round trip. Twenty or thirty gallons was his reply. Split among ten tourists, that is a bit less impact on the planet than the motor catamaran trip to Isla Isabela.