The Galapagos were seriously cool. At times I felt like I was on another planet. Definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Its kind hard to do this trip justice when describing it so I’ll try to keep it short and include lots of photos.
I went with my study abroad program so there were 24 students and three professors. A big group…but also a group rate. I will never again be able to travel to the Galapagos for so little money. We stayed five days and visited four islands: Santa Cruz, Isabela, Floreana, and San Cristóbal. We flew into Baltra (I’m not counting that in my island count because we were only there for about twenty minutes) and took big motor boats between the rest of the islands and flew out of San Cristóbal.
The first day we took a five minute boat ride from Baltra (an island that used to be a US Naval base during the Second World War) to Santa Cruz. We first visited Los Gemelos, twin volcanic craters, and then a huge tunnel formed by a river of lava. Lastly, we visited a giant tortoise reserve but could only stay a little while and didn’t see many tortoises.
Day two, we went to the Charles Darwin Research Center and a much, much larger Centro de Crianza for Giant Tortoises. Between the two, I must have seen hundreds of tortoises. In the evening we swam at both a beach and a gorgeous mangrove swamp.
Day three, on Isabela, we went on a fourteen mile hike along Sierra Negra, the world’s second largest volcanic crater, to the site of the huge eruption of Volcán Chico. When we got to the eruption site and saw all of the dried lava and rock formations, I seriously felt like I was on another planet. Someone said it looked like a Salvador Dalí painting and she was right: it looked like there should be clocks dripping off of everything. The hike felt great. It was nice to finally get some exercise at sea-level. That evening we went snorkeling and I saw all sorts of cool animals in the wild: a giant marine tortoise, sea lions, a penguin (my personal favorite because it was the fastest and therefore the luckiest find), sting rays, tons of regal tang fish (Dory from Finding Nemo!), and a bunch of other cool marine life I don’t even know the names for.
Day four involved lots of traveling via motor boat, and therefore lots of sea-sickness. We started on Isabela, went to Floreana, and ended at San Cristóbal. On the Isabela to Floreana leg, we saw a huge school of dolphins (Wikipedia says they can also be a “pod” of dolphins). It was just so cool to see what seemed like hundreds of dolphins jumping and swimming all around us. When we got to land, we visited “Las Cuevas de las Piratas” or some caves constructed by pirates near one of the only two fresh-water sources on the islands. They were really neat. Someone made a really funny comment: “It looks like this should be Universal Studios, but its real!” So true. It was rainy and muddy and I was wearing flip-flops so I did the hike barefoot. That night we went snorkeling again and I saw a lot of the same animals, but this time I saw many more tortoises and was able to follow them around for ages just watching them. I also had a huge school of almost iridescent fish swim right under me. So neat.
We spent our last day visiting a beautiful lagoon followed by some beach time and a little museum. After a walk down San Cristóbal’s seaside main street and some ice cream, we headed back home to Quito.
It was a really relaxing trip where I got to enjoy nature at a whole new level. In retrospect, though, I wish my Biodiversity professor would have waited until after the trip to have me present on the effects of the tourism industry on the Islands. I was feeling guilty for a lot of the trip. Even though they were beautiful, I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there, like I was contributing to the destruction of that beauty.
But now for the Galapagos edition of…
FACTOIDS!
· I got to meet George, a giant tortoise who is over 100 years old and the last of his species, the Negrita de la Isla Pinta, earning him nicknames such as “Lonesome George.” For the longest time, scientists thought he was gay because he wasn’t interested in any of the female Tortugas. But finally, after 36 years, a little lady caught his eye. Still no baby tortoises though.
· Breakdown of a tortoise battle: First they face each other. Then stare. Then they stretch out their necks as far as they can. Tortoise with the shortest neck loses. Usually the losing tortoise is in denial so they do it a few more time just to be sure. When shorter necked tortoise finally realizes his neck is shorter, he walks away. End battle.
· In the Galapagos, the goat is pretty much the most hated creature ever. They eat everything, destroying endemic vegetation and taking food from endangered tortoise species. So a few years back, the project “Island Restoration via Mammal Eradication,” a systematic extermination of all goats, commenced. They used helicopters, hunting dogs, and even “Judas goats,” or goats with trackers attached to them, to eliminate the goats. Goats on Isabela and several other islands have been eliminated, however goat discrimination has not.
