10/7/12 LAND HO!

Here begins the (possibly chronic) anachronistic account of my last two weeks. I will update... eventually. I am juggling some schoolwork. 

This is the beginning of my second week in the Galapagos Islands! 

Last week was the end of our Mountain Geology course and we spent it on Isabela island, which is the biggest island by land mass but is one of the least populated, with about 3,000 people. 

Saturday after we got back from Cotopaxi on Friday evening, I went into Quito to run some last errands.

I packed and wrote a thank you note to my host family that night and woke up Jose Antonio at 5:10 am because he’d offered to drive me and my 54 kg of luggage to the front of the school where the charter bus was shuttling us to the airport at 5:30. Natacha was away in Guayaquil since the previous Tuesday at a meeting for her architecture firm that was lasting really long, because apparently there were a lot of changes required for her project, so I didn’t get to see her at all. She said goodbye to me on the phone though, and I get to see the family again in December when Savannah and I go back for our carry-on bags full of warm-weather and other things that we figured we won’t need on the Islands. 

We flew without a hitch on AeroGal, which is the main airline that goes to the Galapagos and has an iguana in its logo. 

There was an 8-year-old girl flying on her own who sat next to me, so I spent the whole 2 hours that I expected to nap on the plane playing and chatting with her instead. 

Waiting area out of the landing area of Baltra island airport. Very small airport. 

Want gas as cheap as Ecuador? Tear up the rainforest or other oil reserves mercilessly in your country.

We arrived in Baltra, checked bags, took a bathroom break, and took a bus to the dock, and boarded a really nice boat which took us across the small channel to Santa Cruz island. We then took vans to the other side of Santa Cruz and hopped onto another boat that took us for two hours to the dock on Isabela. 

The dock at Isabela island.  

We got to be all too familiar with this boat. 

 At this point we were a little behind schedule so we finally got to eat “lunch” at 4 pm, and then ate again after walking along the beach at 7 pm. This started a week of us being pampered with delicious food, which usually was some sort of grilled fish, rich, salad, dessert, and juice.

We stayed at a hostel named “La Gran Tortuga” for the week, and I shared a room with Erika and Celeste and some nights Mary since we had an extra bed (pictured here).
The internet kind of sometimes worked, so that was cool. And the breakfast was always really delicious, so that was even better.  

Monday we had class in a back room of the Cafetal, the restaurant where we had dinner on Sunday. I think I took a big nap and then walked along the beach with some of the other people in my class. 

Sorry this is sideways. Tiny marine iguanas on the lava rocks on the beach of Puerto Villamil. 

So I didn't figure out how to make the panorama pictures be 3D on the computer, be here was my view from an outlook point on the beach. Pretty gorgeous. 

These rafts are created as artificial ecosystems that attract small fish to attract larger fish for illegal fisherman to get expensive loot. 

My attempt at photography with a wave hitting some basaltic rock formations at the beach. 

Tuesday was an adventure out on Sierra Negra, where we hiked for a total of about 17 km to see the features of Sierra Negra and Volcán Chico.

View of part of the 10-km diameter caldera of Sierra Negra. I couldn't get it all in one shot, but it is a breathtaking gigantic shield volcano. 

Volcán Chico is a satellite cone on the outer rim of Sierra Negra that forms as a result of some crack in the earth that allows for lava to come through the side instead of the eruption fissures. (Think of a tube of toothpaste with a hole in the side.) 

We learned some interesting facts about the volcanoes and I got to know my professor a little better, as Louise and I were the only two keeping up with him during our hike back to the van. It was great except I got a little sunburnt despite reapplying sunscreen thrice. But when we got to eat lunch it made everything a lot better.
We went to a special plant nursery-type place with a buffet-style organic self-grown/raised lunch where we ate amazingly delicious chicken (whose friends we could hear clucking and crowing in the background...), beans, buttered potato slices, rice, and tres leches cake. I feel hungry thinking about it again. Then our guide Jairo took us on a short tour of the farm place.

Map of the restaurant/farm place we were at for lunch. 

As our last academic stop for the day, we went to Sucre’s Cave. The cave is a perfect example of a lava tunnel, which is what forms when the outside of a flowing body of lava cools and solidifies into a tube-like channel while the lava still flows through it on the inside. We could see the striations inside that showed the different stages of receding lava and the the dripping spots on the roof and sides of the cave that indicated the fluidity of the lava that was once in the tunnel. There was fluorescent green algae growing on the insides of the cave, and there were traces of Sucre’s living there. Sucre was a guy who lived in the cave for a little while. Pigs and goats were also known to make stops into the cave to see what they could find inside it. It is very dark without a headlamp/flashlight though! 

On the van ride back to the hostel, we talked ourselves into agreeing to take the final exam on Wednesday instead of Friday since we had very little time to study and there was a snorkeling trip planned before the exam on Friday and most of us didn’t think we’d be able to test after it. 

So Wednesday we had class, I went to a restaurant and ordered a half order of ceviche and studied there until lunch, after which I spent the rest of the day studying for our 5 pm exam. 

Ceviche so delicious. So, so delicious. I found out recently that ceviche is cooked only by the acidity of the lime/lemon/vinegar sauce. 

Thursday we took a 25 km hike on the other side of Sierra Negra to see the Minas de Azufre, aka the sulfur mines that were discovered inside the crater but were never successfully tapped for profitable mining because they are too far for shipping.

The part of the caldera covered with yellow stuff is where the sulfur is being spewed from hydrothermal vents under the earth! This was taken after hiking west on the rim of Sierra Negra and into the steep caldera.  

