G' Day

Volcano Pichincha West of Quito

Hello. I'm heading home today and I'm excited for a lot of things but I feel as if I will miss just as much about Ecuador. For instance the number one thin I will miss are the people, especially the men on the coast that pull their shirts up over their huge bellies in order to cool down. one thing I won't miss is the feeling of insecurity. Being here has let me stand back and see that the police officers in the United States do an amazing job compared to the "police" in Ecuador. Here you can often see police wandering the streets hissing at women and sometimes drinking. where as in the US our police officers are well trained and maintain a respectable presence. I still haven't lost sight of the many downfalls of our police force but i have a new appreciation for their presence.

This past two weeks has been really nice with molly, we weren't together the entire time because she had classes but we went on a few trips to the highlands, markets, and the coast. Those times when I was left on my own while she was in class I was able to meet up and have coffee with an Australian friend from my program who is traveling South America.

Our last trip was to the Ecuador coast to a town called Atacames. here molly's friends host mother had a house on the beach where we hung out for the weekend.

It will be nice to see friends and family once again after five months abroad. I pretty sure I will be heaing to Southern Mexico on a research trip with one of my professors in August so keep an eye out for the possibility of another blog session.
Peace

Empty Space

USFQ GAIAS from Playaman

So my Galapagos journey has come to an end and I now reside in Quito. I'm sitting on the floor of Hotel Walther feeling quite empty due to the fact the people I have come to know so well over the past 4 months are missing from my life. I did not foresee this aspect of my journey but it was relatively difficult to bid farewell. Most people are headed back to the states but a few of us are traveling South America and I actually will have a chance to meet up with them once again within the next two weeks.

so refering to my original plan back on my first post, I am begining the final part of my journey. I will be living here in Quito Ecuador for the next two weeks where I will be spending time with Molly and doing heaps of hiking/walking. overall right now i feel pretty terrible about everyone leaving but it will pass in time as all things do.

Isla Santa Crúz y Otra lugares

Bartolome Beach

So for our “spring break” we were sent to Santa Crúz Island for four days and then a boat cruise for an additional four days. While in Santa Crúz we spent the mornings going on small day trips around the Island. Our first one was up into the highlands where we visited the Giant Tortoises and hiked through the lava tunnels. The lava tunnels were Amazing due to the fact that it gets a lot cooler once you travel underground. Another day trip we went on was to Tortuga Bay, a long Beach with powder sand and mangroves. Here we played frisbee and snorkled with sharks amungst the mangroves. During our afternoons we would visit the Charles Darwin Station where we sat in on lectures concerning the marine biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands. Often in the afternoons we would have even more time available to spend so one day we went to a place called Las Grietas where they have a 15 meter cliff to jump off into a pool of water. The colors were Amazing in this place, especially the blue-green water and the red stone cliffs.

Our Boat tour started in Santa Crúz and traveled to a few surrounding islands which included Rhabida, Bartolome, China hat, and North Seymore. Rhabida was a nice red sanded Beach area with a small hike where we saw a few Galapagos Hawks. Bartolome had a hike to the top of a hill where we were able to view the surrounding parasitic volcanoes and one of the famous Galapagos vistas. China Hat island had an interesting shape which helped relate it to its name. Here the marine life was great to observe, we caught some views of penguins and I was finally able to observe a swimming marine iguana. Following him, I watched as he clung to the rocks underwater and feasted on the Algae bed. North Seymore was one of my favorite islands visited because of the Galapagos avifauna. There were Blue-Footed Boobies, Frigate Birds, Swallow-Tailed Gulls, and some small Doves that had Blue eyes and red feet. The coolest part was that we Landed on the island around 6am so we beat the crowds and were able to view most of the courtship rituals and mating calls. When I say “beat the crowds” I’m refering to the Copious amounts of tourist groups that travel these tourist hotspot areas. It wasn’t until this trip that I witnessed the extent tourisim in the Galapagos. As I mentioned in a previous update, tourism is one of the main economic means for island inhabitants, and since Ecuador is a rather poor country, control and management of the park is a bit shady. The night son the boat were great becuase we were able to take lounge chairs to the top and watch the stars. Our tour guide, who was a fountain of information, surprised us with her complete knowledge of the night sky. She had a GPS star pointer which would tell you the names of constelations, she also had a $70 green laser to point at the stars. Very fun.

Last night was the final political rally before Ecuadorian elections so there were several large rallies throughout the town. At one of the rallies my host father organized a way for my house mate Patrick to play a short acoustic set on stage. The whole town was out that night so there were hundreds of folks there. He played a song in english with a girl from our program and everyone seemed to like it. All of the GAIAS students were ther in full support. Its been really fun becoming a temporary part of this island community.

China Hat Island

A Visitor

Beach In Puerto Villamil

This Past week I had Molly visit me during her spring break. She is currently studying abroad on mainland Ecuador in Quito. She arrived in San Cristobal on the 29th of March and left yesterday. During her stay in the Galapagos I attempted to show her the sights, which struck me as the most amazing; this included a trip to Isabela and Santa Cruz islands to see penguins, flamingos, giant tortoises, marine iguanas, and sea lions. We were able to swim with the sea lions on multiple occasions which is always fun because the younger ones are so playful. Although Molly did get a bit sick from a combination of the altitude change and the water, we managed to have an amazing time together. It was nice to share this experience with someone I know from back home.

