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Straddling the equator, ISABELA is the largest island in the Galapagos at 4558 square kilometres, accounting for well over half the total land surface of the archipelago. It comprises six volcanoes , fused together over time: from north to south, Ecuador (610m), Wolf (1707m), Darwin (1280m) and Alcedo (1097m) make up a narrow volcanic chain that tapers into the inaccessible aa lava flow of the Perry Isthmus, on the other side of which Sierra Negra (1490m) and Cerro Azul (1250m) compose the squat base of the island. Several of the volcanoes are still active, the last eruption being in September 1998, when Cerro Azul spurted molten lava into areas populated by two subspecies of giant tortoise, including the endangered Geochelone elephatopus guntheri , of which there are fewer than one hundred left. The threatened tortoises were airlifted by helicopter or hauled to safety over the unforgiving terrain by ground crews. Much of Isabela's huge land mass is impassable, riven by fissures, blocked by jagged lava flows, or clothed in tangled thickets of vegetation. From the air, much of the island looks as though its been cracked and disfigured through overheating. The rocky shores mean that there are few landing places on the island. Three of the visitor sites - Urbina Bay, Elizabeth Bay and Tagus Cove - are on its far western side, putting them in range only of the longer tours. Volcan Alcedo , the only visitor site on the eastern site, is closed for the eradication of goats, which are seriously disrupting the largest giant tortoise colony in the Galapagos. The upwelling of cold waters off the coast make for a nutrient rich zone, supporting such oddities as the Galapagos penguin and the flightless cormorant , more usually spotted on nearby Fernandina. Plentiful stocks of fish also attract whales , large schools of common dolphins and gregarious bottle-nosed dolphins - an unexpected highlight of the western islands. Puerto Villamil , the island's first town on its southwestern coast, is far less developed than either Puerto Ayora or Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, but there are several interesting places that you can see without much difficulty, including a horse ride through the verdant highlands up to the awesome crater of Sierra Negra .
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