One of my favorite things to do here is to stand on the tourist pier (which unfortunately gets decked out in multicolored lights at a certain time each night) or on the roof of the house and look out over the city and the ocean at night. I’m not used to living so near the ocean and seeing it every single day, having lived in the piedmont my entire life. It’s so amazing. I’ve learned so much about the ocean, especially during the last few months, but staring out at it, it still gives the impression of being unfathomable, of there being so much more that we don’t know, that we may never know.
Last night we had our first debate for Luis’ class. The debate focused on tourism and whether or not it is sustainable for Galapagos. It was much easier arguing against it than for it. We also made the point that we are part of the problem. In effect, we are tourists here, no matter how much we may feel like we are different from the other tourists, no matter how much we think of Galapagos as our home (at least for three months). Our presence and that of the 170,000 or so other tourists who come here each year (a number that is quickly increasing) is destroying the environment that we’ve come to see. In however many years there may not be Galapagos penguins or sea lions or marine iguanas or giant tortoises or blue-footed boobies because the pressure we put on this ecosystem is too much for the islands to handle. Unless we change our practices here and in many other parts of the world, we will destroy that which we love.
Okay, I’m done with the rant about sustainable tourism and the beauty of the ocean. For those of you who have kept reading, here is what I’ve been up to for the past week. After getting back from the island hopping tour, we were all exhausted. I spent last Saturday in a sort of daze, barely able to function. Sunday was a bit better, but I didn’t actually manage to go anywhere. I just hung out at the university and wrote on my blog, watched movies, and started reading another book by Isabel Allende. As the week went on, it got better, though, and now I feel close to normal. All of my scrapes and bruises acquired during the tour have almost healed.
This was the first week of our third class on the islands and the fourth class of the semester “Marine Conservation Biology.” The same professor who taught our first class in Cumbaya, Luis Vinueza, is teaching this one. He’s really cool and very laid back, about everything. He told us on the first day of this class that we all got A’s in his last class. When asked if he actually graded the essays we submitted about the mangrove research from the coast, he just laughed.
Anyway, Wednesday we went up to Hacienda Tranquila for a wedding. Tina’s fiancé got to the island on, I think, Sunday and was told Monday that he was getting married on Wednesday. He was incredibly good natured about it. The wedding was beautiful and lots of fun, despite the garua. They provided pizza for dinner and several cakes, all of which were delicious. There was a cake typical to Ecuador and another one with strawberries. That one made me really homesick. Some of the girls decorated the Hacienda with balloons and streamers for the wedding. It was really nice.
Thursday we snorkeled in La Loberia with Luis. It was fun, as usual, but also colder than usual too. It’s still my favorite place to snorkel here, as we tend to see more fish and sea turtles than anywhere else on the island. The currents are strong, though, and every professor we’ve had here so far has cautioned us against going out too far. The sea lions are also fairly active there and you have to be careful not to get too close to the macho. He’s chased us out into the water a few times. It’s not a fun experience, swimming as quickly as possible while being chased by 300 pounds of angry sea lion.
Friday we went diving at Kicker Rock, successfully this time. We saw lots of sharks and some people (not me, sadly) saw hammerheads. We first went diving through the channel again and then dove off of a point and around the wall of one of the giant rocks. It was incredible. Now, we’re talking about diving in Santa Cruz (Luis changed our schedule to allow time for it), so we’ll see if that works out.
Me, scuba diving :)
Hammerhead Shark, you can barely see the head
More sharks (Katy took all the shark pics)
Saturday we attempted to go camping at Puerto Chino. Unfortunately everyone else ended up backing out, so Maureen and I decided that going by ourselves probably wasn’t the best idea. Instead, we went onto the navy base and explored some of the trails that lead back past where we went surfing (El Canon) to Tongo Reef, one of the other good surfing areas on the island. We walked until continuing would have meant finding our way back in the dark. We still only just made it back to the well-lit area of the base as the sun went down. Tongo Reef was beautiful, especially as the sun started to set. The trail leading to it was more what I expected of Galapagos: deserted, dusty, and full of thorny plants.
Cemetary on the path to Tongo Reef
View of Tongo Reef at sunset
Sunday, we went to a futbol game in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. I wasn’t even aware that there was a stadium here until this weekend. The teams were Barcelona and Emelec (apparently located near Guayaquil, Ecuador). The game was interesting, made more so by the rowdiness of the fans. We sat with the Barcelona fans and cheered with them, as best we could. Sometimes fans from Emelec would come over to our side and yell at us. They would immediately get pelted by popcorn and, I think, water (the other option would be beer). At one point during the game, the players looked like they were about to have at each other. Some of the fans got a bit crazy too. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one ready to make a break for it if things got rough. Luckily though everyone calmed down and the police barely had to step in to get things back under control. Barcelona ended up winning the game, after a shootout in the near dark. It was interesting, although expensive. Tickets to the game were $10 (I only say that because those in Quito were $5).
Kids hanging on the fence at the futbol game
Now, another week has started and we have to attempt to focus on schoolwork again. We have a group essay due eventually about invasive marine species and how to control them and a final exam on Monday before we head off to Santa Cruz again. It should be an interesting week.
I ate dinner alone last night, and I’ve gotten so used to watching Combate that I turned it on automatically. It’s this really popular Ecuadorian game show. The first few times I watched, it was just sort of confusing. I have to admit, though, it’s funny. I also had the longest interaction with the kids that I’ve had yet. Dailyn, who is 6, hung out with me and had me read her a book in English. She played on my computer for a while and tried to teach me words in Spanish. She’s adorable, but a handful. She and her sister, whose name escapes me, watched Combate with me for a while before bed.
Then, this morning we had a visitor. I didn’t even know he was there until he made a small noise. Then, it took a few minutes for me to think to look behind me, and there he was. This little filthy white dog had wandered in and was begging to join in our breakfast. My host mom chased him out. The next time he came in, he made no sound at all. I just looked down and there he was, curled up at my feet. I feel really bad for the dogs here. They’re an invasive species, so they shouldn’t be here in the first place; however, the locals brought them here and now they don’t take care of most of them. There are so many dogs on the streets here. It makes me really sad. I realized this morning after our visitor left that I would be in serious trouble if I lived here; I would adopt every single stray dog I saw.
This is a picture I really like of Erick (he's from UNC)
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