Life Just Keeps Getting Better!

The week so far has been filled with class work, as reflection papers, midterms, and my phylogenetic analyses are all due within the next week. No matter how much work I may think I have, I still have time to nap on the beach in the afternoon (until I remember how much work I have due, grrr). Tuesday was exceptionally special. While I was chillin on the beach with a local friend, a baby sea lion was ‘walking’ around, calling for its mama. Well, she was nowhere to found and this little cutie came right up to us and put its head on my friend’s ankle. Cutest thing ever. Unfortunately, I’ve been forgetting my camera at home and didn’t get a picture, but I will forever remember that moment.

Sea Lion Familia!

As weekdays are for class, lunches, afternoon beach naps, and sunsets, weekends are for brunches, beach naps, snorkeling, and adventurous activities. To make the island seem less small (haha) I enjoy traveling beyond the town into the National Park to break up my normal beach nap routine (I’m totally serious).

Early Morning Beach Yoga

Booby.

Saturday was spent hiking and snorkeling. Well, it wasn’t really a hike, more like a scramble over sharp ‘aa’ basaltic rock. The scramble was awesome because the view is just amazing and we kept running into these huge iguanas. If you walk too fast there’s a pretty big chance you’ll step on an iguana or dive face first into the rock to prevent from stepping on one. Upon returning to the loberia (lobo breeding ground), we decided to go snorkeling. By we I mean Jackie, Keegan, and I. The snorkeling was pretty awesome. Swimming with the tortugas is just amazing. Just before we were about to get out of the water we saw a few lobos playing in the water not far from us. It was so awesome!! One of them swam up to us and was swimming around us checking us out. The food schedule is pretty strange here. We eat our meals between uni, our host families, and at restaurants. Fridays and Saturdays we’re on our own (i.e. we have to pay for it) for dinner so after dinner Saturday I went with a couple lovely ladies to the pier with a box of wine (yeahhhh…a botella is 2x the price than on the mainland so the $8 box is just fine). We hung out for a few hours watching the fish, sun rays, and sea lions swim by. Watching a beautiful light-colored ray glide through the water at night is one of those moments that make me so happy. The juvenile sea lion was playing with a fish; tossing it in the air, through the water, even pushing the thing after it died. Sea lions are really playful and seem to be very smart. I’m in awe every time I see one. They’re such majestic creatures.

Tortuga!

Iguana Tracks

Swimming with the Sea Lions

 Sunday was a fabulous day! A small group of us left uni around 10am in a taxi for the Highlands. Our plan was to make a couple of stops along the way before settling in at a beach for the remainder of the afternoon. Now, the taxis here are not what you would imagine. They are fairly large 4-wheel drive trucks. People can sit in the front, backseat, or in the bed of the truck. I’m sure you can imagine what a taxi would look like with 7 people.

         Our first stop was a crater with a lake. We parked at the bottom and had to walk up the hill for approximately 10 minutes or so. I have learned that my lung capacity is no longer conditioned to the altitudes of Quito and Quilotoa. Needless to say, walking uphill and talking at the same time will leave you a tad out of breath. A few of us were from Mountain Geology and had climbed Quilotoa, so I think we were expected something a tad more grand considering that were on an island in an archipelago that’s a volcanic hotspot. Laguna el Junco is beautiful, but it makes sense that it would be small considering San Cristobal is the oldest of the all the islands. Thankfully it was a clear day because we were able to walk around the crater and see the ocean on all sides. If you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know we summited Quilotoa twice because we lost one of the students (I still have no idea how that happened); well, we ‘lost’ her again at el Junco, haha. Only since it’s such a small crater she was able to see us the entire time.   

 Back down the hill and back in the taxi we were on our way to the Galapaguera. The Galapaguera is a tortoise refuge. Because the tortoise population has been decreasing over time (many thanks to those who discovered the Galapagos islands and removed many of the tortoises from the islands to use them for food on their ships, causing a number of species to go extinct), a refuge has been built within the National Park to help increase the numbers of the species Geochelone chathamensis. A number of tortoises were taken from the northern part of the island and placed within the refuge. There is also a nursery to protect the young and decrease the mortality rate.

         Puerto Chino is an amazing beach. It has fine, white sand like you would expect in a tropical region (expect that the Galapagos are not considered tropical, but equatorial), the water is crystal clear, and the marine wildlife abundant. I honestly didn't do much here; just played in the waves for a bit and passed out on the sand.

