¡Bienvenidos a paraíso!

Already I have made the next transition from Cumbayá to San Cristóbal. I have gone from 10,000 ft above sea level to sea level and it is wonderful… except for the sunburns that were bound to happen but are painful nevertheless. The Galápagos Islands are amazing, or at least San Cristóbal and its islets are. Already I have seen sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards, many other types of lizards, many species of Darwin’s finches, warblers, canaries, pelicans, herons, many species of tropical fish, frigate birds, various sea birds, sea turtles, blue-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies. I’m sure I’m missing some species in that list, but experiencing all of these different animals pretty much leaves me speechless.

Strictly speaking, the biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands is very low compared to the biodiversity of the rest of Ecuador. There are only a handful of species of mammals that inhabit the islands (aside from cats, dogs, horses, and cows) and fairly few birds, reptiles, etc. The list above of species that I have seen probably isn’t half of what I saw when we were in the Yasuní National Park (I promise I will write about Tiputini soon!) Statistically speaking, the rain forest and the cloud forest are both much more diverse than the islands. I don't know if the fish that live around the Galápagos and are considered endemic here would raise the biodiversity all that much.

So why is it so important to people to conserve the Galápagos as they are and try to limit the growing population? Although there are not a great number of species, there is a high rate of endemism. Endemic species are those that cannot be found anywhere else in the world and the majority of the species that live on the Galápagos have evolved here, therefore most of the species are endemic. These unique species do not exist anywhere else in the world so we take it upon ourselves to make sure they have a safe place to live. Of course, the population of the Galápagos has soared within the past few decades so that the census says there are now 23,000 people living here (among 4 islands) although my professor thinks there is actually closer to 30,000 people and I think I’ve heard up to 40,000 people live here. On San Cristóbal, the island where I will be for the majority of my 3-month stay in the Galápagos, has around 7,000 people. The most populated island is Santa Cruz. There is a community of a couple of thousand people on Isabella, the largest island, and around 100 people live on one of the Floreana. 

Currently San Cristóbal is under a deluge of water. That is the best way I can describe how much rain is coming down. My professor (the professors live at the university) ran down the stairs a short while ago to go swimming in the rain. I actually couldn’t be much happier about the rain because it cools everything off and I am extraordinarily sunburned from snorkeling yesterday. Of course, if the rain ever stops then the humidity will come back, but for now the rain is nice. For the most part of my first week living on the Galápagos Islands (I keep having to remind myself of where I am… it is still very surreal) was hot and sunny. There is roughly 12 hours of sunlight here, which is much to my liking. I think I am still getting used to life here compared to life in Cumbayá although it is much easier to transition to island life than it is to transition to semi-dangerous city life.

In Cumbayá (which I will also write about one of these days when I come back to reality) I lived with Cecilia and her grandson Mateo came to visit on the weekends. Here on the islands I live with my host parents and their 2 daughters and 2 sons. My host-dad’s name is Luis, my host mom is Flora, one of the daughters is Flora and the other is Inseña, and the sons are Fernando and Andreas. I am not entirely sure if Andreas is actually my host brother or if he is a friend that is here for a couple of weeks. It is currently summer vacation here on the islands so there are a lot of people coming and going between the mainland and we’re some of the only students who are in session. My host-family has had 4 students before me, one of whom liked to make bread and biscuits and one of whom came back drunk one night very late and may have had to be escorted by the police. Of course, this is what I can pick up from having Spanish spouted at me and trying to understand what is going on. 

Living on an island with 7,000 people is a very strange experience. I feel that by May I will know who everyone is, where everyone lives, and what everyone’s lives are like. We seriously run into the same people night after night. Part of these occurrences is probably that the GAIAS group is a large group of gringos who tend to travel in a herd together. A note on the word gringo: in the United States I guess it can be a derogative term about people. However, here in Ecuador a gringo/a is simply someone who is not Ecuadorian. It is used mainly for Europeans and North Americans. Therefore, I am a gringa. Living in such a small community could become a bit annoying after awhile, but about 6 weeks into living here we take several excursions over 2 weeks and then we are back for around another 4 weeks. 

