Last week, for the first time in several decades, Wolf Volcano on Isla Isabela began erupting. We weren't certain whether it would still be erupting when we sailed past, or if we would be able to see lava flow. As soon as the sun set, you could see a bit of pink off the tip of the volcano, and as we sailed closer, it was clear that the volcano was still actively erupting. Our ship got as close as we could safely, which ended up being about 200 yards from the volcano and as you can see, we had an amazing view. From where we were, the water temperature was 90 degrees fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than where we had been in the afternoon. |
Wolf Volcano is home to a very unique species of land iguanas, that were identified as a species in 2009, the iguana rosada. They are large, pink iguanas with black stripes down the tail. The fear with this eruption was that it would eradicate this new, endemic species, but fortunately the colony is on the opposite side of the volcano and will not have trouble surviving this eruption.