Una Semana on Santa Cruz: Beaches, Scalesia, and Pirate Caves!

I’ve spent this last week on Santa Cruz. Monday thru Thursday was mandatory for class, and the weekend prior for my own adventures. Having found this awesome room for rent away from the entire tourista ruckus and the blasting of Ave. Charles Darwin, I spent many evenings on the large balcony, listening to music and conversing.

Arriving early Friday morning (the boats leave San Cristóbal at 7am), the two-ish hour boat ride was smooth (at least I think it was, but then again I pass out once my butt hits the seat), and two very nice naturalists (mis amigos) met me at the dock and took me out for breakfast (bolon = awesomeness).

Fishing boats tend to attract carnivores and scavengers

On Saturday mi amigo and I took a taxi to Los Gemelos up in the highlands. Los Gemelos (the twins) and two collapsed magma chambers located within the Scalesia zone of the highlands. After the business of the main town of Santa Cruz, the twins create this peaceful quietness that makes you smile with appreciation for everything you have.

We took a taxi up to Los Gemelos with the intention of riding bikes back to Puerto Ayora; what an exciting ride. First of all, it was a much longer ride to Los Gemelos than I had originally thought and we left pretty late in the day. So here we are, riding crappy bikes with minimal breaks (my tires definitely could have used more air in them), speeding (well, racing is a better term) down a (thankfully) paved road without helmets (because who needs those), while trucks and taxis (smaller trucks) are speeding by us. Oh yeah, and the sun was setting, which was absolutely beautiful to see, but also potentially very dangerous because there were no lights on the bikes. It took a little over an hour of racing down from the highlands, and when we arrived back in Puerto Ayora it was pretty dark. But such a great ride! Definitely worth the risk of putting my life in the hands of the medical ‘experts’ on the island.

I’ve found another beautiful beach, this one on Santa Cruz. Although it’s approximately a 40-minute walk, Tortuga Bay is a long, white-sand beach with powerful rolling waves. The sand is super fine and soft, yet get’s into everything, which really is okay because the beach is so beautiful. You can’t really swim along the ocean because the current is too strong, but the lagoon around the corner is perfect as it is warmer than any other water I’ve been in on the archipelago. There are numerous marine iguanas swimming along the mangrove roots or laying on the beach, as just as many touristas getting way to close to them to take pictures. There’s a 2-meter distance you’re supposed to keep between you and any creature living on the archipelago (this excludes humans of course). It’s called Tortuga Bay because the sand dunes are a breeding ground for the sea turtles. Thankfully, it’s protected under the National Park so there are no hotels lining the beach upsetting nature.

Tortuga Bay

The Lagoon at Tortuga Bay

 

This week we had class on Santa Cruz (well, it’s basically over, we’re just going on daily excursions), so I was back at Lobo de Mar on a fairly tight eating regime. The rest of the class arrived on Monday and we, well I, had most of the day free because they were scheduled to take their final exam at 2pm (I took mine late afternoon Thursday so I didn’t have to worry about it over the weekend). So instead of sitting with my class listening to presentations, I sat with a LAN travel

agent for 1-½ hours trying to change my return flight to NY in January. I did meet some interesting people. One guy was there because he put all of his electronics into his backpack in the airport in Quito and when he arrived to Baltra they were all gone. Hmmm. I’d be surprised if they were still there. Theft is huge on mainland Ecuador.

Land iguana at the Charles Darwin Center

Tuesday we went to a sustainable farm in the Highlands. The head guy there gave us a tour, stopping every 3-4 meters or so to tell us about a plant, usually endemic. We even got to plant an endemic species, Scalesia pendunculata! My gardening skills came in handy, as were weren’t given a shovel but some kind of flat apparatus that wasn’t very sharp. It’s a pretty cool place though. You can volunteer to work there but for some reason you have to pay, so in reality you’re not really volunteering. Not too mention the pain in the butt it would be to get a visa from immigration for that.