· I went the entire trip without getting a sun burn. I used half a bottle of sun-block and have advanced to expert sun-block applicator.
Okay. Weekend plans TBD. Vamos a ver. Until then, ¡que le vaya bien!
NOTE: Upon re-reading this, I have decided that this is not a good blog post for parents or other adults who worry about me. My apologies in advance. I realize some of this may have been a bad idea.
Baños!
So it has been kind of awhile since I last posted here. I hope you have all been doing well! I have, for two weekends in a row, stayed in Quito. Lots of homework, projects, and productiveness. Blegh. I did venture out for a day trip to the “real” equator. Apparently Mitad del Mundo is just a tourist trap based on the equator calculated in the 1700s. The “real” Mitad del Mundo is very careful to point out that they used a GPS when calculating the coordinates.
I also made it to another fútbol game. I left this out of the last blog, not wanting to focus on negatives, but my two angriest moments in Ecuador have been at these two soccer games. The Policía Nacional, in an attempt to prevent riots between the fans of opposing teams, only opens two exits for the entire stadium to exit after the game—one on each side, for each team’s fans. It is seriously the stupidest and most ridiculous system I have ever seen. Thousands of people are angry, pushing, and shouting all trying to get through a single door (actually they didn’t even open up the entire door. We were pushing to get through ¼ of the available space). I seriously felt anger rising in my chest, especially when I saw one police officer standing atop an overhead with a rifle like a sniper. The police LOCK the emergency exits. If there was an emergency, a stadium full of people would have been trapped. Outside the stadium as we were leaving, I saw a huge formation of officers just standing around (Perhaps we could open the rest of the doors and these guys who are just chilling out could maintain security?), so I went to ask them what their logic was. They really did think that this system was PREVENTING fights and riots. If sober, non-fanatic fútball fan Pam can feel anger rising in her chest, I wonder how the intoxicated men whose adrenaline is running will react. Just saying.
But anyway, to get back to something positive and cheery, I was getting super antsy to get out of the city. Emily and I headed to Baños, which was number one on my to-do list. I would have been really sad if I left Ecuador without getting there. It’s a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains and is pretty much geared toward tourists. Gringos everywhere. But seeing as I AM a gringo, I felt pretty at home.
One of our major goals for the Baños trip was to make it to the monkey reserve in Puyo, about 40 miles away. At first we were planning on riding bikes there, but once we realized that bikes would not get us there in time for the 5pm closing, we decided to rent a little stick-shift ATV/mini-jeep type deal. Luckily, Emily knew how to drive stick shift, so we road-tripped through the beautiful mountains of Ecuador down the famed “Ruta de las Cascadas.” It may not sound that exciting in blog format, but it was seriously one of my most content moments in Ecuador. During our drive, we made a little stop to go “puenting” or jumping off some bridges (I posted a video of my jump at the end). It’s kind of like bungee jumping, but the rope isn’t elastic. It was actually scarier than I thought it would be…maybe because I went head first.
But eventually we made it to the monkey reserve and it was a blast. The monkeys were really friendly and just climbed all over us. One monkey was a big fan of hugging my face and another sat on my shoulders, wrapped his arms around my head and started pulled my mouth apart with his hands. Yes, I had monkey hands in my mouth. Gross. The reserve was really amazing, though. So much fun.
On the way back to Baños, Emily taught me how to drive stick. (I learned how to drive stick in Ecuador! Maybe not my best idea). Also, our jeep broke down twice. I think little vehicles like that aren’t meant to drive 80 miles a day. The first time, we flagged down a car and out hops COL Edgar of the Ecuadorian Army and his silent, intense high ranking NCO with a huge tattoo on his head. COL Edgar was super friendly and got our jeep back up and running in no time. The second time we broke down, we were just ten minutes outside of Baños so we called Rene to come retrieve us but he didn’t answer. Then, some random man in a car offered to drive me to Baños to get Rene while Emily stayed behind with the jeep. Not only is that super sketchy, but there was no way I was separating from Emily. Baaad idea. Then he asked who rented us the jeep and I said Rene, but that I didn’t know his last name. “Rene with the long hair?” he asked. Why, yes, Rene did have long hair. “He’s my friend!” he said and without another word, he sped off in his car towards Baños. About 15 minutes later we get a call from Rene saying that he was on his way. So, the random man was trustworthy after all. But I still wasn’t getting in that car.