         Sunday evening was spent with some wonderful people that live on the island. A group of fiends get together every few weeks and make dinner; vegetarian lasagna= lots of veggies! I had broccoli for the first time in over a month! Some of my classmates are starting to have nutritional-related health problems (papas are considered a vegetable), so we're trying to come up with a way to get more veggies into our diets.

         Eating white rice multiple times a day eventually leads to an aversion of it…I now avoid rice as much as I possibly can (so basically whenever I have to buy my own lunch or dinner), which has been working out fairly well. I’m pretty sure I’ve gone a whole day before without eating rice. Living on an island can be pretty cool because everything you eat is super fresh. I get fresh squeezed oj with breakfast and papaya picked from one of the trees outside. I’m pretty sure my superfamily are fishermans, so when I do eat dinner at home I usually get fish, lobster, or shrimp. Occasionally we have chicken and I’ve noticed that when we do there tends to be one less chicken running around outside. The first time it happened I was a little shocked, but now I’ve gotten used to eating the chickens I see running around on a daily basis. The tiendas don’t sell bread b/c the island is full of bakeries; the scent of freshly baked bread makes your mouth water. I’m pretty sure many people in the U.S. would smile more if they got to experience the freshness of food more often.

I’ve been waking up at 5:20am three days a week to help the Galapagos Science Center with its lobo counting. We meet at uni, split up the different beaches within walking distance, and differentiate between pups, juveniles, females, subadults, and machos. I’d prefer to avoid waking hours before 7am, but walking around the sea lions while they’re sleeping is something I greatly enjoy. They get mad at you for waking them, and in the chance a newborn was born that morning, we get to see baby for the first time while avoiding tired yet overprotecting mom. The other great thing about getting up this early is that I can get my run done early. Running along the malecon at 6:30am is very peaceful as most people are still sleeping, minus the tourists getting ready to catch a boat to another island.

Kicker Rock. Great snorkeling and diving.

I've finally given in and started taking anti-everything drugs. Having already 'lived' (i.e., slept in the bathroom if you get my drift) twice since I've been on this particular island, I've gone on a round of Cipro and anti-parasitic drugs. The cool thing is that you can just walk into the pharmacy without having seen a doctor (the healthcare here is mediocre at best; the thought of going to the hospital gives me the gitters), tell the pharmacist what ailments you have, and get something for it. I got 10 pills of Cipro for $5, without the copay of a physician. That's pretty cheap. 

Now that I’m in a new week (today is actually Oct. 25^th), we only have two days of class left so we’ve all been working really hard to get our phylo projects finished, papers written, and study for the final; all of which are due today (and yet I'm finishing up my blog, haha).  Mañana will be an easy day and on Saturday the whole group leaves for Santa Cruz to begin a week of island hopping!

Learning and Lovin' Life on San Cristóbal

The ride from Isabela to San Cristóbal on Saturday morning was pretty much the roughest boat ride I have ever been on. Popping food and Dramamine consistently throughout the ride to prevent me from emptying my insides into the Pacific, I can honestly say I made it throughout the 5 hour ride without much problem. I only have a few words of advice: DO NOT attempt to use a bathroom at the (front) of a boat in the middle of the ocean. Whether the boat is moving or not. Unless, of course, you want to get thrown up against the walls of the bathroom.

Although it’s now over, I’ve come to realize Mountain Geology has made me push myself to the limits of my abilities numerous times. From feeling as though I may need knee replacement surgery while hiking Quilotoa to restricting the amount of oxygen to my brain (which I believe I still have side effects from time to time) and having to be evacuated at Cotopaxi; I got one of the worse sunburns in my life (the layers of skin won’t stop peeling) and I came pretty close to smashing my face on that sharp ‘aa’ rock on Isabela. Although scary at times (especially Cotopaxi), these experiences have all made me a stronger and more well equipped individual for life on San Cristóbal and whatever new adventures my future professors decide to throw at me.

Post 25km mud run on Isabela. Still smiling! :-)

San Cristóbal is an amazing place full of beautiful beaches, animals in their natural habitats, great places to snorkel and scuba, hiking trails, cute shops, great restaurants, and locals (can’t forget about the 6,000 locals on the islands, especially the awesome guides). My school is basically on a beach (only separated by a road) with numerous sea lions lying around. I can watch the bull swim along the shore calling out to protect his territory from where I sit on the balcony. Darwin’s finches fly in and out of the building or land directly in front of my laptop, looking at me with inquisitive eyes; most likely wondering what I’m doing on his/her island.

