Trillizos Volcano Tour
In Isabela, Galapagos
- Last Updated: September 23, 2024
The Trillizos Volcano Tour is the most secret and adventurous tour you can do on Isabela island.
You will literally enter inside an artery of the main Sierra Negra volcano.
Once inside you will encounter the hole from where the lava was expelled many years ago and a room full of Quartz stone, among other surprising things.
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Trillizos Volcano Tour: General Details
This tour has to be done with Ulise or Jhan his son. The volcano entrance is located on their farm and you need to contact them to book the tour. There is no other information on the other travel agencies.
- Highlights: Going inside a volcano, A vault full of Quartz, The hole from where the lava was expelled.
- Duration: 4 hours.
- Starting Time: As it is a private tour the exact hour depends on your needs and availability, ask when you reserve it.
- Price: 80$ USD.
- Agency/Guide: Volcan Trillizos owners. Ulise and Jhan (the son).
- Food included: Not included.
- Gear included: Rappel Kit, gloves, helmet, and a headlamp.
Trillizos Volcano Tour: Curiosities
The Trillizos Volcano is an artery of the massive Sierra Negra volcano. If you’re interested in visiting Sierra Negra Volcano you can find all the info here.
According to Jhan the son of Ulise, our guide, previously they didn’t know the hole was there, so their cows used to fall inside once the vegetation was too thick and then they would go down and collect the meat leaving the bones there (so they didn’t need to bring up so much weight).
You can find those bones there, pilled up on some rocks.
There is a room full of growing Quartz stone and one with some gold particles (not a precious stone expert here).
The entire cave is not completely explored. Only a couple of rooms are.
If you look in Google Maps and follow the lines of the Trillizos volcano until the Sierra Negra one you can see there might be other caves all the way through, completely unexplored.
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How To Do the Trillizos Volcano Tour?
You have to call them. There is literally no information on any other tour agency about this tour as it is a private one. I only found out about it because they placed a billboard with the info next to the beach.
I’ll leave you the information here again as it is on their billboard:
Phone Numbers: +593 99 768 5275 (Ulise’s number), +593 961790446 (Jhan’s number)
E-Mail: [email protected] and [email protected]
What to Bring to the Trillizos Volcano Tour?
Clothing & Accessories:
- Tshirt: Breathable Tshirt (Tech or Merino), or a Lycra
- Jacket: Waterproof Jacket
- Shorts: Shorts
- Shoes: Hiking Shoes
- Hat: Cap
- Sunglasses
- Earth Pak Waterproof Dry Bag
- Change of Clothes
*There is a lot of mud and you might go against some rocks or get your t-shirt stuck on some cables if you aren’t careful so don’t bring your favorite clothes.
Useful Extras:
- GoPro/Camera: Be careful if your camera isn’t waterproof
- First-Aid Kit
- Mosquito Repellent: Keep in mind that this is a tropical area where mosquitoes are common, so it’s advisable to have mosquito repellent on hand.
- Sunscreen +50 SPF
- Food / Snacks
- Thermos or Water-filtering Bottle
Check out my complete guide on What’s in My Backpack – From photography gear, and clothing for Hiking, Mountaineering, Scuba Diving, Rainforest, and City-Street Photography.
What Can i See on the Trillizos Volcano Tour?
On the Trillizos Volcano Tour, you can see the interior of a Volcano, lush vegetation and volcanic rocks outside, the formation of quartz stone, the hole from where the lava came, and surprisingly cow bones.
My Experience on the Trillizos Volcano Tour
This was my fifth day on Isabela Island I did this tour the day after doing the amazing underwater experience of the Los Tuneles Tour, but today together with a friend of mine.
Our tour started at 11 am. Jhan, the son of Ulise (the farm’s owner) picked us up in a van in front of our hotel and we drove around 20 minutes to his farm.
Exploring Trillizos Volcano Green Surroundings
After around 20 minutes we arrived at Jhan’s farm and we started gearing up and testing the equipment, he gave us our rappel kit, helmet, headlamp, and gloves and we started the tour.
It’s incredible to see so much green vegetation on a volcanic island. I imagine during summer the landscape is probably more yellow and dry than green but when we were there it was lush and beautiful.
