Memories

I will always treasure this experience that I was so lucky to be able to have.  During the last week we were asked to finish the sentence, "You know you studied in the Galapagos when..." I thought I'd share some of the answers we came up with. 
...you can cut a steak with a spoon.
...you plan your day and budget around Rico (the ice cream man who quickly learned that he could make lots of money off us when he came to the uni in the afternoon when we were all tired of studying).
...you go back to real life and try to give a presentation barefoot (or for that matter, try to walk around town or into stores barefoot).
...you press Alt Gr + Q to get an @ sign on a U.S. keyboard (technically, I never actually figured out how to do that, so I always had to google the at symbol and cut and paste it).
...at 7:33 PM you have a strong urge to go to the panaderia for a postre.
...your standard response to a plate of food being placed in front of you is "Gracias, tiene aji?" (aji is a spicy condiment they use a lot in Ecuador). 
...you fall asleep on the beach to the sounds of barking sea lions and then wake up to find one inspecting you from a foot away!
...you go home and still throw toilet paper in the trash can. 
...you ignore the existence of white rice (we were given that a lot).
...white rice is an acceptable side to pasta.
...applying sunscreen becomes as natural as breathing.
...your feet are scarred from kicking lava rocks and your only response is a nonchalant "Chuta".
...class assignments include snorkeling with sea turtles, sharks and manta rays, not to mention hundreds of fish. 

So, goodbye for now Galapagos.  You have changed me and the way in which I view the world dramatically.  I look forward to visiting you again in the future.  (Hopefully you will still be there).

Home for the Holidays

After celebrating Christmas with my friends at GAIAS and some of the other local students, it took four airplanes and two days to get from the Galapagos to North Carolina.  It was sad leaving my host family and the island, but I knew I would have been miserable if I'd been away from home for Christmas.  I got back on December 18, just in time to help Mom wrap up her Christmas activities with her students and re-acclimate myself to life in the US.  I'll miss the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador but there's no place like home.  It was easier than I'd expected to return to my normal life, maybe too easy. 
Christmas was beautiful and made even more special because I was seeing people I hadn't seen for over four months.  Unfortunately, I'm now sick, apparently thanks to Dad.  :)
I have another week and a half before classes start and I think it'll be more of a challenge to return to UNC study methods than it was readjusting to life at home.  It took me until after Christmas to remember that I needed books for my classes.  Oops. 

Familia

This morning, after over two weeks of being ready to be home, I was hit by a feeling of nostalgia for this place I haven't left yet.  I'm finally connecting with my host family and now it is almost time to leave.  I know I'm going to miss my host family and Galapagos.  I just hope I can come back to visit someday in the near future. 
Last night, I went to play basketball with my family.  I was nervous at first because I know I'm not great at sports and I wasn't sure how competitive the guys would be (considering the machismo thing).  It ended up being a lot of fun.  Four of my host mom's kids and some of their kids came to play.  We played Reloj (a basketball game where you have to shoort from a bunch of different locations around the goal, like the numbers on a clock).  We also played a game of basketball and then futbol (aka soccer).  Then, we went home and had lobster, french fries, and coca cola for dinner.  Best meal ever!  It was especially fun because I ate with the entire family instead of just with my host mom like I usually do.  I think it's because I now live in the main house, but I'm definitely a lot more involved in family life than I ever was before. 
This morning, I ate with Concepcion (host mom) and Sebastian (Suzannah's son).  Sebastian is adorable and calls me 'chica' because he can't remember or say 'Kate'.

Here's what I've learned about my family:
Concepcion is my host mom.  She has like seven children, who live everywhere from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz to the mainland to Germany. 
Her children:
Hendry lives behind her with his wife and two daughters (Dailyn and Haedy). 
Manolo lives with her. 
Maurecio lives in Riobamba on the mainland but is here while Hendry is on the mainland taking a class. 
Suzannah lives in Santa Cruz, but she's been sick, so she's living with her mom at the moment.  Her children are Sebastian and Michelle (Loula). 
Lorena lives in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno too with her two daughters (I don't know their names yet).  She runs a nail salon. 
Veronica lives on the mainland somewhere near Peru.  She is pregnant, but there are complications and Concepcion has been really worried about her lately.  Please keep her in your prayers. 
I know she has a child in Germany too, but I don't know anything about that one. 