Wednesday wasn’t very exciting, Well, I’m sorry to say I didn’t do anything that would be exciting for anyone reading this. Feeling like a cold was coming on, I skipped the 2-hour hike in the gurúa-laden Highlands to lie in bed watching movies I felt Finding Nemo was appropriate given the length of time I’ve been surrounded by ocean. Did you know one of his fins was smaller than the other? Apparently this is an important piece of information that I missed the first time I saw the movie many, many years ago). By myself. It was truly a great day.

Happy Happy Turkey Day! Oh, and what a day it was! We didn’t get a fabulous turkey dinner like the rest of American, I mean really, the National Park is trying to eradicate introduced species on the islands and I think everyone knows that turkeys are not native to the Galápagos. So no turkey. But that’s okay because we took a couple boats to Floreana Island 1 ½ hours southwest of Santa Cruz. Floreana is small, desolate island inhabited by 120 people. It has a great snorkeling spot that is restricted to all but the cruise ships (money and politics), a few lobos, lots of very large Tortugas de mar, and a Playa Negro (black sand beach). Oh yes, and pirate caves in the highlands. There is a very interesting story about Floreana. The Galápagos were discovered around 1530A.D., yet it was decided that they were uninhabitable. I find this fact interesting because these people sailed all over the world, roughing the open seas and they found the Galápagos to be uninhabitable? After the discovery of the Galápagos, pirates and those crazy enough to get on a ship and cross the ocean would use the Equatorial islands as a pit stop, to hide gold (which has yet to be found), and to take tortoises on their ships to use for food when it became scarce. I believe I read that something like 200,000 tortoises were killed by these assholes. This is the main reason why numerous Galápagos tortoise species are extinct (e.g., Lonesome George was the last of his species, and actually thought to have been extinct until he was found on Isla Pinta), and the four inhabited islands all have tortoise refuges: the National Park is trying to repopulate the tortoise population; they are of great importance to the ecosystem. To continue with the story, the Galápagos were annexed by Ecuador in 1832, and a group of Germans, Norwegians, and other Europeans immigrated to Santa Cruz in the early 1920s, with one couple heading to Floreana. Interestingly, a German family by the name of Angermeyer traveled to Santa Cruz during this time, where there just happens to be the Angermeyer Resort. To make a long story a tad shorter, this infamous couple that headed to Floreana were a tad scandalous, as they had been having an affair while in Germany, and wanted to get away to a more peaceful and sustainable environment (boy, were they in for a ride). Because they were both writing home about their adventures on Floreana, and because people talk, others attempted to do the same. Sadly they could not handle the extreme differences in their new lifestyle, and most of these people left, that is, of course, until the Baroness arrived with her three men (I really don’t know what else to call them). The Baroness was a crazy bitch and tried not only to tax the two families already living there, but believed she owned the island as well.

Playa Negra

There was major conflict between the families living on the island, and with a few years one day the Baroness and her ‘main man’ disappear, then someone else dies, and between different stories that are constantly changing, no one really knows what happened in regard to the disappearances (or murders) of those who died on the island. It’s a little creepy walking through the same highlands some 70 years after these events occurred.

After our stroll through the highlands to see the tortoise reserve and pirate caves we headed back to our respected boats for some snorkeling and sunbathing. When we did return to Santa Cruz, surprisingly earlier than expected, I had enough time to call mi familia for a skype session! I even got to see Joey, which made me want to go to NY after I get booted from the islands by immigration.

As I had plans to spend one more night on Santa Cruz before returning home, I had plenty of time to kill before mi amigo returned from leading a group on Isabela. Therefore I made a spa appointment. I know this has nothing to do with the ecological aspects of the Galápagos, but it was fun. I chose a three-hour package (so cheap here!), which included a sugar scrub, mud (or something) wrap, and an hour-long massage. I’ve never had a sugar scrub or mud wrap, so why not try it at a cheaper price? The sugar scrub most likely took off 1/4mm of tanned skin off my body, which seemed to make me look a tad more gringa, but I’ve got 3 weeks to change that so no worries. The mud wrap was very interesting. It wasn’t mud though; it was most women’s dream. I got covered in chocolate to the point it was massaged into my skin, and then wrapped in plastic and left to simmer for 20 minutes. Even after washing it off and the massage, I can still smell chocolate. I was so out of it for those three hours that when I finally came to I had no idea where I was until I walked out of the room and had to speak Spanish. It was then I was reassured that I wasn’t in NY. The day keeps getting better too, because I found a restaurant that has amazing cuts of steak so I had to treat myself to my first steak in over three months. Carne exists in Ecuador, although steak unfortunately does not.

