Galapagos

Las Islas Galapagos (Los Encantantes) October 27, 2009

Today we returned from one of the most magical places in the world, the Galapagos. I don't even know how to begin, there is too much to say, and as with my pictures, I will never be able to do the islands the justice they deserve, here it goes.

Before we continue, the most important thing you need to understand about the Galapagos is that all animals have absolutely no fear of humans. You can get within INCHES of some of the most bizarre animals in the world.

OK, for to prevent information overload, I'll go chronologically. We arrived at the Baltra airstrip Tuesday morning and were divided into two groups for the week. If I have one complaint about the trip, it is that we were isolated from 11 of our classmates and could only share incredible experiences with half of our class. Anyway, my half elected to go live with a Galapagueno family first for 3 days and tours islands second for 4 days and vice versa for the other group. From the airport we rode by chiva to a giant tortoise reserve and got our first look at what the Galapagos is known for. Quite frankly, the giant tortoises were among the least exciting wildlife we encountered. They were big, slow and very uninterested in us. From there we traveled by ferry to the most populated island of Santa Cruz only to hop on a bus for 20 minutes across the island to catch a faster transport boat which moved us at about 9 knots for 3 hours to the largest island in the archipelago, Isabela. From there we finally meet our hoststay families. Because the whole island has a population of about 2000 people we had to double up students with families. Unlike Intag or Quito, our homestays were not prematched to best fit our personalities or preferences, instead we rode by chiva through the town and make random stops in front of the various homes. Dylan and I jumped out at the first house. Turns out we got the craziest Galapagueno in all of the archipelago as our father, Celso. He looked like a Caribbean Santa Claus on cocaine. He had frizzy white hair, at least 4 visible growths on his neck that appeared cancerous and spoke in a heavy island accent. (dropping all of his S's, “mas o menos” becomes “ma meno”) I say he was crazy because he just talked and talked about whatever came to mind and would talk for a good 20 minutes straight until he forgot where he was going and would start over. During dinner, Dylan and I didn't say a word, we just listen to him tell us several incorrect facts about the origin of the Galapagos and its species. Also, he and his wife were on a vegetarian diet, at first I was happy but after we ate vegetarian hotdogs for every meal, I had second thoughts.

How the homestays on the island worked is students slept and ate breakfast and dinner with the family, but the rest of the day was spent with our half of the group. The first morning we bid farewell to Celso at 8 to be ready for the 815 chiva pick up, an hour and a half Dylan and I were still waiting. Turns out our driver decided to go to Guayaquil and not tell anyone. After paying another local to be our driver, we were off to Los Tuneles, an alien terrain, 30 minutes by panga (a small, high horsepowered dinghy). Just getting to this bizarre area was an adventure; on the way there we hit rough seas, did this mean we slow down or drive any differently? No, quite the contrary. We hauled it in two 6-person pangas over 10-12 foot waves cruising faster that I would like to know. I do know that every now and then we would hit a wave just right and all but the prop of our panga would be airborne. As if this wasn't enough, on the way there, manta rays started jumping out of the water all around us, feeding on plankton and getting a good two feet of air.

Once we arrived, we had to navigate though a maze of natural lava tunnels and bridges to get out of the rough seas and into the calmer backwaters. Once there we thought we were on a different planet. I'll try to add a few pictures, but I don't have the words to describe our surrounding; it was simply unlike any other place I have ever seen or heard of. Here we got our first glance at green sea turtles (the first of many), sting rays and tropical fish.

For the next 3 days we spent our time snorkeling or climbing volcanoes in the morning and swimming with sea lions and sea turtles in the afternoons. Our nights were generally on the completely empty beaches watching the sunsets. We were in the ocean everyday and on the beach every night.

We got to know our host parents a bit more, turns out Celso was Xavier's guide 30 years ago, when Xavier was in high school. Xavier said that he hasn't changed a bit.

