Permitted Uses: Interpretive and educational tours Photography and filming
A panga is needed to reach the site. Access is easy and people can land during high or low tide. The approximate travel time from Puerto Villamil to The Tintoreras is 10 minutes.
The islet Las Tintoreras is located south of Puerto Villamil. It has a small bay of completely calm turquoise waters, where you can appreciate sea lions, sea turtles, marine iguanas, rays, etc. The bay is connected to a crevice of crystal clear water, that's shallow and when the tide is low, the entrance closes. In this crevice, you can see how reef sharks swim along with other small fish and sea lions.
Most of the trail is lava AA, except for a white sand beach and a black stone beach. At the first beach are colonies of sea lions, its also a nesting site for marine iguanas, during the nesting season.
In the first beach you can see some Nolana galapageia plants, a rare endemic plant in the area. What's more, Nolana is not common in Ecuador, since this species is typical of the coastal zone and belongs to a genus whose distribution is restricted to Chile and Peru.
The second beach is entirely surrounded by mangroves, button mangrove (Conocarpus erecta) and white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa).
Throughout the trail you can see many marine iguanas in the rocks or under the mangroves. Las Tintoreras is one of the few places where the iguanas breed successfully because of the absence of non-native animals that could kill the youth.
Various parts of Las Tintoreras are ideal for nesting marine iguanas, so during the nesting season be very careful with the nests.
Reef sharks have nocturnal feeding habits; certain animals during the day remain inside the crevice and marine ponds to rest. For this reason you are not allowed to swim in this place. Another reason is that disrupting the colonies of sea lions could alter their natural behavior.