Arriving back to San Cristobal yesterday was a wonderful feeling. Every time I return to my island I am filled with this joy and I truly do feel as I’ve returned home. 

Last Class, Mas Veggies, Life is Good!

As I’m sure everyone knows, last week was the presidential election. Remembering my first presidential election, I had an appreciation for the excitement and nervousness my fellow classmates held throughout the evening. Being in the Galapagos with limited internet and the inability to change anything about the election even if I had wanted to, I enjoyed a nice relaxing evening sin internet.

Last week my new (and last) class in the Galapagos has begun. It’s bittersweet: I get an extra two and a half weeks at the end of the class to relax, but I’ll only have 2 ½ weeks left on the archipelago. There’s a part of me that’s willing to be irresponsible and “miss” my flight, and every subsequent one after that, until Immigration drags my butt onto the plane. Yeah.

Last Friday the class took an excursion into the Highlands. We took taxis to el Junco. This was to be a special trip because the taxis all had….bikes!! We were going to bike back into town and stop along the way to check out plants. Very exciting. Well, yes, very exciting because many of the bikes had some sort of issue, for example, mine barely had any brakes. So here we are, speeding down hills (we’re coming down form the ‘highlands’, so of course we’re going basically all downhill) along a gravel-filled road and our professor, Hugo, is braking very quickly to point out all these cool plants to us. This is great and all, except that his constant and quick braking is causing the rest of us to practically run into trucks, the hills on the side of the road, wipeout, or run into each other. This ended up being more exciting after the plants after awhile. I mean, come on, who doesn’t want to play bumper bikes on a gravel road while speeding downhill? It didn’t take me long to figure out why the head of the program didn’t want Hugo to take his students on a bike ride from el Junco to town; there have been too many student visits to the hospital.  

Building of the windmills

This Tuesday my class took another ride up to the Highlands. Our first stop was the electric company in the Progresso. There we got a short segment of information about the windmill power that the island uses to offset the use of diesel to make electricity. In 2005 Ecuador built three turbines near el Junco. These windmills each produce 8 kWh, creating 35% of the electricity used on San Cristobal. These windmills have saved 1 million gallons of diesel that would have been used to produced electricity, and have prevented 10,000 tons of CO2 emissions. Driving up further into the highlands, I couldn’t see 30ft in front of my face the mist was so thick and the garua sprinkled upon us somewhat like a light mist. Our initial plan was to go for a nice long hike through the muddy highlands, yet we spent a significant amount of this time on the bus waiting for the owner of the property to arrive. When he finally did (yay!!), we drove to an area that still allowed us to reach our destination and return within a decent amount of time. The path we walked along was lined with Miconia. Miconia, an endemic species on the Galapagos archipelago, provides a great example of competitive dominance, where the dominant species monopolies resources to reduce species diversity via exclusion of shared resources. After returning from the walk we went to see the windmills that we had previously learned about at the electric company. The windmills are these massive structures with powerful turbines. These impressive structures were made in Spain, and it cost the European Nation $10 million to supply the three windmills to Ecuador. Although San Cristobal is cutting back on diesel use through the use of power generated by the windmills, diesel will always be in high demand on the archipelago due to the increase of boat usage between the islands.

