Las Islas!

 Hey everyone!

Once again, sorry it’s been a while. I’ve been up to my neck doing cool things! I’ll try to keep this post short in writing and full of pictures--they definitely say it better than words when it comes to the Galápagos.

On Thursday, March 22^nd, we left for the southern coast of Ecuador and the Galápagos. We flew to Manta, just as I did during spring break, and took a bus to Puerto Lopez, just as I did during spring break.

We stayed at a hostel called Los Piqueros Patas Azules (Spanish for “blue-footed boobies”), not far from the fishing town of Puerto Lopez. In the following 3 days, we did activities on the beach, learning about intertidal zones, fish markets, and plants that eventually made it to Galápagos. One of the mornings, we went to the fish market in Puerto Lopez. It was so cool! The fishermen literally just park their boats on the beach as the tide goes out, and sell the fish they caught that morning from their boats. We saw sharks, marlins, swordfish, tuna, sting rays, pufferfish, and dozens of other types of marine fish. I chatted with a guy cutting open some perch, and he taught me to do it!

A bunch of dead sharks at the fish market :(

We also spent some time at one of the most popular beaches in Ecuador called Los Frailes. We climbed up to the lookout point and it was one of the most beautiful views I’ve seen yet. On the last day on the coast, we went to a small surf town near Puerto Lopez called Montañita (pronounced “mohn-tahn-yEET-ah”). I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn’t try my hand at surfing, but I loved the town! It had a really chill vibe, lots of cool people, and some pretty fantastic blended drinks.

View from the top of Los Frailes

On Sunday morning at 3:45 a.m., we woke up to take a bus to Guayaquil to catch a plane to Galápagos. The process of checking your bags is a bit more tedious when you’re going to Galápagos because they’re trying to preserve the original condition of the islands as much as possible, and they don’t want you to carry any foreign seeds to the islands.  Our group of 21 students and two professors was split in two upon arrival to the airport, because we couldn’t fit our whole group on one cruise. On our cruise, I was with 8 of my classmates, my professor Cath, her best friend growing up Steph, Steph’s 16-year-old son Tristan, and Dolly, the woman from Madison under whom I’ll be doing my internship.

Our plane landed on the island of San Cristóbal (where we would eventually be spending the two weeks after the cruise), and we got on our yacht, called the Eden. While we were waiting for the pangas (pronounced “PAHN-gahss”, Spanish for dinghies), we enjoyed the company of several sea lions that were just hanging out on the benches on the dock, enjoying the gorgeous weather. Apparently this is the norm in Galápagos.

Sea lions just chillin'.

Our yacht, the Eden.

In the next 8 days, we would see 11 of the 18 main islands. I won’t go into detail about what we saw on each island (there are different flora and fauna on every island!), but I’ll sum up what we saw. I’ll let you know up front that none of the wildlife, in the water or on land, is afraid of humans. You might think it’s because they’re used to tourists, but it’s actually because they haven’t endured any harmful contact from humans in several generations, and don’t see humans as a threat. 

Nearly every day, we went snorkeling in the incredibly clear, surprisingly chilly, gorgeous waters around the islands. We saw all kinds of different fish, sea stars, urchins, corals, and sting rays. I even swam with sharks a few times!  There were also very few snorkel sites where we didn’t swim with sea lions and sea turtles. The snorkeling itself was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’ll post some pictures, but for a better idea of some of the things we saw, my friend Will (who has an underwater camera) put together a video.  He was on the other boat, and went to different islands than we did, but saw many of the same things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld5FhoXQS7o&feature=youtu.be

Pacific Green Sea Turtle

White-tipped reef shark--I chased one down to get a picture of it!

Can you spot the fish in this picture? 

Guineafowl pufferfish

Beautiful sea star and green sea urchin

A view of the beach outside the Darwin Research Station

Sally lightfoot crab--these were all over the place!

Gorgeous shot of some coral/fish at a great
snorkeling site called Kicker Rock

We also went for hikes on land, at least once every day. We saw land iguanas, marine iguanas (swimming lizards!), more sea lions, lots of shore birds (including the famous blue-footed booby), the famous Darwin’s finches, and tortoises. We also got to visit Lonesome George, the only tortoise of his kind left of his species. He’s over 90 years old!

The most adorable baby sea lion in the world.

Swimming marine iguana

Sea Lion showing off

Marine iguanas basking

A view of the coast of one of the smaller islands

Blue-footed booby!