 The view from uni. Distracting, right?

Sunday night I got to watch my first sunset while sitting with my feet in the sand as a group of blue footed boobies were feeding; these graceful birds (larger than I thought they would be) would disappear into the waves before the setting sun.

As 97% of the Galápagos Islands are a National Park you’re not allow to disturb anything. As a guest on the islands, you’re not allowed to wander around or go between islands without a guide. Well, I can for the most part because I live here with a student visa (and I’ve befriended a few guides who share similar interests as I do). As the guides are certified by the park most are very knowledgeable of their land.

Mama and Baby

A baby sea lion was born monday morning; I can hear him/her from where I sit on the balcony of uni. The babies are the cutest little things and the mamas seem very protective over them.

Monday involved a trip to the highlands where I climbed orange trees and collected them with my newfound friends. The vegetation in the highlands can be very lush and dense, unlike the coast yet still magical in its own way. It seems as though curiosity of humans has rubbed off on most animals, as the baby cows in the nearby field were more interested in me than I them. Although the mosquitos along the coast are slim to none (at least for me), going into the highlands can be a bit rough. I've been told they're not native to the islands, but from the amazon. This makes me want to kill those super aggressive suckers even more. 

Tuesday was an awesome day, as I was brought to this cliff where I watched seven different bird species flying all around me. Getting there was fun because the ‘trail’ is not really a trail; you just climb over sharp aa lava rock, trying to avoid the gigantic marine iguanas and their spit. The iguanas blend in with the aa rock, making it difficult for someone like me to spot them, so I usually don’t see them until I’m about to step on a 2 ½ foot-long iguana.

Along the cliff swallow tail gulls swooped gracefully over my head, as the dinosaur-like frigate birds soared overhead, and the blue-footed and masked boobies flew by, diving into the water every once in a while for a fish. These small tropicbirds fly by really fast, wings flapping like mad, and I was told that they do this because they are horrible at landing, haha. So they keep flying around in large circles until the wind is just right for landing. Goodness, I would not want to reincarnate as that bird.

Laying on the beach til 2am Tuesday night, just watching the stars and listening to the sea lions, was a wonderfully peaceful experience. Until, of course, a ‘kid’ sea lion runs up to you, stops less than 5 ft from you, and just stares at you. The first time it totally freaked me out and by the third time I didn’t even notice until one was practically standing directly above me. What’s even freakier is when the bull comes charging up the beach chasing another male. That’ll make you move out of the way. My evenings are starting to be spent enjoying the beach while dodging the alpha male. I’m not really sure what he would do, but I don’t really care to find out.

I went snorkeling for the first time EVA on Wednesday after class. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Swimming in the ocean with all these fish and sea turtles is a liberating experience. I felt as though I was able to leave all my ties to the geosphere behind and enter another world. The fish are brightly colored with strips, spots, whathaveyou, and the sea turtles swim gracefully around you as you try to get a better look. I’m looking into getting my scuba certification on the island in order to take day scuba trips to various locations.

On Friday most of the GAIAS group met at a local bar/restaurant to watch The National Ecuador team beat Chile (wootwoot!). Watching these games are always an experience. It seems Ecuadorians start rooting for the goal points even before the ball has reached the goal, and if the goal is missed they sit down real slow with their arms still in the air, then look around and talk to each other about how that goal should have been made. It’s difficult not to laugh sometimes.

There’s a native tail that I’ve been told about the guava on the island, which is an invasive species (it’s all over the place, damn). The founder of the Galápagos islands loved guava, so he brought many trees here from the mainland, but only for himself to consume. At one point a boy somehow got into the guava and was to be killed for stealing the fruit. The boy’s mother begged to have a lesser punishment, and when refused, basically cursed the island and all of it’s future inhabitants: the guava tree will take over the island, and anyone that eats the fruit will either never leave, or if they do, will return to the archipelago. Well, I love these islands, and I really love San Cristóbal. I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten maybe 20+ guava so far, because although I must leave at the end of my 90 days here (any non-local without a job here is only allowed to stay for 90 days out a 12-month period), I’d really love to return for a much longer period of time. I’ve recently received an email from my Mom telling me I can’t live in the Galápagos b/c it would be a pain in the butt for her to travel here to visit me, haha.