After a short break (and vacation, hehe), I’ve finally gotten back into my running and exercising routine. I kind of have to because Wonder Women will be here in 4 weeks and I have to be able to keep up with her. Another fun endurance building routine I’ve discovered is…..wait for it….wait for it…..Latino Zumba! Hahaha, oh yeah. This is the greatest class ever, because not only is it a zumba class, but it’s taught by two Latino men, one of which has the ability to make you drool during the dance moves. So here we are, usually 2 gringas and one Asian (sorry to single you out Jackie), shaking, dropping, and popping it to some pretty awesome reggaeton. And on an equatorial island? Pretty much my idea of paradise. Here we are, the white American girls among all of these much older Latina women, trying to keep up with the guy on the stage, while the music’s blaring and pumping. Oh my. One of the guys, pretty sure he’s a dancer, has a tendency to make things up as goes, leaving us trying to keep up, not only the moves but this guy’s energy. I just don’t think my body has the ability to move that quickly from side to side, and I try to make it do it every Tuesday and Thursday for one hour at 7pm.

I’ve discovered the Mercado, a fresh fruit market. Heaven? I think so. All the produce is fresh from the Highlands, which is pretty awesome because I know where it comes from, but potentially dangerous due to bacteria and what not. Lately I’ve been eating spinach salads with avocado, beets (my favorite!), cucumber, and fresh mango with a little lime juice. I also buy lots of apples (from Chile) and carrots (home grown). Mom, I need you to not read this part and skip to the next paragraph. So I’m at the Mercado, I buy a bunch of fruits and veggies that would probably cost me $20 in NY (I got it for $8!), and how do I wash a carrot before I eat it? I rub it off on my pants. That’s right. I will also add here that I have not been sick since I cleansed my GI system with anti-parasitics and antibiotics (although I do believe that a new round of anti-parasitics is in store; it’s a part of life here).

My final for whatever my plant class is called is now over; it had these awesome questions that allowed me to take my creativity to a whole new level, although it involved a large amount of writing. One of the questions was similar to "COme up with an idea to eradicate the Galapagos archipelago of all introduced species. It can be f...king anything (kill all the people, burn everything, ect.). Just have a good argument. Yet another reason why I love Ecuador. Ama la Vida!

Muelle at Santa Cruz

I just arrived to Santa Cruz and will be here through next saturday. The boat ride was uneventful; the fact that I was passed out probably had something to do with that. I'm pretty sure I'm getting used to being on boats b/c I rarely get the sea sickness anymore. But then I also drug myself heavily, so who really knows.

Vacación en una Vacación

This past week we had off from school so guess the group did…we went island hopping!! After a great Friday night Halloween party that ended with me staying up til 5am (that’s right, I can still party like it’s 1999), we were ready at the tourist pier for our 1:30pm boat ride to Santa Cruz. Two hours later we were back safely on land (thank goodness. The boat almost stopped in the middle of the Pacific and I started yelling ‘don’t stop! DON’T STOP!’ The waves are no bueno). Our hotel housed three people per room (you have to choose your mates wisely). With a third-floor balcony and a super hot shower it was a nice, clean place to spend three nights. I discovered something new on this trip, too: Even though I’ve shut my cell phone off for the duration of the trip, it still picks up a wifi signal! Meaning that my iPhone addicted has been reinstated. Pffff. No esta bien.

Sunday morning was a super early day…out the door around 6:30am, I believe. We took a 45-minute bus ride to the northern-most side of the island to catch a boat for a two-hour-ish ride to Bartolome, a very beautiful and picturesque island (I believe its landscape is one of the most photographed in the Galápagos) with great snorkeling. We first hiked the 365 steps (one for every day of the year) to the scenic viewing area, then jumped back in the boat and headed around the bend to the beach! Brown sand with crystal clear blue water…sigh. There are so many places that I would love to put my vacation home.

A happy moment by Bartolome

Well, this may have been the best snorkeling I’ve had yet! The fish, many larger than my head and of all different colors (think rainbow) swam in schools (with me!). I saw a penguin swim by and started screaming ‘penguin’ through my snorkel, which really only just sounds like screaming, so not that many people got to see that one. We swam pretty far out as a group and at one point got separated (well, I got separated) because we were chasing a shark and I decided to go the other way around the rock only to have the shark come directly at me. It swam directly under me and was so close I could have reached down and touched it; even though we’re told these creatures only feed at night, having a shark swim towards you and then under you is still pretty freaking scary. I tried to plaster my body along the surface of the water. This doesn’t work too well. I was still in the water and super close to the shark.

