Getting to know San Cristóbal

I’m catching up! This one is much more text than I'd like, but reading is good for your brain! 

Monday we still did not have a professor, but our class activities continued as planned. I gave my presentation about a research paper on the water sources in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island. Lamentably, the paper itself is we had student presentations of papers and then a field trip to the highlands to see the waste management facility and the water filtration plant. 

Recycling and garbage go to the same facility to be sorted and dumped accordingly. Recycling clean enough to be remade into other materials is sorted by plastic/glass/paper, compressed into neat blocks, bound by giant plastic wrap, and shipped to mainland Ecuador for processing. Garbage and recycling not clean enough to be processed is dumped into the landfill. 
Until six years ago, trash was simply dumped along a path between the recycling awning and what is currently the landfill hole. 

 

When the hole was dug for dumping, the trash started going there. As you can see, there isn’t much of a hole now because it is largely filled already. This is the only plot of land alloted for dumping so far by the National Park on San Cristóbal and it’s easy to see there isn’t enough space for the growing population’s continued waste. Good ol’ problems of linear consumption systems... 

But I do approve of the composting portion of the waste collection process in the Galapagos, seeing as to how challenging it is to start and sustain composting services in the states. Of course it only works if people dispose of their scraps properly. The burden comes back to the individual. 

After the waste facility, we Buscar’d a short drive down the road to the water filtration facility. Right now it only superficially filters the water pumped from Cerro Americano before it reaches citizens, but construction is underway to finish in November or December for the facility to treat the water pumped from Cerro Gato to be used for potable water in the highlands and in town. After usage, the water will be pumped through to the wastewater facility (to be located in town instead of in the highlands) and then into the sea. 

Tuesday we had more presentations and then watched “We Feed The World”, a food documentary, with Mick the (previous) sea lion researcher (or he was previously a sea lion researcher. I will go into more detail once I work up the energy to discuss the research drama with the National Park.) giving a short presentation about sustainability and food choices. It shows Europe-specific examples of food production, especially of wheat and chicken, but was generally the same familiar concepts discussed in the likes of Food, Inc., The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and other food things about unsustainable industrialized production. 

Later on Tuesday we met about the Environmental Education program again, worked out specific tasks for planning, and set deadlines for work. It was good. 

After that, I worked on my geology assignment, went to bailoterapia (which you can read all about in Keegan’s recent blog entry here -- again, saves me the time of uploading and writing! He comes with me when I go every Tuesday and Thursday.), and then ran to the salsa class that some classmates set up with Oskar, a Galapagueño friend they made who's close to professional enough to teach us moves. It is $25 for 6 classes, and the first day was tons of fun. I am large and clumsy, so dancing is pretty awkward for me, but I am learning and trying! 

Wednesday we finally had a professor! Andrea came in and finally gave us firm directions and guidance in what to do for our water resource projects. We reworked and presented our conceptual models for the goals, challenges, and connections of ideas dealing with water conservation and figured out the schedule for the rest of the course. It was incredibly comforting and steadying to finally have an authority figure again. 

After class, I holed up to work on my geology field journal writeup, which I had planned on finishing last week but did not because of my time management shortcomings and because I was trying to get to know the town.

Apparently I missed one of the most stunning sunsets while I did work. This is a picture without modification by John-Michael. 

Thursday we talked about specifics of the project proposal writeup and introductory concepts of the science of water systems. I figured out that Andrea is actually Esteban’s wife and spread the word to the class, and we suddenly developed a lot more respect and interest in what she was doing with us because Esteban had such a strong impact on us and she jumped so quickly into class material that we didn’t have a chance to warm up personally first. 

After class, I had lunch with Chelsea and Keegan and had to come to terms with the fact that I am incredibly sick of eating rice here. Especially the dry, hard, excessively large portions of rice that I find at most meals that are rather unlike the soft wonderful Chinese rice that I have had no problem eating at every meal for about 18 years. Keegan has been finishing my rice. 

Then Savannah, Keegan, and I took a hike out to Playa Baquerizo to snorkel. It is very rocky and involves a lot more concentration climbing up and down the giant hill and rocks than I expected. Along the way, we saw lots of marine iguanas and some lobos. One of my favorite snorkeling experiences is getting to swim with sea turtles, and it seems that Baquerizo is one of the beaches where we can be sure to see them! 

Picture by USFQ of Cerro Tijeretas (Frigatebird Hill), which we climbed onto, over, and past to get to Baquerizo. 

Friday we learned about water quality testing parameters and methods and then took a field trip back to El Cafetal to demonstrate the water quality testing techniques in two streams there. We confirmed that there don’t seem to be mayflies (often an organism used as an indicator of stream health) in the area, but we did see lots of midges, shrimp, and mosquito pupae. Andrea concluded that the biodiversity of the streams here is not very high. 

Andrea putting midges into a sampling jar, me holding the container of water used to see what a creature does and looks like in water. 

I finished up my geology assignment and turned it in, and went to dinner with some folks before finishing my Natural Resources proposal draft for the night. 

I have a series of really gorgeous pictures to share in my next entry, so bear with me.