In addition to the students and the professors, SIT pays the way for four other individuals to go to the Galapagos free of charge, its part of SIT's mission statement: reciprocity. Most Ecuadorians never get the chance to go to the Galapagos, and this is a way for us to give back to the country. This year SIT payed the way for my spanish instructor: Pilar, one of the sweetest Quitenas I have meet, she is a single mother in her 50's and has never been able to have a vacation of any kind much less visit the Galapagos. She literally hugged the beach when we landed. The second individual was a mujer named Marcia from the Intag Cloud forest. Marcia has been a leader against the mining industry for 5 years now and has lived in relative poverty as a result. She is only 28 years old, but has faced tear gas, paramilitary abuse and stood in front of mining trucks. Her ticket to the Galapagos is a small thanks for all she fights for. The third was Jennifer, Xavier's maid's 16 year old daughter and budding ecologist. Finally was Aldemar, who I learned usually gets to go along for the ride. He is our logistics coordinator. He works his ass off 50 weeks of the year and gets 2 free weeks in the Galapagos every year. Because he gets so little vacation, he lives every second to the fullest. For example, when we switched groups, we left the island at 2 pm and Alde had already had seven 22 ounce beers and was planning on having 7 more before the night was over. We played our fair share of frisbee, soccer and EcuaVol with a highly intoxicated Aldemar. It was great.

We switched groups on the 23th, it had only been 3 or 4 days, but I was surprised at how much I missed the other group and how happy we all were to see each other. It made us all think about how difficult it will be to say goodbye for our ISPs and at the end of the program....

We only had 10 minutes to catch up with the other group before we had to catch our boat and make way towards the San Jose a 90 foot, 4 story, touring boat. We embarked for 5 days and 4 nights. Each day we would spend snorkeling and exploring a different island and travel during the night. There is literally too much to say so I'll stick to the highlights.

Snorkeling the La corona del diablo ( the devils crown). This is the remnants of a collapsed volcano, so the outside of the crown was about 35 meters deep and swimming with white tip sharks, giant manta rays, green turtles and thousands and thousands of fish. Then we could dive under the crown and enter the shallows of the center. Here the were all types of bottom feeder and sea stars and the like. It was also the first time my spanish teacher Pilar ever snorkeled, she was so happy that it made everyone's day.

Sleeping out under the stars. On night, I slept out on the deck of the ship. I was freezing and sleeping under two towels, but I woke up at 330am with two friends to look at the stars. With no light pollution and no land visible on all sides of the boat, the sky looked like a planetarium. And because we were located on the equator, we could see both northern and southern hemisphere. Some cool facts: when the Inca saw Orion, because at the equator is on his side, as a butterfly not a hunter. His belt formed the body and his arms and legs were the wings. The Inca also used the seven sisters (the little dipper) as a means of an eye exam, the more stars you could distinguish, the better your sight was.
Swimming with dolphins. One day when we were about to hike into lava tunnels, we heard a yell from the boat to hop aboard and bring your snorkel gear. Once we were 20 minutes off shore we were joined by a pod of 40 or so dolphins, immediately, Xavier and I jumped in and found ourselves surrounded by clicking dolphins. I could I have grabbed a fin if reached my arm out.

Humpback whales. Again we were about to visit Post Office Bay (more on this later) when we saw whales on the horizon. We hoped in our pangas and boated 30 minutes and chased the humpbacks for a good half an hour until we finally got close enough. Then they were gone. We waited and waited. Then out of no where, a mother and her calf breached 10 meters from out boat. They would lift 90% of their bodies out of the water, spin onto their backs and crash down into the water. They kept playing for ten minutes, sounded and were gone.

Post Office Bay. One of the Galapagos oldest traditions, originally established in the 1700s for whalers as a free method of worldwide mail. Sailors would leave there mail in a common barrel and look through the rest of the mail to see if any was bound for a location that they would soon visit. Then it was their obligation to hand deliver the mail. This tradition is continued today. I sent 4 post cards on the 26th of October, with any luck they will be arriving before I graduate college.

In general we saw some of the world's most incredible wildlife, including, but not limited to: Blue footed, Red footed and Nasca Boobies, Humpbacks, bottlenose dolphins, giant tortosies, giant albatrosses, green sea turtle, giant manta rays, red throated frigate birds, more sea lions than we can count, and thousands and thousands of sea life.

Sylvia had told us that we would get tired of seeing sea lions on the beaches by the end of the trip, however, I have proven her wrong. I never got sick of seeing the lobos del mar (in spanish, sea wolves) every pier, dock, boat, beach, street and sometimes in the small tiendas.

I am running low on internet, there is so much more to say, but I have to run. Peace and happy birthday Carly.