Everything about coming here and being here is interesting. The flight alone was a new experience because we flew from Quito to Guayaquil, which is a city on the coast of Ecuador. We stayed on the plane because we were in transit passengers and we used the same plane but loaded more people on board. Most of the people that joined our flight from Guayaquil to San Cristóbal were either with the Smithsonian or with National Geographic. Flying into the island was amazing because we were able to see the beaches and the beauty that we are now living amongst. Luckily we are here during the rainy season so that it is greener. I also do not like staying places when there are droughts. The only way to get relief from overly dry weather is water of some sort and despite the islands being surrounded by salt water from the Pacific, there is very little freshwater on the islands. In fact, most of the islands lack freshwater altogether. 

 

Our first day we were able to meet our “primos.” We’re participating in a program with locals who are taking English classes so that we can learn some Spanish and they can learn some English. I actually still have yet to meet my primo (his name is Daniel), but I may end up tagging along with one of my friend’s primas and her prima’s husband. We were also able to check out the beach that is literally right across the street from my university building. The beach is called Playa Mann and it has a little shack that sells snacks, empanadas, and drinks. There are a good handful of sea lions that call this beach home, including baby sea lions. They are sometimes loud and scary, but most of the time they are sleeping or playing in the water. In the afternoon our host families picked us up. I live about 10 minutes walking distance away from the university. 

 

Monday, our first full day on the island, the GAIAS group was taken to the historical/cultural center that is again about 10 minutes away from the university in walking distance. By following paths along this center we were able to go to a cove and a beach for swimming. At the beach we saw a fish climbing up a rock and our guide, a local student, was playing with a sea lion in the water. They are very curious creatures. Aside from writing my paper and actually starting class on Thursday, I’ve pretty much been swimming and snorkeling and enjoying island life. I really enjoy snorkeling and cannot believe that I had never bothered to try it before. I am also hoping to get my SCUBA license while I am here. 

 

Saturday was an amazing although vaguely painful day. The pain came later when I discovered just how sunburned I am, but the excursion was well worth it. Our professors set up a wonderful adventure that included going to Leon Dormido (also known as Kicker Rock), Islote Lobos, and Puerto Grande. I think we stopped first at Islote Lobos where I saw my first sea turtle and stingray, there were marine iguanas, pelicans, other birds and curious sea lions. Swimming with sea lions is kind of scary because they do bite but the ones around us were simply curious and swam around us. On the way there I also saw my first blue-footed booby! (The origin of the name “booby” comes from the Spanish term “bobo,” which means stupid. They are kind of silly looking birds.) At Leon Dormido we saw a lot of really cool fish, more sea turtles, and many of the group saw some sharks but I did not see any. Sadly, I do not have a way of getting pictures from my disposable cameras onto my computer. Perhaps I will find a way and be able to share those pictures, but if not I will be sure to post some of them once I back in the states. The water here was a darker blue because it was deeper, but it was also very clear. Leon Dormido is what is left of an old volcano. Here there were more blue-footed boobies as well as Nazca boobies. Puerto Grande is not a port. It is a section of the national park in which boats with permission can land and you can swim in the waters. On this section of the island there are mangroves, pelicans, lizards, ghost crabs, which really look like ghosts that hover on the ground, and some brave fish that kept coming up to us in the water.

Today, on this lazy Sunday afternoon, my fellow students and I are hanging out at the university where there is semi-reliable access to the internet. I certainly should be working on presentation, which will happen on Tuesday, but it is very hard to actually care about doing work when you are living on a tropical island. I really hope that sometime in the future I am able to come back here. UNC has a program with GAIAS, probably for something that has to do with marine ecology. They are building a large research center behind the building where my university is now. Also, URI has a program that allows graduate students to go to Bermuda to do research. I still have no clue what I want to do with my life, but I know I do want to be around the ocean and working towards the future in some way.
 

I hope all is well at home with everyone and that there might be less snow than the last time I heard from some of you. Please hold out for the spring that I’m sure will be wonderful after such a horrid winter! Enjoy this beautiful sunset that I saw on one of my first days here at Playa Mann! 

Tiputini Part 2: Floating Down the River and More

If I actually get this up and posted by tomorrow than that will be 2 posts in as many days! (And my updating you about the mysterious adventures of the Ecuadorian rainforest will be completed.) I just want to briefly say that I am happy that all of the members of GAIAS are still alive and doing relatively well after dealing with some extraordinary ocean currents. Now, without further ado, I will launch right into the second half of those adventures.

That Wednesday that we spent at the station was one of the more active days that we had during the trip. As I mentioned in the last entry, breakfast was served every day at 6:30 am, lunch was always at noon, and dinner was at 7:00 pm. This meant that we had to wake up earlier than most of us are used to getting up. There was always water, mangos, and a variety of snacks available in the cafeteria so that we were able to go there and eat when we weren’t out in the forest. Most of Wednesday, however, was indeed spent out in the forest.