A Good Place With Many Things To Offer

Lava Fields of San Cristobal Island

Today was the first field trip with our Marine Biology class. Our professor organized a day trip where we would travel by boat to a series of places along San Cristobal, which were being considered for eco-tourism development. During this trip several national park officials and scientists accompanied us. This project was developed by the people of San Cristobal as a means to distribute visitors throughout the island opposed to confining them to only a few spots. This increase in visitor sites is also appetizing to the locals a way to boost the local economy which is completely based upon tourism and fishing. San Cristobal is the oldest island in the whole archipelago and is one of the least developed. Since being here there has been construction on the main boardwalk of the town to make it prettier to attract more tourist. The most developed island, Santa Cruz, is one of the central islands and the first one to get an airport. With these attributes and many natural attractions, Santa Cruz is one of the more favored of the tourist islands, I think because it attempts to give a more home like feel for the tourists. On the other hand people visit San Cristobal and gain a small town feel and always prefer it as one of their favorite for that reason. So my stance on this whole San Cristobal development is that they shouldn’t work to replicate the feel of Santa Cruz but they should try and preserve the small Ecuadorian town sense, this way they can diversify the Galapagos experience and attract a wider variety of visitors. Well now that I’ve written this little blurb I might as well use it in my report for class.

Our field trip started out with a visit to a nice little site where there were extensive tide pools. These tide pools could possible be used as a basic hands on intertidal marine biology class (for tourists). We walked around the beach for a bit and found that the beach was host to a sea turtle nesting area, which would need to be set as a restricted area for tourists. As a class we went for a snorkeling and identified fish for a class assignment then moved on to the next site. The second area was a coastal mangrove area, which also involved a walk on a volcanic lava field, which was about 200 years old. It was amazing to walk on the lava flows and see the wrinkles in the stone. There were also a few colonizing cactus on the lava flow which were fun to photograph. The mangrove area was interesting and was used as a supplement to our lecture on coastal ecosystems. We wrapped the day up with some more snorkeling in the area then a long sleepy boat ride back to town. I will be posting new pictures to Flickr tonight. Enjoy life.

La Luna

The full moon is up and the tides are at their extremes. This is the second lunar cycle that I have experienced here on the islands and its quite beautiful. I'm hoping to get a few people out tonight for a walk in the moon light and maybe a swim, depending on the tide. It can sometimes be frustrating when trying to stir motivation in people who would rather be video chatting all day. I have come to the realization that they are losing sight of what we have under our toes. Enjoy the moon and enjoy the changing seasons for me.

Que Bueno

Northern Coast of San Cristobal, Punta Pitt

Hola amigos,

The past few weeks have been awful busy for me here on the islands. Consisting mostly of school work and classes. I finished my Introduced and Invasive Plant class about two weeks ago and am already finished with the lecture portion of my Evolution class. Within that two-week time frame we tried celebrating Carnaval, went on a snorkeling trip, and tried my skills at surfing.

So after our plant class we were told that we would be having a four-day break, which included the weekend and Carnaval, which was Monday and Tuesday. Come Friday night everyone in the Evolution class received an email from our professor, which told us that we would be starting classes on Monday and that our classes would be for two hours twice daily. Double session classes for Carnaval….party! Regardless we had a great weekend; we went to a beautiful new beach with lots of marine iguanas to hang out with. Carnaval days were not fun, nor were the following class days. The best part of our Evolution class was the fact that our professor was one of the co-founders of the GAIAS program and so he was very knowledgeable. He was also able to organize an amazing Saturday field trip for the whole program.

Our field trip started out with a boat ride to Kicker Rock, one of the best diving spots in the world, known for the schools of hammerhead sharks. At this spot we were able to go snorkeling to look for some amazing water life. The sad part was that the visibility was terrible and we saw hardly anything. As soon as I had jumped into the water looked down and saw a 4 ft Galapagos shark about 1.5 meters below me, after that I saw algae and plankton. After kicker rock the boat took us to Punta Pitt, which is known for the presence of all three Boobie Species (Blue-footed, Nazca, and Red-footed). The coolest part was that Punta Pitt at the time was actually closed to the public but our professor was able to pull some educational strings to get us access. We preformed a wet landing and then went for a short hike around the area after the hike we went snorkeling at a nearby island called Isla Pitt. The visibility at this location was tenfold better and we were able to see plenty of fish and sea lions. From this location we proceeded to isla lobos where we were able to swim with lots of sea lions.

This past Saturday we went back to Puerto Chino beach and borrowed a surfboard from a friend. The waves we pretty small and we weren’t able to stand up on the board but it was fun to cruise around. We spent the whole day on the beach which involve the setting up of my hammock and a long siesta. After our mid day nap we tried some more surfing the played some Frisbee. 5:30 was the time we told the taxi to come and pick us up at so we went back to the road and waited an additional 45 minutes for our taxi to arrive. We wanted to pay him a little less (10 from 15) but he complained, saying his truck broke down and that he didn’t need to come back and fetch us. We paid him full, not because we believed him but because it is such a small town and we would probably be seeing him again.

I have one week to write an research article on storm petrels of the Galapagos islands and then I will be finished with my evolution class. Until then I suppose I should be quite busy. Love you all.