Scenic view form the summit of Bartolome

I’m pretty sure I’m getting used to all this rocky Pacific water because the boat ride back to Santa Cruz was ridiculously rough, but I seemed to sleep through the whole thing minus a Dramamine, moving furniture and all.

Monday was equally fun, although we stayed around Santa Cruz. Sleeping in just a tad (sleeping in is 6:30, 7ish even on a vacation because all of your activities are pre-booked for you), we were on a boat around 9am to go snorkeling. I’m not sure who thought it would be a great idea to get into the Pacific Ocean before 10am, but somehow it all worked out okay. We took a boat across the bay to a small piece of land (which we weren’t allowed to get on – National Park rules) and boat snorkeled. The water was pretty cold (especially without a wetsuit; I had forgotten mine on San Cristóbal). The was a large reef that we could swim around and low and behold…there were sea lions swimming among the reef! These guys were so playful; it was a lot of fun swimming in and out of the reef with them. What was even more fun was the current: you had to hold onto the reef and position your body in opposition to the current otherwise you’d get pushed into something (very hard), and I preferred not to get scratched up by the reef, someone’s flippers, or a sea lions teeth (if that is even possible).

Following snorkeling we got off the boat to walk to Canal de las Tintoreras, a canal that’s connected to the ocean where the sharks rest during the day. I believe these were the specie that’s endemic to the Galápagos archipelago, the Galápagos Shark. They were there, resting. The park doesn’t allow swimming within these channels (there are numerous ones throughout the archipelago) because they’re afraid it will disrupt the sharks natural behavior; that’s what’s so special about the Galápagos. These creatures are in their natural environments and either don’t care about you because they’ve seen too many humans or they’re really curious and want to check you out.

Las Grietas

Getting back in the boat, we were dropped off at another pier for the 15minute walk to Las Grietas, another canal, except that you can swim in this one. The walk over ‘aa’ rock lead to this beautiful canal with high walls from which people were jumping from into the crystal clear water. I didn’t jump, but my mentality is that I’ll be back on Santa Cruz in two weeks for one week, so I can go back whenever I want to, although two other girls made it to the top and jumped. There was one guy from Greece that was bragging he was going to do a flip so I edged him on (I know, dangerous, but it would at least be entertaining and he’s the idiot for doing the flip), only to find out he was afraid of heights and it takes him 20 minutes to get the courage to jump. Poor guy. Too much thinking, not enough action. I met quite a few of these daredevil tourists at Las Grietas who were shocked (and I think a little jealous) to hear that I actually lived on San Cristóbal. This is not information I ran around telling people, I only mentioned it because it was assumed I was on a cruise and I had to set them straight: I can’t afford a Galápagos cruise.

 The post-lunch activity involved going to a beach (not the infamous beach at Tortuga Bay, which I have yet to visit – though I still have time – but some other beach). I decided not to go and took a nap in my room instead. These trips of endless activities can actually be really exhausting. Two hours (maybe more) later (I know, right? How awesome is that?!) my friend and I stumbled out into the town only to run into a group of people that were eating dessert (before dinner of course, that’s the way we do things here) at a restaurant. Given that I’ve had more ice cream/dessert/whatever on the Galápagos than I have the entire year in the states, I gave in and ordered apple pie a la mode, which I thought fitting given the season (well, it’s always summer here, but it’s apple season in NY). It was delicious, and I plan to go back when I return to Santa Cruz in two weeks (where I’ll also be on Thanksgiving).

The ride to Isabela: 3 of the 4 brothers with Isabela in the background.