Tortoise

While we weren’t exploring the islands or snorkeling, we hung out on our amazing yacht. The food was incredible, the crew was fantastic, and the boat itself was beautiful. We spent our free time lounging on the sun deck, jumping/flipping/diving off the third floor deck, playing guitar, or swimming in the water around the boat. One night we even met up with the other boat to have a class party. :)

My crew, at the "wear someone else's clothes" party.

Deck diving!

Nothing beats having a chat with your professor over a beer.

We make room for fun, if you can believe it.
(Top to bottom: Tyler, Lauren, me, Danae, Laura, and Hillary)

Fermin, the bartender, dancing with Dolly.

Just a regular day of class.

The eight day cruise obviously went by too fast.  We ended our cruise on Baltra island, met up with the other half of our group, and took a speed boat to San Cristóbal island. When we got on the speed boat, I befriended the captain and his first mate by playing them a little guitar, and they let me sit on the hull. This part of the trip, as simple as it sounds, was one of my favorites. It was a gorgeous day, the water was unbelievably beautiful, and in the two-hour trip, I saw jumping rays and marlins (like swordfish) and enjoyed the breeze.

We arrived on San Cristóbal Island on Sunday, April 1^st. We stayed on San Cristóbal in the only town on the island called Puerto Baquerizo Moreno for 12 days with host families. My host “family” was a woman named Narcissa, who lives by herself, and is currently hosting a semester student from Massachusetts named Andrea. I loved staying here! Narcissa was an incredible sweet, if not a bit strange, woman. She was always concerned that I wasn’t eating enough, and told me I had to stop eating “como gatito,” or “like a little cat.” Rest assured, friends, I was well-fed. We went to class at the GAIAS (Galapagos Academic Institute for the  Arts and Sciences) campus, which was conveniently located on a beach called Playa Mann.

Sitting at my favorite soft serve/coffee shop.

The main building (there are 2 total on campus)

The view of the beach from the front door of campus.

Narcissa and I

Sunset from the roof of my host mom's house

In the 12 days that we were on San Cristóbal, we got to do lots of things. We had class most days, some snorkeling activities, and independent research projects. At night, we often hung out on the “main strip” of the town called the “malecón,” or sea front. This street was always bustling with people, including lots of tourists, and lined with shops and restaurants. One of my favorite places was the soft serve/coffee shop.

One night, I went to have a cup of espresso alone, and ran into a few tourists from Spain, France, Colombia, Switzerland, and Ecuador.  Most of them were older, but there was also a little kid named Eto (pronounced “EH-toh”) that picked me some flowers. Adorable.  Anyway, I sat and talked to this group of tourists for couple hours. It made for such an interesting conversation! None of us knew the right combination of languages, so we had to use what we knew (Spanish, English, German, or French) to communicate our points across the table. My 70-year-old Swiss friend Viktor even taught me a bit of German. :) As much as I enjoy seeing all Ecuador has to offer, I don’t usually get the chance to meet many people from around the world, so I really enjoyed that night.

Eto got a hold of my camera...

Sunset at the beach across the street from campus.

Our time on San Cristóbal also went really fast, and it was over before I felt like it even started. We flew home last Friday, and I got to see/hang out with my host family in Quito for the first time in 3.5 weeks. This past week was filled with final exams, assignments, and presentations—a busy one, but I’m officially done with the entire course set, except for my internship!  The islands were one of the most incredible trips I've ever been on. Believe it or not, we actually learned an incredible amount of material, and actually had to do school work! It's a little bit easier to learn, though, when you're in such a cool place.

I started my internship on Wednesday. I decided to stick around Quito for a few days at the start to take advantage of the internet as I prepared to go to the coast.  I’ve spent the last few days putting together some science education classroom assessments, science activities for students on the coast, and getting a feel for the science curriculum in the schools in rural Ecuador. I’m taking off tomorrow morning around 5:30 a.m. to catch a 6 hour bus to the coast. I’ll be bringing a backpack and my guitar, and I’ll be there for 3.5 weeks. I likely won’t have much access to the internet (the closest internet access is a half hour bus ride away), so I’ll be in touch when I get back to Quito.

As of this coming Sunday, I only have one month left in the country. This time has really flown by, and I definitely have mixed feelings about returning. I’m sure I’ll have time to share those upon my return. P.S. Sorry if this seems rushed, unedited, or boring! I’m taking off in a few hours and haven’t packed for my internship yet. Oops.

P.S.S. Thanks to Emily Hilts for unknowingly sharing her underwater pictures for my blog.