 You may be wondering…I thought Laleña was there to study…well, you’re right! My current class is Phylogenetics. I’m honestly not sure what the lectures are about b/c we just seem to be talking about phylogenetic trees: different kinds, how to read them, ect. The main learning experience for the class (I’m pretty sure) is a 2 week long project involving genetic mapping of 2 genes of a species, using 7 or 8 programs that I’ve had to download from the internet (my computer wasn’t really too happy after that), and formulate a tree for that species and its closest relatives. During the third week of class a presentation and paper will be presented to the class of our findings. I’ve been on the GenBank website a lot this week doing gene research for sea lions, although the view of the crystal clear water from the uni balcony is quite distracting. Seriously though, I’m enjoying my class and my Ecuadorian professor with the Scottish accent.

Classes here are rally laid back. You can show up with barefoot with beach clothes and no one will look at you twice. This is good b/c many of us cross the street to the nearest beach after class. I live less then a 10 minute walk to uni. I can actually walk from one side of town to the other in less than 30 minutes, and rarely ever take a taxi unless I'm going to the highlands.  The house I live in is comfortable and my new host family are very nice. My host parents are more like grandparents, as I may actually be the youngest of 12-14 host siblings and sibling in-laws. Although only maybe 5 of us sleep in my host parents apartment, many more congregate in the open living space, and I've become a favorite of two of my nieces: a 10-month old and an 8-year old. My feelings towards them are mutual.

Isabela Island

 Awaking at 4:30am Sunday to prepare to leave for the Galapagos was bittersweet as I was leaving behind a wonderful family that I had become a part of...

 Ciao Quito!

Hola Galapagos! 

It didn’t take long to get to Isabela from Quito, just 8 hours. The ride included a 3hour flight to Baltra (a small island just north of Santa Cruz), a 10 minute boat ride to Santa Cruz, followed by a 30-minute ride to cross Santa Cruz and a 2 ½ hour boat ride across the Pacific to Isabela. Isabela Island doesn’t have an aeropuerta. The ride across the Pacific was fairly choppy and even with 2 Dramamine I had to keep staring at the rock formations along the horizon to prevent from dry heaving over the side of the boat. 

Isabela Island, named after Queen Isabela of Spain who sponsored the voyage of Columbus, is the largest of the Galápagos islands. It is the largest of all the islands and maintains 60% of the land in the Galápagos. The island is shaped like a seahorse due to the merging of 6 volcanoes into a single landmass: Cerro Azul, Sierra Negra (Santa Tomás), Alcedo, Darwin, Wolf and Ecuador, all of which are still active except for Ecuador. The town we are currently staying in is small and quaint with sand-covered roads surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches. I walk the 500ft to the beach barefoot and the locals are all very friendly and say ‘hallo’. I’ve learned very quickly that you must pay attention to where you walk, as it is very easy to stumble across a sleeping sea lion or a group of iguanas soaking up the sun.

 They're all facing the sun. It's actually kind of creepy.

Arriving to the island on Sunday late afternoon we dropped off our things at the hostel, ate lunch, and headed for the beach. Class occurs two hours each morning on the days we don’t have field trips and tends to involve the beach and long naps, although this can become dangerous because the sun is very hot.

 The town church is to the right; our hostel is down the road to the left.

The beach is just beyond the palms at the end of the street.

 Sunset on the our first night

Our expeditions into the unknown, where each new turn in the path could prove something new and exciting, occurred on Tuesday and Thursday this week. On Tuesday we hiked a 16km trail along the rim of Sierra Negra to Volcán Chico. Sierra Negra, a caldera, is a known hotspot of the Galapagos Islands, as it has erupted fairly frequently over the last 200 years, with 12 eruptions (that’s a lot!). At 60Km long, 40Km wide, and 1100m above sea level, Sierra Negra is not the highest volcano I’ve been to, although she is one of the most grand. This basaltic shield volcano is a caldera with very steep walls (and I know this because I’ve climbed down them) and an almost flat floor. The floor of the caldera is actually the roof of the magmatic chamber (wow!) and the elliptical shape of the caldera mimics that of its magma chamber. The last eruption of Sierra Negra was in 2005, occurring along the ring fracture of the flank and causing the lava flow to enter the caldera, covering 1/3 of the floor. Because this lava cools slowly there is still a tremendous amount of heat radiating from the cooling lava below the basaltic rock.

 On tuesday we walked along the trail to the right which is 12.5Km roundtrip. On thursday we walked the trail to the left of Sierra Negra which was 25km roundtrip. Obviously this map is not to scale. 