I was really excited last night when I realized I actually knew the names of all the people I'm currently living with.  It's been difficult since people come and go fairly often and don't actually call each other by their names (or their real names) often.  It's usual for them to call each other by titles like "Mija", which I think is some form of "my daughter- mi hija" or "Mamita" (affectionate form of mom).  This has made it a challenge to actually learn people's names. 

There is some sort of Christmas celebration on Thursday put on by the local schools (including GAIAS).  That will be our last night on the island and I'm pretty sure we aren't going to sleep much.  I'm still really excited to get home and see everyone and return to normal life, but I know that Galapagos will always have a place in my heart.

A day in the life of a fisherman... and... Last ditch snorkeling trip

Wednesday, I spent a few hours watching internet videos and playing with one of Paloma’s puppies with one of my host brothers.  I am in heaven in the main house because there are two dogs (Paloma and Roberta) and then Paloma’s three puppies.  Paloma and her puppies are best described as white fluff balls.  They’re usually outside on the roof, but my host brother brought one of them inside to play for a while. 

Friday, we did a pesca vivencial trip, where we went out with fishermen and fished for several hours and then had dinner with them.  We caught seven barracuda, two palometa, and around five bacalao.  I was the first to catch a bacalao.  The fishermen were funny when they saw it.  They got really excited and started yelling.  They taste amazing, so I can kind of understand why.  We felt a bit bad for catching so many of them, as the fishery is not in good shape right now.  Dinner was delicious, though.  We ate bacalao and wahoo.  It was some of the best fish I’ve ever had. 

Yesterday, I worked most of the day and then went to La Loberia with Sara and Elyse.  We snorkeled for a while and then hiked up to the point to watch the sun set.  It was beautiful.  There were so many birds around, including a masked booby and a pelican. 

Then, today we went on a snorkeling trip to Cerro Brujo and Playa Ochoa.  We also went to Isla Lobos and relaxed at Puerto Grande for a while.  I saw a few new fishes and some barnacle blennies, which were cool.  There were also lots of yellow anemones around and some corals at Cerro Brujo.  We ended the trip with an impromptu stop at Kicker Rock.  We snorkeled through the channel and saw lots of Galapagos and Black-tip sharks.  Then, we were startled to see two hammerheads very close to us. 

Yes, I am still alive, just busy

We’re in the middle of our last class in the Galapagos.  This one is taught by Dr. Diego Quiroga, co-director of GAIAS.  He’s funny and very knowledgeable, but his lectures are in no way, shape, or form linear and our first exam was a doozy.  We’ve been reading articles, working on two papers, and reading Galapagos at the Crossroads by Carol Ann Bassett (if you are interested, this is one I would really suggest).  This has been the most difficult class yet, and it’s during our last three weeks on the islands. 

Last weekend was full of adventure, and a lot of work.  Thursday we went for another night dive.  This one was off the old pier.  We didn’t even take a boat; we just stepped off the dock.  It was cool, except that my dive light died about five minutes in.  I just followed Miranda, my dive buddy, very closely so I could see with her light.  As usual, we had a lobo dive down to mess with us while we were under.  The visibility was horrible, so he freaked me out the first time he streaked past.  I had no clue what it was.  Anyway, we also saw a lobster, a giant hermit crab (larger than my fist), sleeping fishes, and a puffer fish.  It wasn’t quite as astounding as my first night dive, but it was a lot of fun. 

Then, Friday night and Saturday morning I helped with the island-wise sea lion census.  We walked from Playa Oro to the Navy base and counted all of the lobos we saw, marking any wounds or signs of sickness that we noticed as well.  We counted around 50 baby sea lions, all of which looked very healthy, which made me really happy.  I’m tired of sick baby lobos.  We got up really early Saturday morning to do this and it ended up taking two hours, so I didn’t get to take that nap I’d counted on. 

