Unexpected Lava Tunnel Trip

‘m looking around the internet (while I have it) and in the Lonely Planet guide, there are a few places that caught my eye. I set off on a walk around town, and along the way, I ask how much a tour of the island costs, to see what there is. And the standard story… 100 dollars, and if there are more of us, say two cars, then he would lower it to 80 per person. This one drives a car around the island, and that one a speedboat across the sea, so their calculations are not the same, but who cares. All the drivers tell me the same story, I nod my head, say “si si, bueno”, and leave… I’m going for a coffee, and there I’ll see how it all works and who pays for it all, because to function normally, you have to have hundreds of dollars a day.

On the way back, a driver waves at me… he was left alone, all the others had arranged something, and he sits and reads the newspaper. He asks me if I’ve decided to go see something. I say that it’s late now, it’s already around 12, so we’ll go another day. He tells me that he will give me a discount for the Lava Tunnel, which I asked about earlier. I say that I’m alone now and that I don’t have money, I take out 50 dollars and say “that’s it, senior”… he says “okay”, accepts, I think, “so they’re still making up prices”. I tell him, “it’s all right, but I need money, I have to eat something today, I haven’t gone to the store”. He agrees to 40 and says that the store here is not expensive, which is true, the prices are a little higher than in Panama, while the prices of services are at least three times higher.

He tells me that he will take me to the Lava Tunnel, I’m thinking, “damn it, I’m not ready, I don’t have a flashlight, or a tripod for the camera, I have almost nothing with me”, but I said, let me shorten the day a bit. He says that it is not far and that we do not need much time, so I agree. We get in the car and start out of town. A little here, a little there, as if he were driving a taximeter, that’s my impression, we arrive at an intersection and then turn right.

On the island there is one, what the locals would call a “highway”, but in fact it is just a road. It leads from the airport, which is located on a small island, which is diagonally across from us, to a small place near Puerto Ayora, Playa El Garrapatero, connecting several places along the way. This “highway”, so to speak, does not pass near Puerto Ayora, but a regular street leads to it, along which there are houses on that side, a rather untidy settlement. At the intersection itself is Bella Vista. And the road continues to a smaller village. We stop somewhere next to a house and a sign.

Soon after Bella Vista, we turn off the main road, we stop. It wasn’t even a 10-15 minute drive. We walk along a path to the yard of a house, where a girl greets us. She offers coffee, I say thank you. She says “cinco dolar entrada por favor” and points her hand to 5, clearly, she wants 5 dollars for the entrance to the tunnel, I give it to her and indeed I read something like that it costs, I expected, if not some helmet or something, at least a flashlight, but they don’t have it. I think, “damn it, I’m really unprepared, from now on I have to put a flashlight and a knife and some other nonsense in my backpack, you never know what situation you get into”. I wait, they talk about something, every now and then they look at me and laugh… I believe it’s now “another stupid tourist”, fantastic…

This guy comes up to me and just tells me to follow the path, it will take me about 20 minutes, and he’ll wait for me at the exit. I set off, take the camera and phone out of my bag, again I regret not having a tripod, but what can I do, that’s how it turned out. I start down the path that leads into the forest, and suddenly a dilapidated hut. I continue on, the vegetation around me is denser and bigger, and suddenly a sign “Lava Tunnel”. About ten meters in front of me there is a steep descent down with some wooden railing that, if you hold on to it when you fall, you fall together with it. The sun is breaking through the green treetops, blue sky, green vegetation with red flowers, and vapors are coming out of the hole I’m descending towards… everything looks eerie. The scene reminds me of some movie, I think it’s called “The Exorcist” that I watched as a kid, when supposedly on a scene similar to this one I’m experiencing now, some experts went to the devil who, you know, lives in such places.

Lava tunnels are what’s left when a huge amount of lava under pressure forced its way through the ground from a local volcano. It is clear that all the islands in the Pacific are volcanic cones and it is a question of when which one will erupt. I am not an expert in rocks, but this seems to be something very solid, whether granite or what. The lava flowed out and this remained, it looks like a tunnel under construction with huge pieces of stone scattered left and right. The size of the tunnel is about 15-20 meters roughly, a boat would fit here regularly, without a mast, of course… an impressive and unusual experience. It’s a shame I don’t have a good lamp, and it’s not that I didn’t have a really tricky one of 30,000 lumens on the boat, and now I’m shining with my cell phone.

Taking pictures is almost impossible, everything is very damp, slippery, and if the light goes out, you literally, but literally, can’t see your hand in front of your face, the darkness is so thick. I continue, walking carefully so I don’t get stuck somewhere and f*ck myself up… I jump over various rocks about a meter high on the path and I see how in some places the parts of the tunnel are really nicely finished… I illuminate as much as I can with the phone’s flashlight. I have to admit that if this phone goes out now, and the battery is at 45%, it will take me at least a couple of hours to get from the exit or entrance, that is, I want to say that I have gone quite a bit, and I don’t know how much I have ahead, so it’s a dilemma which way to go. This is certainly taking more than 15 minutes, I must be slow, and I am because I’m looking around.

As I went through a few more twists and turns, I started to see the light—or rather, the darkness became thinner, and little by little, I could finally glimpse what they call the light at the end of the tunnel. Stepping outside, I thought to myself, Well, that was actually pretty interesting. Right there was my new friend, flashing a goofy smile and giving me a big thumbs-up. “Bueno!” he shouted, to which I smiled back and replied, “Bueno, bueno…” Our car was parked nearby, so we headed back.

On the way, we talked about other attractions on the island—some craters, and a place that’s apparently like a giant tortoise farm where you can walk among them. I told him, “Sounds good, let’s plan it for one of these days. Same price, right?” with a grin. He laughed and said, “Sí, sí, amigo.”

As we got closer to town, he asked where to drop me off. I told him near the store by the dock in Puerto Ayora. We said our goodbyes, and each went our separate ways.

The experience wasn’t bad at all—it was interesting, I saw something new. But I still had this nagging feeling that I had overpaid. Of course, that’s just a subjective thing, and at this point, it is what it is. No going back. Either way, it was an adventure.

I did some shopping and returned to the boat, curious to figure out where exactly I had been. According to the descriptions in the travel guides, this wasn’t the place they were talking about. I had no clue where I had just been—apparently, it wasn’t even in the books. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. It was fun.

Later, I told Damjan about the whole thing, and he just grinned, “Sounds great! Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

I laughed, “Alright, let’s go. I’ve got a guy—we’ll ask for a discount.”

Besides that, we still had to book that hammerhead shark diving trip. Time was running out.