White-tip shark

Tuesday morning involved another boat ride, but this time a long one to Isabela. It was the same boat that Mountain Geology took from Isabela to San Cristóbal, the boat that released the gasoline fumes that made most of us sick…ugh. We only had to hear the name of the boat; didn’t need to see it to figure it out. That name will be forever etched in my mind. Thankfully someone just happened to have a solution to this fume problem, so many of us had tiger balm smeared along our upper lip for the trip. After lunch we took a boat, well, since there were 38 of us in total there were many boats, to Grieta de las Tintoreras, another channel where the sharks rest. The cool part is that this Tintoreras is on an island of volcanic rock where the iguanas breed. There are all these juvenile iguanas everywhere just hanging out (and super larger ones). I had a great time walking real slow behind a large group of them and making them run, haha. Hey, it’s not mean because that’s what the park says you’re supposed to do when an animal is in your path: walk slowly by it. I just happened to walk directly at them. Oh yeah, and the sharks were white tips.

Marine iguana. The males are larger and have bigger spines than the females.

Juveniles

Wilson and I dressed for the occasion.

 Wednesday was a really big day…for everyone else. The planned activity for the day was the hike to Volcán Chico. That’s right, 16km round trip through mist and mud; something I’ve already done and did not want to repeat, as did my mountain geology classmates. Instead, the 7 or 8 of us took a walk to seek out flamingos (endemic), which we did find! We also went to the Interpretation Center and checked out the island’s breeding program for tortoises. Because the early settlers practically wiped out the tortoise population (a few species did go extinct; it seems humans ruin everything), the National Park has been trying to reinstate populations of species for years. It seems to be working. There were a lot of tortoises at this place. For lunch we got a ride to meet our hikers at this great place in the highlands. Everything is produced on the property; it’s like some kind of magical organic land. Having already eaten there after our Volcán Chico hike, we made sure to get up there again because the food is so delicious. I think the guides really like this place as well because there’s always a large bottle of caña (sugar cane liquor) out with shot glasses. Two of our guides finished the bottle and when I saw them later at dinner one of them almost fell over a plant in the restaurant.

Social guy at the tortoise breeding center

Wednesday was also Halloween!!! I didn’t bring my costume with me because it reeked of smoke from Friday night, but it was interesting to see some of the other costumes at one of the bars. I’m pretty sure the bars (of which there are two on the island) put up decorations specifically for the tourists because Halloween is not a holiday here. Being tired from my two naps earlier in the day (that’s right, I took two naps), I retired to the hotel around 10:30pm but hung out with the guides til midnight or so (I know them from San Cristóbal).

I honestly can’t remember what we did Thursday. Oh yeah, snorkeling. When you snorkel everyday it screws up your sense of time, as does the lack of seasons and steady daylight hours (12 hours). Back on yet another boat (last boat ride for two weeks!!!), we went an hour or so to around Isabela to the west to the tuneles. These are awesome rock formations: they are tunnels of volcanic rock (from eruptions, of course) that are slowly collapsing. You can swim right through the tunnels though, and there are rays, huge fish, tortugas, ect. I actually thought I saw the biggest fish ever but when I got a little closer it turned out to be a sea lion. Sigh. We went to two different locations. The first time I snorkeled, the second time I couldn’t because I was just too cold. At the first place the water was mas fria, but it was tortuous because there were really warm spots (or at least what seemed like a warm spot), and then the freezing cold water hit you like a brick wall as you were swimming. Not very pleasant and I didn’t see anything that I wouldn’t normally see at home on San Cristóbal. The rock formations were beautiful though.

Ray with blowfish

Boobies.

Tunules

After lunch the group went to an actual lava tunnel (it’s huge, I was there a month ago), and a few of us rented bikes and rode out to the Muro de las Lágrimas (Wall of Tears). During WWII, the US Armed Forces set up a camp on Baltra Island (just north of Santa Cruz), as well as other strategic points in the Galápagos, including Isabela Island. Then, in 1946, after the U.S. had already left the island, 300 prisoners and 30 policemen landed on Isabela Island to create a penal colony away from the mainland. They used the infrastructure left by the U.S. Army. The wall was made to corral the prisoners, as well as to keep them busy working. This lead to the construction of the ‘Wall of Tears’. The prisoners were harshly punished, therefore the saying “Here, the strong cry and the weak die”.