As soon as we started walking Jhan showed us the flora around us and the pyroclastic rocks spread all around his farm. It’s impressive that such big pieces of rock are so lightweight.
After that, he took us to a viewpoint where we could see a 360 view of the island, gorgeous!
On the way to this viewpoint, we saw the three volcanic depressions that gave origin to the name Trillizos.
Once we were finished with the view we started descending onto one of these depressions and as we got closer we could see there was a big opening in the middle of the lush vegetation.
On the spot, he explained to us how the descent was going to take place and instructed us on how to use the ropes and stairs properly. He was going to go first, then Stav my friend, and me at the end.
An Epic Descent Into the Volcano
For a beginner in rappeling and going into caves, it wasn’t completely straightforward how to do it but after a couple of attempts the carabiner and the locking mechanism started slowly working properly and I could move down at my own pace.
It was a bit confusing at first that there were so many cables around our legs but Jhan locked us to the proper most recent one and it was relatively easy to change legs around the ropes and move down the stairs.
Do pay attention that the stairs, although in theory are replaced with some frequency (no idea how often), had a couple of steps missing on the way down.
Regarding the descent, there are around three main sections on this tour.
The first one takes you from the exterior to an amazing vault, where you see a hole in the sky and a hole on the bottom, everything completely covered in green.
On that spot, Jhan changed our locks and we attached ourselves to the second set of ropes, then we started descending to the last area of the volcano, its dark interior.
Once you start approaching the last hole he warned us that this one was gonna be a bit steeper, and he was right, it’s a vertical ladder and it moves a little bit once you’re going down.
As I was the last one on the ladder I could hear both of them on the bottom so it was quite comforting to know they didn’t die and it was safe to continue.
After a couple of minutes, I was also at the bottom, and what a feeling, the only light here was coming from the hole I just came through and from our flashlights.
It was quite humid down there and I believe there was an echo.
Deep Inside the Volcano, Lava, Quartz, and Bones
Once at the bottom Jhan started showing us the cow bones from the neighbor’s farms and his own farm, and slowly with caution took us down to see the hole in the ground from where the lava came from in an ancient time. What an impressive sight.
My first thought was, “what happens if the volcano starts erupting now?” Ahah. Well, I guess it would give as a warning, and I’m not sure if that could happen cause in 2018 there was an eruption in Sierra Negra’s volcano which didn’t affect its old arteries, at least that I know of.
I guess this place was formed when the volcano originated and it’s no longer active or connected to the main volcano, or at least that’s what I hope for if you plan to do this tour in the future.
After observing the hole from where the lava came through we moved on to tighter spaces.
At some point, Jhan told me to leave my backpack where we were cause we would need to crawl a bit in tight spaces in order to reach the other rooms we were going to visit.
When we passed through we found ourselves in a room full of rocks with golden particles on the top and on the bottom a white stone in the middle of all the lava-red rocks.
He then explained to us that was the beginning of the formation of Quartz stone and it was quite a rare sight to see, how amazing that they found this inside their own farm.
And imagine as I said there are probably other dozens of farms around this one that could in theory also have precious stones.
Once we saw all the rooms, we went to the main vault and took some epic photos like explorers and then started to climb back to the surface.
What an experience! This is without a doubt the most secret and special tour of the Galápagos.
In any case please pay attention, a couple of months before we were there a tourist slipped somewhere on the last ladder, fell down and broke some bones and had to be rescued by the paramedics so take it with a pinch of salt and be careful if you decide to do this tour.
And that’s about it, after arriving at the top we took our gear off and Jhan droves us back to town and the Trillizos Volcano Tour was over.
What about you, have you already done the Trillizos Volcano Tour? Leave me a comment down here if you have and what was your opinion.
Thanks for reading through and I hope you have fun on this tour!
I’ll drop a couple of my other favourite photos from this tour down below, enjoy!
Photo Gallery
Trillizos Volcano Tour:
Exploring Trillizos Volcano Green Surroundings
An Epic Descent Into the Volcano
Deep Inside the Volcano, Lava, Quartz, and Bones
