What a really cool experience!

Sea lions, giant tortoises, blue footed boobies, sea turtles, iguanas, Darwin’s fitches volcanoes, sandy beaches, and the birthplace of evolution, as we know it. Las Islas Galapagos! What a trip it was! On Thursday April 9th I woke up at 5 in the morning and headed of to Mariscal Sucre Airport Quito for my flight thinking I was on the 7.30 flight, I wasn’t, I was on the 9.30 flight and the rest of the group passed on at 7.30. So I waited 2 more hours, hopped on the plane. Exhausted from the night before, (I wont tell you how late I stayed out, but it was late,) I napped the whole way. After about an hour we stopped in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers and then again, we were off, but this time sailing over the Pacific Ocean; Galapagos bound! We landed on the island of Baltra that is home to one thing: the airport. Though there are around 60 islands and islets that fall under the general name Galapagos but only three have any sort of substantial population to label a town, or village. From Baltra I hopped on the 80 cent ferry across the canal from Baltra to Santa Cruz also known as Indefatigable.

As you may guess, since there are only 3 habitable populations on all of the Galapagos Islands, there is one main paved road, which runs north to south on Santa Cruz, from the ferry to Puerto Ayora, Galapagos’ main deep-water port. I took the 1-hour ride down south and the drive was amazing. Some areas along the drive were pretty barren; dry, lacking all types of vegetation besides cacti. Other areas were full of green veggies, banana trees, and bamboo. That’s the thing about the Galapagos; they were created a few million years ago, making them very young islands, some areas are still completely covered with solid, sharp, unforgiving, black, volcanic rock and other parts have become like normal earth because of the salt water, wind, and introduction of organic material. Before human “discovery” of the Galapagos everything, plants, animals, insects, etc had either floated, swam, or flew there so the majority of the matter on the Galapagos is now there accidentally. To adjust to such a new landscape many of the animals and plants modify themselves to new niches, or die. Now the inhabitants of the Galapagos now share their home with people, tourists, boats, houses, water bottles, and cars, so conservation and impacting as little as possible is very important.

Back to the good stuff. Right off the bat I dropped my stuff off that the hostel, Lirio del Mar, threw on my bathing suit and flip flops and walked on over to the Darwin Research Center, home to the rarest animal in the whole entire world! They call him Lonesome George, and he is the last of his specific species of Giant Tortoises. I don’t know what specific kind he is, or how old he is, but let me tell you, Lonesome George is huge, old, wrinkly slow and really cool. At the Darwin Research Center in Puerto Ayora the worker help breed and take care of all different types of Giant Tortoises that are only found on the Galapagos Islands. During the 17th century the tortes population was decimated by pirates… mmmm good eatin! We only hung out there for a little because once you’ve seen one giant tortes you’ve basically seen them all, plus they aren’t very active, though impressive.

So what else could we possibly do. Its hot, we’re in bathing suits, and we’re on an island… Beach! We then split off into the groups we would remain in for the rest of the trip traveling throughout the Islands. After getting our directions we were directed about 15 mins in one direction to a set of beaches called Tortuga Bay, one problem with Ecuadorians is they tell you what you want to hear. At one point we were standing right next to a HUGE sign that said “Bahia Tortuga 2 km” pointing to the left, and the man we were asking for directions pointed us in the total opposite direction. We found this out on our way back. So 30 mins later we finally arrived at an amazingly beautiful beach that looks like a Caribbean tourism poster or a Corona beer commercial. This is the life! Huge beach, white, soft sand, clear, blue, clear water and it was all ours! We stayed there swimming and covering ourselves in sand for an hour or so and walked on back. As usual when traveling, end even for other living in Ecuador means your shower is a trickle of cold water, but I mean how can I complain, I’m in the Galapagos! A long philosophical dinner went by and we all met back up on the roof of the hostel with a few beers, some cards, and pictionary-telephone, which is the funniest game ever! Like the days on the islands, the nights are scorching hot and a few beers is required to ignore your constant sweating throughout the night.

Day 2
The next day we took a little water taxi to a place called Las Grietas which translates to “The Cracks.” Like most of our days in the Galapagos, we started off walking on sharp lava in flip-flops through cacti, in the hot sun, but once we got there it was amazing! Imagine walking on flat land, (besides the lava,) and suddenly coming to a 50 foot drop in literally a crack 200 feet long and 20 feet wide, straight down to the clearest bluest water on the earth, and below the water it goes down another 40-50 feet. We scaled down one side of it ripped off our clothes and jumped in. We climbed up the walls jumping and screaming into the water, snorkeling, and just floating. After a few hours we went back for lunch, which the whole trip was 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to save money, so I will spare you on any other lunch descriptions, (ps lunch was dry cereal.) That afternoon we headed back to Tortuga Bay, where we encountered our firsts iguanas sunbathing on the beach who had no real fear of us walking around them taking pictures. Some more swimming, walking, and sun bathing and we took our long walk back again through the cacti. That night we went to a Chifa, which is a Chinese restaurant- it wasn’t Chinese food by the way, but it was still good. After dinner, again we roofed it, with some beers and played some games and went to bed we had a big day in store for us.