On the way back it felt like I was in a Hiking Purgatory, hiking for eternity into the cloudy mistiness while wearing sopping wet boots... endlessly hiking while waiting for the severity of my sins to be determined. But we did have some great pictures taken when we emerged victorious from the trail. 

Our whole class after coming out of hiking purgatory. Picture by Ben. 

Friday we got up, had an especially delicious chicken salad sandwich for breakfast, and left for snorkeling. We first stopped by the lava tunnels in the sea to see how prominent they are in some marine parts of the islands. They are so beautiful, the water unbelievably clear, and allowed us to see some really gorgeous fish and turtles. 

Lava tunnels form because smooth-flowing lava hardens on the surface to form a tube-like structure while the lava inside of it continues to flow. Once the lava flow has ended, the tube still stands hollow. 

Cacti are prominent land forms on the islands, including on top of the lava tunnels. 

SEA TURTLE! The water was incredibly clear. 

We also spotted a blue-footed booby family. Apparently they nest out in the open on rocks, and the only way they mark their homes is by the male’s poop in a distinct circle around their area. They have no natural defenses or instincts against threats to their nest so we got just at the limit of 6 feet from any Galapagos animal to them and they just stared back at us, tremoring their neck skin to cool down their bodies. 

I think I was trying to capture a beautiful rainbow parrotfish here. I think I failed. 

After the lava tunnels we took the boats to another spot with some prime snorkeling and split into 3 groups with guides to explore the area. It was so wonderful. Among many other things, I swam with a sea turtle, a few white-tipped sharks (they are very small and don’t attack humans!!!), blowfish of two or three varieties, a cornetfish, and lots of parrot fish and angel fish.

An immense and impressive volcanic neck we drove around on the way to the snorkeling spot. 

Upon return, I cleaned up and went to explore the town for a little while (also in search of more ceviche...). It is a very small town, the roads are not paved, and I saw a momma pig and baby pig foraging for food in people’s yards. The chickens seemed a little nervous. 

We then had our final dinner - a delicious seafood fried rice! YUMYUM! - and went to a bonfire serenaded by live music on the beach unofficially as a class since Ben and Jairo came along with us. Eventually I left in the first group of people so I could clean off my hiking boots and finish up packing. 

Saturday we were to be ready to leave by 7:30 to drive to the dock. We got there without a problem, had our bags checked by a very careless coast guard official, and boarded our old friend the blue dolphin boat. We then spent 4 very rocky hours on this boat, which featured people nauseous with fumes exposure, seasickness, folks sopping wet from the splashing waves in the back, sun burns, and various other complaints. I stayed in the hutch area of the boat though and I’m fortunate to have basically no experience with motion sickness, so I avoided all of these problems. 

At about 12:40 we pulled in to the dock on San Cristóbal, where Savannah and Mary were waiting for us with a sign, as they had promised me!!! It was so wonderful seeing them again! I wish I had gotten a picture with them and the sign, but at this point everyone was very hassled to get their bags off of the boat and onto the boardwalk and finally be on solid ground again. 

We had a lunch and orientation and then met our host families. 

I am staying with Dorys, who lives with her husband Toño (who is away until this Wednesday in Guayaquil for a doctor’s appointment, since he has some sort of condition that needed more tests than were offered in the hospital here on the island) and her 11-year-old daughter Genesis. Dorys is a high school English teacher in town and Toño sells cleaning supplies to businesses, and the family runs a small hostel which is basically 3 rooms built onto their small house, all kept up by a hired housekeeper who happens to also be named Dorys. Dorys teaches class at one of the 5 schools in the area from 8 am to 1 pm, and then goes to take a class that is meant to augment teacher training from 6 to 9 pm every day except Sunday.

For a pretty good description and pictures of the host house and housing situation, go to Keegan's post about it here! The only correction is that Dorys the housekeeper actually has 3 kids, not 2. It also saves me the pain of uploading pictures on the internet. I can't seem to find a good connection fit for uploading pictures. 

The house is considerably smaller than the Pernas’ house in Cumbayá but I wasn’t surprised, since we were made aware of this difference beforehand. But the shower water gets hot! Bomb diggity! 

After chatting with Dorys for a bit, I went back to the school campus to see what my friends wanted to do for the day. I talked Savannah, Mary, and Chelsea into walking me around town and helping me find ceviche. It was really delicious, and then we wandered and ate at a few more places, dropped off Chelsea, and went to Mary’s host house to play with their 5 wrinkly puppies and watch 127 Days on DVD. 

127 Days is about a guy who really failed at life and went climbing in a canyon by himself without telling anyone about it, got his arm stuck on a rock, and had to saw off his arm after 127 hours to finally free himself. 

My host mom is very kind, and I get to have 3 breakfasts and 3 dinners with the family during the week. The food schedule is a little weird here. We are on our own for all lunches, the school pays for 2 dinners each week and provides breakfast 3 days a week. Dorys served me a nice breakfast on Sunday of bologna sandwich, egg, hot chocolate, and orange juice. And after I ate, I helped her with her English homework. 

Last night (Saturday, Oct. 6) I also went to the panadería with Genesis. She is really smart, observant, funny, and respectful - I’m going to like this family! 

Tonight (Sunday, Oct. 7) I chatted with Keegan, the guy living in the hostel portion of Dorys House who is a brand new high school graduate part of the Global Gap Year program through the Campus Y at UNC. He is organizing the environmental education small project with the local schools here, which is definitely something I want to be involved with! 

Tomorrow is my first day of Natural Resource Management class. I’m excited!