The next day we went canyoning, or rappelling down waterfalls. When we were in the van on the way to the waterfalls, we randomly stopped and our driver started chatting with the driver of a chiva (party bus). Next thing I know they tell us to get out of the van and into the Chiva, which just so happened to be full of an entire extended family on their family vacation. “Why are we getting in the Chiva?” I ask. “Don’t worry. We’re just getting in the Chiva to get past the police.” What?!?! You are SMUGGLING us past the POLICE?!?! They even told us to hide our wetsuits. This is looking promising. Eventually we found out that it wasn’t nearly as sketch as it looked. Our driver had forgotten some sort of document needed to get past a toll booth type thing for free and was trying to save some money. But seriously, not cool. And Emily and I did not fit in enough to look like we were on a family vacation.
Canyoning was really cool. After we got suited up in the wetsuits and harnesses, our guide told us it was just a “pequeña caminata” to the waterfalls as he pointed to the top of an immense mountain. Pequeña caminata, my rear. Halfway up, huffing and puffing, we came upon this little falling-down shack. I asked why anyone would build that so high up on a mountain. Our guide told us that the owners were in town but that it was a family’s house. That was a slap in the face. It was tiny, had broken windows (nothing more than small, thin squares of glass), and walls that appeared to be made of sheets of plywood less than an inch thick. A whole new level of poverty. It didn’t even dawn on me that that structure could be a family’s home.
After rappelling down the waterfalls, and some of them were really tall, I managed to fall down a little 3ft. waterfall and landed on a huge rock. My knees were bloody and bruised. Classy. But regardless of my fall, my weekend in Baños was just what I needed. I am content. I’m enjoying life without focusing on things in the future (something I generally struggle with). I’m enjoying the here and now and having a blast. I think I’m starting to realize how priceless this experience is and how little time I have left here.
That afternoon, after canyoning, we headed home and Sunday I went with the family to a fanesca lunch that the Ibarreñas were hosting (think: fish fry dinner hosted by the Knights of Columbus. Pretty much the same deal. It’s a Lenten thing). Marcela, Jose, Daniela, and two of Marcela’s friends went. Marcela’s mom is a member of the Ibarreñas. After that I did homework. Now for a few….
FACTOIDS!
Tomorrow morning, I fly out to the Galapagos for five days. Everyone keeps telling me that they are “preciosa” but I’m trying to go in with no expectations so I’m pleasantly surprised and not disappointed. Though, I doubt it’s possible to be disappointed by the Galapagos Islands.
Here is a video of me jumping off the bridge. The good stuff (my screaming) is all in the first 15 seconds.
Hello, everyone! Hope you are doing well! I am doing just fine. So today marks the halfway point of my days in Ecuador. It’s all downhill from here. It’s crazy that it’s already been so long.
Well, this past weekend I went to Papallacta, natural hot springs located in the colder, upper parts of the Andes. Emily, Samantha, and I hopped on a bus and were relaxing in the hot springs about three hours later. There were about twenty different pools of various temperatures and a really cold river. Later we got massages at the Papallacta spa, but only because they were such a good deal. Pretty hard to pass up. Anyway, Samantha left early so Emily and I were on our own for the evening. There was a really nice hotel in Papallacta but it was super expensive (the price of typical hotel in the States) so Emily and I stayed in a hostel and pretended we were staying in the hotel. We had dinner there and chilled in their lounge until we were ready to head back to our hostel to sleep. I think we confused the hotel workers when we left at 10pm after being snuggled up on their couches all night.