Sunday, we went diving at Punta Pitt.  It was a really beautiful area and there were all kinds of birds, including red-footed boobies, which I hadn’t seen yet.  They’d get so close to you when you were at the surface, you thought they were going to land on you.  I also saw a Moorish Idol, my first in Galapagos.  It was impressive.  We then ended up doing our second dive at Kicker Rock, so that makes four dives there in total for me.  We dove around the outside instead of through the channel, so we didn't see as much as usual.  The vertical walls of the rock are really cool, though, and there was one shark that came very close to us before doing an about face and swimming away.   

Santa Cruz: Take 2

Our second trip to the most touristy island in Galapagos was a bit more laid back than the first. 

 
This is still in San Cristobal, on the tourist pier

      This dude freaked me out by climbing the side of the pier and suddenly appearing behind me. 

After our final exam on Monday, we took the boat to Santa Cruz. Then, we had the afternoon free.  We wandered around the city, getting only a little bit lost.  Once you leave the boardwalk you find only houses and the occassional little store.  The Malecon itself is a mix of restaurants, tourist shops, and dive companies.  We ended up at a restaurant called something like Giardin.  There, I had the best waffles I have ever had in my life.  They topped them with bananas and ice cream and caramel syrup.  Then, after dinner I went back with some friends and had a Blue Booby (a drink with blue curacao and other delicious things).  After that I watched an Ecuadorian movie in the room with my two roommates: Kavi and Danielle.  The movie was called something like "Karen Cries on the Bus" and was a very typical Ecuadorian movie with lots of drama and sadness. 

On Tuesday, we went to the Charles Darwin Research Station to hear some of the scientists talk about their work and the difficulties of conservation on the islands.  It was only slightly depressing.  We also got to see Lonesome George, who only sort of looked like he was trying to drown himself, along with lots of baby giant tortoises.  After that, we had another free afternoon.  We ate lunch at Tintoreras and got pumpkin soup and really good fish and ice cream and a cookie for dessert.  Then, we went shopping in all the little souvenir shops.  During dinner, two of the Charles Darwin Research Station people came to talk more with us and answer our millions of questions.  Our class gave a short marine invasive species presentation and then had a talk with the representatives: Mark and Volker (the first from Australia and the other from Germany) about them.

Lonesome George

Wednesday, we finally went to Floreana Island.  This is the fourth inhabited island in the Galapagos, with barely 100 people living there.  As we neared Floreana, we were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins!  It was incredible to see so many of them leaping and flipping around the boats in the port.  We also saw an albatross, a giant sea bird that is quickly becoming very rare.  A bus took us up into the highlands where we saw caves that pirates and other early inhabitants of the island used for shelter and the freshwater spring where the town still gets its water.  Then, we went into a corral of giant tortoises, probably getting a bit closer than we should have.  After lunch at a restaurant called Devil's Crown, which is a famous dive spot in Floreana, we went to a black sand beach to snorkel and relax.  There wasn't much to see snorkeling.  It was different than the sites we usually go to though, so that was cool.  I did see one sea turtle farther out.  That night, we had dinner with two representatives of Sea Shepherd.  We asked them lots of questions and heard about their current initiatives in Galapagos and around the world to protect the ocean and the life found there. 

Dolphins!