Day 3
We woke up early and headed down to the dock to jump on our boat for a full day of snorkeling and it was insane! First off on the boat ride to Floreana, the first island to be inhabited because of its curious fresh water springs, hundreds of wild dolphins just started jumping out of the water, diving in, landing on their backs and playing around us while we steamed through the Pacific. This went on for about 10 mins until they disappeared and when we arrived in Floreana we were not met by fishermen in their boats, but sea lions in their boats sunbathing- what a life! After a short walk on, you guessed it, volcanic rock, and through, you guessed it cacti, we got to the Lobería which translates to “The place where the Sea Lions hang out” but the literal translation is “The Sea Lion Store.” All the sea lion mamas and papas were out fishing so we found a kiddy pool by the beach full of baby sea lions… BABY SEA LIONS! The cutest thing you will ever see in you retched life! After we did a little snorkeling with a sea turtle, got some lunch, hopped back on the boat for an even cooler experience, La Isla Champion. Again an amazing boat ride where we saw all sorts of birds including the fabled blue footed booby! Ps every shop is full of all different kinds of shirts that say “I love boobies!,” or “Check out my boobies!” When we arrived at Champion we were met over a hundred sea lions all swimming, sunbathing, and making the same sounds as a human vomiting- go figure. Once we entered the water and looked down with our masked we discovered a whole new world. You could see clear down 70 feet off the shelf we were snorkeling on. Not only that but the shelf was full of playful sea lions, fearless fish, and of course us gringos. The sea lions were most defiantly the most impressive part, because they have no reason to fear us, they are just as interested in us as we are as them. They come flying right up to your face and at the last minuet, while you are flinching they veer off to your side, the little ones nibble on your flippers and they come up from below you blowing bubbles in your face, looking right into your eyes. Amazing. Its not only the sea lions, but the fish too, you can dive down 20 feet and swim right through the middle of the school, surrounded by huge tropical fish. Could it get any better? That night ended in the same way most nights did, cheap good street food, beer, card games, truth or dare, never have I ever and such as that.

Day 4
Because we were so tired from snorkeling the day before we took a taxi to another beach about 25 mins away, and unlike the cabs in the US and Quito the taxis in smaller towns all around Ecuador like Puerto Ayora is a white pickup truck, not great on your butt when you are driving down a dirt road in the back of the pickup. Once again clear blue water, mangrove trees, and soft white sand. That night we went out for a nice Easter dinner and prepared for our trip to Isabela aka Albermarle

Day 5
We took the same boat to Isabela that we did to Floreana, and it was such a beautiful ride, surprised huh? Sitting on the front of the boat, we say thousands of flying fish and turtles the whole way, but since it was a 3 hr trip, naps were necessary. I tell you if I could choose one place to live on this world it would be Isabela. A tiny town, full of the nicest people, a noticeable lack of tourists, and you guessed it sandy white beaches, volcanic rock and cacti! The hotel we stayed at that I can highly recommend was called Cierro Azul and if you get the chance to visit, don’t stay anywhere else! The first afternoon I asked our manager if he could find us a BBQ and he did no problem, so after a little beach time, I went our got charcoal, steaks, half a chicken, sausages, potatoes, peppers, onions, and rolls all for $20, 4 bucks for each of us for more food than we could eat, and cheap! Our bottle of tequila for that night was as much as our whole meal, but so worth it! I got my grill face on and grilled the crap out of the food and it was wicked good like a bastahd! After our food and sprits we were full of life and headed back to the beach for some stargazing and street soccer with 8 year old boys. Lastly, how else would we end the night than a poetry slam and hammock-ing.

Day 6
So we woke up early again and got picked up to go horsebackriding around Sierra Negra, one of the biggest craters in the world spanning 10k at its longest point in diameter. So when got up to the point where they kept the horses and jumped up on and rode off into the distance like cowboys and cowgirls. I affectionately name my horse Petty Pablo and was a bit disappointed that he was such a follower but we worked things out and as soon as you can say “yee haw saddle up partner” we were galloping! What a great view it was just trotting a long on the edge of Sierra Negra- see photos. After our ride we dismounted and took a really long walk through, you guessed it volcanic rock and cacti! But it was a lot different. Finally after being soaked in sweat we arrived at El Chico a smaller crater and from the view of El Chico we could see another volcano erupting on an island a few miles away. It was a really cool experience! The walk back up was really hard and not fun but equally as beautiful as the way down. We hopped back on our steeds, split off into a few groups and headed back, my group, led by a mule, galloped the whole way back and my ass killed because I obviously don’t know how to ride a horse correctly. That night we just went out to dinner and hammoked it for a while because we were so tired.

