By Arabella
We have left the Galapagos where we spent a wonderful three weeks, hiking, exploring and learning about the animals everywhere around us. While we were on the surreal island of Isabella, we met a lady named Claudia. She is a quirky, energetic, crazy, Argentinian girl version of Indiana Jones. She wore cool cowboy hats, park ranger clothes and the best part was she’s a grandma! How can a grandma be this funky and risk- taking? She brought us on many amazing adventures, one was a hiking and horse riding trip on Sierra Negra Volcano. We rode up and at the top of the crater Claudia, Daddy and Uncle Alex were going to go cantering. I decided to joined them. I started riding horses with my dad at 2 years old but had never cantered in my life, this was going to be a first. Claudia signalled her horse to canter and the other horses followed. My horse sped past and I felt free as a bird, like I could fly anywhere I wanted to. Daddy was so worried he was going to fall off the horse and told me I was braver than him. After that, Claudia told me she would be honoured to take me on a one on one horse riding lesson. I was jumping up and down, I was over the moon! I begged mommy to arrange it and she agreed!
On the 1st of September on the island of Isabella, Galapagos, Claudia brought me on a private horse riding lesson venturing through the thick, green woods and on the rim of an active volcano that last erupted in 2018!
A big yellow cab picked us up and drove us to the stables through a series of different habitats. We started at the coast on a beautiful sandy beach, then moved onto the dry lands where the cactus grew and the dust blew in the breeze. Lastly, we arrived in the misty viridescent forest. I stumbled out of the car holding my jam-packed backpack and saw two beautiful horses before me. One white like snow named Blanca and the other dark brown like cacao with a slit of white on her head, she’s Autumn. The horses were saddled and ready to ride, I rode Blanca first. stepped onto the stirrup and held onto the mane, swung my other leg around and got my foot in the opposite stirrup. I straightened my back and bent my knees stabilising myself, I pat Blanca and we were ready to ride.
We started walking towards a steep gravel hill surrounded by thousands of guava trees. It looked like a wedding aisle but guava trees instead of people. Three dogs chased after us and decided to join our exciting journey. We hopped out of a shallow ditch and the gravel road casually faded into an overgrown forest thicker than frosting. The branches swung back at Claudia and I and we put our head onto the horses mane so we wouldn’t get stabbed in the eye or face with a stick. Occasionally, my foot would get caught on a tree trunk or plant and get scratched. The mist was cooling but hard to ride through, and dew made a layer over my sunglasses so it was very hard to see.
We emerged from the other end of the forest on a beautiful field. The mist was so heavy you couldn’t see further than five metres. There was a cliff going down into the volcano on the right of us. You couldn’t see it until you got very close and even then it looked like the inside was a pile of cotton candy white as snow. The horse would never jump into the crater even if you forced her or him to do so, it’s as if it has a sixth sense telling it to stay put and not commit suicide. The guava trees got fewer and fewer as we ascended. We trotted ahead to a concrete road and went for a short canter on an uphill section. Blanca got into a canter really easily. She also loves to be in the front so when Claudia canters ahead she speeds up to catch Autumn even when I don’t tell her to. When I tell her to stop she went into a walk and finally comes into a halt. It annoyed me a bit but I kept trying, leading him in small spaced circles over and over again as a punishment. We arrived at the ***** side of the crater and the sun finally came out. There was a huge sulphur mine there. vivid yellow like the sun, steaming like a bonfire, dusty like chalk dust. The greenery on the rim of the crater, the black dried up magma in the crater and the yellow sulphur in the middle of it all creates the most surreal beautiful photo. We jumped off our horse and tied them onto an old tree trunk shading a bench where we enjoyed some guava we picked on the way up.
After a quick break we jumped back onto our horses this time me riding Autumn. We went off on a trail Claudia had never been to. The “trail” started with grass as tall as us. We navigated ourselves and created our own path through. The grass shortened gradually until it was a beautiful field filled with ferns and flowers. We trotted on the rim of the crater so far we could see another volcano from where we were. It was floating! Only the top of the crater was visible, the rest hidden behind a huge cloud creating the illusion that it’s levitating. At this point, the dogs were still following us, we had ridden for hours and hours! We turned around because it started getting rocky and we didn’t want to put the horses through it even though they could take much worse. there was a beautiful section of the road perfect for cantering so I signalled autumn to do a canter and she went into one right away. It was the most beautiful and free canter I’ve ever done, we flew past like a speeding train. The feeling was indescribable. I felt like sonic running into a wonderful paradise. I barely pulled the reins and Autumn immediately stopped running. She stayed rock still until I gave her my next command, it was incredible! Claudia told me to stay still while she cantered past Autumn and I. Its a very hard skill to have your horse stay still while others go past but Autumn aced this test. Then I had to be in the front and lead us through narrow passage, muddy from the rain earlier in the morning. There were crevasses and ditches I had to lead autumn through and we finally made it out on the other side. we paused as a herd of cattle ran past us and continued our way back. The guava tree population tripled the lower we went and I picked a bag full of them.
Finally we arrived back at the stables and tied the horses on. My legs were so stiff and I could barely stand, I wonder how the horses felt. I was driven back to the beach and felt so grateful for this breathtaking, one in a lifetime experience. Riding horses, on a volcano, that’s active, in the Galapagos!