On Friday morning it was time to return home to San Cristóbal. I had prepared for a rough boat ride back and bought a plane ticket (even though there really isn’t an aeropuerta on Isabela) with the intentions of flying back. So while everyone else was scarfing down their breakfast and packing their bags to be ready to go by 7:45am, I was laying on the beach taking my first nap of the nap. I was told to be ready around 11:30am for a 1:30ish (nothing is ever on time in Ecuador) flight. After hanging out by myself (seriously, I was the only one there) at the aeropuerta for 2 hours, just relaxing in the sun, the plane finally landed. The people that got off the plane were the type that expected someone to carry their bags for them. I just laughed to myself as I watched them finally gather their belongings and walk towards the building. It’s very amusing to watch the tourists (I don’t consider myself one because not only do I live here, but I don’t require a natural guide with me every where I go like most tourists do). After a nice relaxing morning on the beach it was finally my time to go home, although the moment was bittersweet because I love Isabela. The plane, if you can call it that, was an 8-seater including the pilot and co-pilot (who was absent). I watched the guy that put our few bags in the plane ‘check’ the plane, which involved him climbing on the top of the plane and sticking a foot-long stick into each fuel tank on either wing, look at it, then shake it. All I could think was ‘if that’s how they check the fuel level, this is going to be a long flight’. On the plane I got to sit right behind the pilot. There weren’t any barriers between him and his passengers. The ‘cockpit’ contained many manual switches and knobs, with everything written… in English. I quickly realized I was on a plane that easily could’ve been twice my age, if not older. Now I’ve become very laid back throughout my island living experience, but this did create a slight anxiety within me; thoughts of ‘oh why didn’t I just suck it up and get on the boat’ ran through my head. When the pilot started up the plane it was just like what you would see in a black and white movie (which confirmed my suspicions of the age of the plane and raised my anxiety level a little more). The part that really got me chuckling was when the pilot plugged the address of ‘San Cristóbal’ into the aviation GPS on the dashboard. My life was in the hands of a GPS and lots of manual equipment, most of which I didn’t understand, I just saw needles moving about. Take-off was fairly smooth, although these small planes can’t just blast through air currents like the jets can, we kind of got carried by them until we got to a higher altitude. When we were finally at cruising altitude I had another inner panic of ‘the cabin isn’t pressurized! What’s going to happen with the oxygen!’, forgetting, of course, that I’ve been at 4900m and although had great difficulty, was still able to breathe. Plus, there’s no way that tiny little plane would have even made it that high. It probably would have fallen apart from the pressure of the altitude. I noticed that throughout a quarter of the flight we were slightly tilted to the left…hmmm...panic rising. Thankfully the pilot quickly corrected himself and we flew fairly straight for the remainder of the flight. Now, these aircraft should not have the main fuel gauge in an area that’s viewable to passengers. I watched both main fuel gauges drop quite significantly through the first half of the flight… ‘are we going to have enough fuel to make it home?! There’s a backup fuel tank, but you have to switch it on. What happens between the time the main fuel tank is empty and the pilot switches to the reserve? Is that engine going to just drop? AHHHH….’

It didn’t even end there. So not only did I get to watch our plane blip along the Pacific Ocean on the GPS, but the pilot was reading, what? The newspaper while flying the plane? Oh no, he was reading the direction manual for landing the plane. That’s right. We had to do a little loop-de-loop around the southern tip of San Cristóbal in order to line up with the runway. I couldn’t wait to get off the plane and run away. You’ll be happy to hear we landed with ease and I jumped off that plane pretty quickly, well, not before I took a picture of all the gauges.

It’s great to be home on San Cristóbal! We have the whole weekend to do whatever because the new classes start on Monday. I’m taking a plant class (maybe endemic species? I’m not really sure). It will be my last class here in the Galapagos, which is sad for me because I will truly miss everything here, including my easy lifestyle (did I mention I usually don’t have hot water showers? Great wake-up after an early morning run). I’m currently halfway through my trip here (NOOOOO…I want to stay!).

My Halloween costume: a naturalist guide con vino

For Kristy: Daniel, Jorge, and Jairo :-)