 Lava morning glory

 The caldera of Sierra Negra. Lots of hot basaltic rock.

 60km x 40km caldera

Volcán Chico contains a wasteland of volcanic basalt with defined scoria (cones that are the fastest way to build a mountain), lava tunnels (the outer lava cools, creating a tunnel), and spatter cones (those that form by accumulation of hot lava which then weld rock fragments together, creating steeper slopes). The lava rock in this area are mostly “aa” (pronounced ahah), a Hawaiian term (another hotspot). If you fall on one of these rocks you’re practically guaranteed a trip to the inferior-looking medical facility on the island. Trust me, it doesn’t look like you’d want to go there.

 View of the Pacific from Volcan Chico

 You can determine the age of the rock from the size and therefore age of the cacti.

 Lava Tunnel

 Mass wasteland of aa basaltic rock

Iron oxidation is so beautiful!

Along the return hike I attempted to keep up with those that like to ‘race’ back to the van to wait for the rest of us to get there, but given that we hadn’t eaten in 7 ½ hours the cows along the side of the path were much more interesting at the moment. After watching them eat for maybe 5 minutes I realized I was alone and the trail I had been walking down (a better explanation is mud path) seemed very unfamiliar to me. Actually, I truly had never been down this mud path before. Even so, I kept walking through the blinding mist until I came to a T in the path. Thank goodness for the voices of others because if it hadn’t been for my wonderful classmates I may still be lost along that mud path staring at the cows.

 The tortuga fire brick oven that cooked my lunch

 Papaya trees!

Wednesday was a fairly physically easy day. As we were having our final exam for Mountain Geology at 5pm that evening, most of us spent the day studying with short trips to the beach to clear the mind. The salty air is great for clearing the clogged mind of a student who has been studying. Of course, it also makes you wonder why on earth you’ve locked yourself in your room when you’re on a Galápagos Island.

Thursday turned out much more exciting than we initially thought it would be. We awoke at 5:20am for breakfast and to prepare for our hike to the sulfur minds on the western side of Sierra Negra. Meaning that we would be hiking down into the caldera? But isn’t the basaltic rock to hot from the last eruption? No, not that side, of course not. Great. Sulfur deposits from a hydrothermal reservoir sounds like a great idea, especially with all the noxious chemicals being emitted into the air.

As this was a 25Km trek through Sierra Negra terrain, many of us assumed it would be the same ridiculously hot and sunny hike we had on Tuesday. Boy, were we wrong. If the 16Km hike was part mud path, this trail was more like a mud gorge. After 3 hours we were all gathered at the rim of the caldera, only to climb down its steep slopes and into the caldera. From the rim we could see the noxious water vapor containing sulfur dioxide flowing above the rock. 

This acidic water vapor corrodes the rock around it and the sulfur dioxide gives the surrounding rocks a yellowish appearance. Very beautiful until you remember what’s in the air. I made it to the first reservoir vent with a damp t-shirt wrapped around my nose and mouth, but as I was climbing to the second fumarole the gases were burning my throat and lungs, so I had to turn around and return to the meeting point. I also reeked of rotting eggs. Climbing out of the caldera was real easy as our food was at the top of the rim. I’ll follow food practically anywhere at this point, and the consistency of the ground doesn’t seem to make a difference. Post lunch and lots of freshly squeezed orange juice (it doesn’t get better than that), we started the 12.5km return trip to the van, making it in 1:50. Not bad considering I was practically walking on a slip-n-slide for more than half of it. One classmate related the return walk to ‘hiking purgatory’, haha, which is quite true. Walking along for hours through mud and mist…

 Fumerole emitting toxic gases. 

The evening was celebrated with cervezas and coconuts on the beach, followed by the best veggie pizza I may have ever had.

 Today is Friday, and unfortunately I have a cold from all the walking I’ve been doing in the misty rain and lack of sleep from field trips. I’ll be missing out on the snorkeling my classmates are doing (although its cloudy today and its been misting on and off all morning. It doesn’t seem to rain here, it’s just cloudy and misty, nice but a little weird) this morning, but I’ll get a head start on the field journal that’s due on October 19^th, so I’m not complaining. Not too mention I have two months to snorkel and scuba on San Cristobal. As today is the last day of our mountain geology class, manaña we have a 6 hour (?) boat ride back across the Pacific to San Cristobal, where we will meet our new host families. I will be living on San Cristobal until December 13^th, when we return to Quito.