Day 7
We slept in a little that morning and then headed out for some snorkeling where we saw the usual, Turtles iguanas, etc etc etc you know, living life in the Galapagos. We snorkeled for a while and then tried to lay down on the lava, twas in vain, lava happens to be sharp when dry and millions of years old. The rest of the day we spent on the beach and the night was spent barbequing and polishing off our tequila.

Im sure you are getting as bored reading this as I am writing it so Im going to try to keep the rest pretty short, for those of you who aren’t bored yet, you should probably be worrying about the economic crisis or hating on AIG.

Day 8
We had to leave Isabella because we got kicked out for conduct unbecoming of a USFQ student, just kidding; we just had to go back to Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora. A beautiful ride back and being on the boat really made me miss home and work, but hey I couldn’t complain I was hanging in the Galapagos! We got back did a little window shopping and then we were out for a little bit of street food. Spent some time up on the roof porch and then headed to bed.

Day 9
That morning I woke up and everyone was gone, the people who booked our flight couldn’t get me on the same flight so I speant the day walking around, buying Ts, taking pictures, and reading at Tortuga Bay. It was pretty nice and relaxing. I pretty much spent the rest of the day reading and napping. After a good flight back I was sad to be back in the big city but what can you do it was certainly and awesome adventure! Hope all is well and I miss you all!

Huaorani Territory! At Last!

So I wish I had more time to write this post but I don’t because I have an exam in an hour! This weekend was probably the coolest weekend so far we went to Huaorani Territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon. For those of you who do know anything about the Huaorani check out the links on the last post. Basically they are one of the most vicious tribes known today and their violence against missionaries and other gringos like myself is as recently as 5-7 years ago.

We set out for our journey last Thursday night. A bunch of us went down to Cumbaya at about 8.30 so we only had to pay the 25cent bus fare instead of the 8 dollar taxi ride. (And so we could go to the bar a little before!) At midnight we met up with the rest of the group outside of USFQ and by 12.30 we were on our way to Tena! After about a 4.5 hour bus ride to Tena we continued to nap on the bus until daylight when we got up and got some breakfast. After breakfast we got on another bus that I think went to Puente, another 3 hour ride. Finally we arrived at the end of a road and the bus driver said, “here we are!” The road just ended, where were we to go? In the now pouring rain we met up with our Huaorani hosts by the river at the end of the road, packed into little, wobbly dugout canoes with Yamaha 45s on them.

Throughout the soaking, sinking canoe ride we would have to stop and shut off the engine so we could pass over small rapids. A 45 min extraordinary ride through the Dayuma River, surrounded by nothing, but surrounded by more green than you have ever seen! Imagine NYC, paint it green, add a lot of water and some wet gringos and that’s where I was.

We finally reach the encampment which was no more than a leentoo (sp?) and another wall-less raised roofed hut. This would be our home for the next 3 days. Living right on the river in small family groups scattered all over the jungle the Huaoranis have lived for thousands of years and have only known outside contact for about 60.

You may think that they would be all naked, stupid, and crazy, but they were just like you and I; this particular group wears clothes, eats off plates, sends some of their people to school and could really teach any scientist a thing or two about the jungle and uses for plants. The Huaorani, like all other Amazonian tribes have an incredible knowledge about their plants, animals and ecosystems. Again I wish to correct another stereotype, Amazonian peoples are not the buen salvajes living one with nature that we have thought for hundreds of years. The Amazon Rainforest is what they call a “green hell.” You cant grown anything there! What? You cant grown anything isnt the Amazon that doesn’t make sense!

Well it does! The soil is so pour in this region because all the plants have adapted so that when the leaves or other organic material hit the ground, the plants suck it right up almost immediately! So the soil contains no nutrients, all of the nutrients are in the plants! Pretty cool huh? When the people needed to domesticate plants only some could adapt to this lifestyle and the people had to alter the landscaped and create their own sort of GMOs to be able to survive.

During the whole trip we did a lot of just sitting and eating with the group but besides that we swam a lot in the river, did some amazing hikes, used their blowguns and threw their spears. Huaorani is their native language; so many of us were at an equal Spanish level as them, which was really quite funny! Well the pictures pretty much speak for themselves though not doing the trip justice at all! I hope all is well at home, or wherever you are! I miss and love you! See you soon!