We returned to Quito just in time for the Liga v. Quito Deportivo fútbol game. Both teams are from Quito and it was one of the games in the “Classic Series.” It was intense. The stadium is just a block away from my house (kind of like living in Wrigleyville) and everything was just crazy. Emily and I scalped some tickets and bought some Liga jerseys (a mistake, I didn’t realize that I lived in a Quito Deportivo house). Just getting into the stadium was intense. Emily and I were cutting it close on time and were unaware that all of the entrances into the stadium, save one, close once the game begins. People were going crazy.
Do you know that scene from Titanic when the ship is sinking and the crewmen, scooping coal in the lower levels of the ship, are freaking out because all of the doors are shutting and trapping them? This was EXACTLY like that (minus the sinking ship). It was chaos. People were frantically running from door to door pounding and screaming to be let in. People in the stadium were lowering ropes for bags and buckets of beer. Police on horses. Fire extinguishers (but no fire). It was a madhouse. Eventually everyone got in through the one door that was open and made their way to their unassigned seats. Just our luck, another near-riot broke out in our section of the stadium. The fight was so big, the entire stadium could see it (we had friends on the other side of the stadium). People all around us were fighting and pop bottles were being hurled so that they would explode all over whoever they landed near. I was legitimately worried at one point. Ecuadorian SWAT team members came and calmed the situation. Regardless of the commotion, the game was fun. Liga won.
The next day was Sunday so I went to mass with Marcela. She arrives to every mass a half hour early to say the rosary and she prayed the rosary aloud for us both. After mass we went to the hospital (the best in Quito) to visit Daniela and her new baby (not the Daniela who is my host brother’s girlfriend but the Daniela we hosted the baby shower for). He was lovely and doing well. Afterwards, we met up with some of Marcela’s friends to go out to lunch for Fanesca, a traditional Ecudaorian Catholic meal typically served during Holy Week but because it’s so delicious you can now get it throughout Lent. It was really, really good. It was kind of like soup and stew, but cheesy and it had all sorts of stuff in it. Way too complicated for me to ever make though. Que lástima.
I am on the hunt for a rope to climb (I have to climb a rope to pass Air Assault in August) so I visited Quito’s sport complex, Concentración Deportiva de Quito, where all of Ecuador's Olympic athletes for nearly all sports train, including squash, speed skating, and jujitsu. Although they didn’t have exactly what I needed, they got me set up on some climbing structures and gave me all sorts of tips. They recommended I talk to the military high school here in Quito. Not sure how I feel about that. We’ll see how desperate I get.
Other than that, I’ve mainly been going to classes. I can’t get out of Quito this weekend because I have way too much homework. Club de Andinismo didn’t have any one day excursions going on this weekend so it looks like I’ll just be doing some mini-excursions around the city in between working on my two presentations, essay, project, and studying for an exam. Joy.
Anyhow, here are some FACTOIDS!
· The Condor, a vulture and Ecuador’s national bird, is near extinction. There are only somewhere between 17 and 27 remaining in the world (all along western South America). Needless to say, they are extremely rare. But I saw one when I was in Papallacta! Pretty cool.
· At the fútbol game, after the ref made a call that angered Liga fans, the men behind us began repeatedly screaming, “Homosexual! Homosexual!” at the ref.
· Rebe’s annual salary is $3,740. Marcela told me; I didn’t ask. Rebe’s monthly salary is a below-poverty line weekly salary in the States. Things might be cheaper here, but the cost of living in Quito is definitely not that much cheaper.
· I achieved my goal of winning all of the records for Buscaminas (Minesweeper) on all of the computers (6-7) in the IES computer lab. Sadly, it didn’t even take that long. I played way too much Minesweeper in middle/high school. But in my defense it’s been years since I’ve played.
· Ecuador has only ever won two Olympic medals, one Gold and one Silver, both by the same man, Jefferson Pérez. He won them in the speed walking event. Pérez is a national hero. He can walk twelve miles at a sub 6.5 min mile. Embedding was disabled on the best YouTube clip I found but here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2urNVmKnEaQ Check it out! His skillz are ridiculous. This isn't his Olympic win but after this 20km race his whole body seized up and he had uncontrollable spasms. Extreme.
Well, I should probably get to work! Blogging is so just much more enjoyable than psychology projects, though. Meh. ¡Hasta luego!