Iguana and Lobo on the dock at Floreana

On Thanksgiving Day, we went diving at Rocas Gordon, also called the Washing Machine because of the crazy currents there.  I was nervous about the dive considering that most dive companies recommended you have 30 dives to go there and I only had 10 at that point.  It ended up being okay, though, because the currents were almost nonexistent that day and I saw what I went to see: Hammerheads.  A few of the others had seen hammerhead sharks at Kicker Rock the last time we went there, but I kept missing them.  I was really excited to get one last chance to see these amazing creatures.  We'd only been under for a few minutes when I looked up and saw an enormous shark with a strangely shaped head swimming above the rocks to our right.  I stared at him for a few seconds and then the school of hammerheads swam by.  Katy counted and there were 18 sharks in that group.  We also saw a sea turtle, some mobula rays, and lots and lots of fish while we were there, but the hammerheads were by far the most amazing part.  During our second dive, a sea lion went down with us and then followed us throughout the entire dive.  Several of us played with him, probably using up our air rapidly as we did so, but it was fun.  At one point, one of the hammerheads came close enough that we could see his features really clearly.  Our sea lion friend started swimming toward him and I thought for sure we were about to watch him get eaten.  Instead, he swam up behind the shark and nipped his caudal fin.  The hammerhead shot forward, startled.  It was hilarious.  The lobo swam back to us looking very pleased with himself.  The only bad part of the dive came at the end of the first dive when one of the instructors grabbed me and took me to the surface without letting me take a safety stop.  Considering how inexperienced I am and that we went down to 80 feet (which is 20 feet too deep for Open Water divers, btw), this caused me a bit of concern.  Apparently, he thought that I was having trouble surfacing and ignored my frantic hand signals to take a safety stop.  I promptly told him not to touch my gear during the second dive and stayed far away from him as we surfaced and I took a longer than necessary safety stop.  Everything ended up being fine, but it was scary that an instructor could make a mistake like that when a novice like myself knew better. 

Gordon Rocks

Me and our Lobo Friend

Playful Lobo

School of Hammerhead Sharks

After GAIAS gave us cake and ice cream for Thanksgiving (before dinner), we went to the pizza shop and stuffed ourselves in the normal manner of the day.  Then, we went back to Giardin and had chocolate cake and cocktails.  I finally had my amaretto sour, which is my favorite drink at home but had been impossible to find in Ecuador.  We went back to the hotel with that 'I'm so full I need to lie down' feeling that characterizes Thanksgiving so well. 

On our last day in Santa Cruz, we walked to Tortuga Bay.  The beach was gorgeous.  We played in the surprisingly strong waves for a while and rested on the sand.  Then, I went to find somewhere to snorkel, since I'd dragged my gear there.  I swam around in this tiny puddle of water for a while before finding the actual snorkeling lagoon.  Unfortunately, unlike my puddle, the visibility there was horrible.  I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me.  That made me a bit nervous about swimming out alone where I knew sharks were supposed to be resting, considering I'd be on top of them before I saw them.  While I was gone, the tide came in and soaked our stuff, despite the heroic attempts of some of the sunbathers to drag it high enough on the beach to escape.  Unfortunately, this included my camera, which is now sitting in a bowl of rice.  :( 

Despite my scuba scare and the possible death of my camera, the trip was a lot of fun and I now feel prepared to spend the next three weeks in our final class at GAIAS. 

Night in the Sand

This one's a bit late, but here it is. 

The Saturday before we left for Santa Cruz, I finally got to go beach camping .  It was surprisingly difficult to find a taxi driver willing to take us.  There were ten of us in all and we ended up needing two taxis.  After a 30 minute ride through the highlands we arrived at a gorgeous, white sand beach: Puerto Chino.  The sand there is soft, unlike the sand at Playa Mann or Punta Carola.  We played in the cold water and attempted to surf, although the waves were a bit too small. 

Puerto Chino, you'll notice all the little Darwin's finches around the surfboards

Hermit Crab (there were tons of these on the beach)

Surfboards

I think my first attempt at surfing may have scared me for life because my second attempt was super short.  Anyway, we hung out on the beach and climbed up some rocks to see the blue-footed boobies.  Then, the sun went down.  It got dark very quickly and we scrambled to find flashlights.  We played never-have-I-ever and sardines in the dark.  It was cloudy, so we couldn’t see stars. 

Eventually though, the clouds disappeared and we could see the stars and, at one point, the moon.  Every time I woke up during the night, the sky looked different.  I kept having to find my glasses so that I could see the stars. 

Overall, the experience was fun, but I don’t think I’d want to do it again.  It was way too cold to not have sleeping bags and defending our stuff from the rats was annoying.  The rats are invasive, btw, and were carried here by humans, probably as stow-aways on ships.  The sand was amazing to walk in, but it got everywhere and I’m still finding it amidst all my stuff.