After breakfast we again split up into three different groups and my group was based on the people who had not before gotten a chance to travel the trails with Myers. Myers is a fantastic guide who grew up in the Amazon and is thus able to spot animals that we would pass by without a glance in the right direction. At one point on our hike, he called up to where he knows a pygmy monkey colony lives in an attempt to get them to come out of hiding. Although they did not show themselves, it was still cool to see a skilled guide at work. All of the guides at the station were at his level in their ability to find creatures and point out different plants.

The first place we headed to on that Wednesday morning was the canopy bridges. I am very glad that we had climbed the 45 meter observatory tower the day before or I probably would have had a much harder time climbing up to the canopy. We were in harnesses that attach to steel cables while you are crossing the bridges and if you climb a ladder to a small platform. It, like most of my experiences in Ecuador, was a unique one that I will never forget. The bridges are probably around 40 meters and the small platform is again at 45 meters. Walking on those bridges was liberating. We saw parrots flying around our heads and some large black birds that may have been vultures. I managed to climb part way up the ladder to the platform, but was afraid that if I got onto the platform, I would not be able to climb back down. Of course, our guide scampered, whom at this point I believe was actually Jose, climbed on the bridges like a monkey.

For a shorter amount of time we clambered up the observatory tower to try and see the wonders that the Amazon has to offer. The lack of rain and the heat of the day meant that no animals were active other than the bullet ants that we saw constantly and the sweat bees that were also around. There were sleeping bats hanging on the trunk of the Kapok tree that we could see as we clambered up the tower. Bullet ants are a species of ant that is used by one of the Amazonian tribes in coming of age rituals. The bullet ants are much larger than the ants we are used to in the Northeastern United States and their bite is incredibly painful. Sweat bees are in insect that do not look like a typical bee but land on you and drink your sweat. I never actually saw one of them land on anyone though so I do not know how true this actually is. Because we could see very little from the observatory tower, we went back to the cabins early and several people napped while we awaited our delicious lunch.

I suppose it appears that our schedule at the station was centered on our meals, and in many respects that is how our lives have revolved since coming to Ecuador. In Cumbayá we were given lunch at the university and the “cafeteria” opened every day at 12. We were generally there early and often stopped for a snack on the way home between lunch and dinner. On the islands we are now fed breakfast and dinner almost every day so we are willing to get up for food and are still generally early for dinner. At Tiputini we should have been arriving early because the meals we served on time and the kitchen closed soon after the meals. There was one night when the group from Saint Olaf had dinner late because they came back later from the caiman searching and for that matter we were probably fed later when we came back from the same activity on a different day.

The later part of Wednesday was left to hiking with Myers in the woods to a lake where we spotted some crazy animals. Hiking around the Amazon rainforest is always a new adventure because you see vines in the most improbable shapes, climbing around trees to reach towards the sunlight or towards the ground depending on from where they started growing. The trees that I stood next to easily had the ability to make me feel small and like a blip on the map of the universe. On this traipse, we found several kinds of lizards/geckos as well as large tortoise hanging out in the woods. One of the other groups heard a tapir moving through the forest, but we were unable to find it. We also saw a beautiful butterfly down by the lake and, as I mentioned, some crazy things like these evolutionarily old birds that only eat leaves. Canoeing on the lake at sunset was beautiful as we saw the bats start to come to life and the different birds flying around.

Once we were back on shore, Myers split several fruits in half and had us press them on our hands for ten minutes. The fruit was jagua and it creates a blue stain that grows darker over the course of a day and can color the skin for more than a week if you were to not put on your hands, which you wash too often. While Myers was cutting the fruit, he told us a wonderful story about how his ex-girlfriend came into the forest and he told her that the fruit creates a very good insect repellant and to rub it all over her body. The woman refused to speak to him until all of the color went away, which took several weeks. We really wanted to cut the fruit into the shape of a mustache or sabotage people with it at night by putting it on their foreheads. We never actually succeeded in these pranks.

Although we spent 5 days in the Amazon rainforest, it really only felt like 3 days because Monday and Friday were full of traveling and, as anyone who travels knows, it is tiring to be traveling for much more than 3 hours. Therefore, Thursday was really our last full day in the Amazon and we once again had adventures beyond anything I had imagined before coming on this trip. Have I mentioned how amazing and mind-blowing this whole experience has been? I really feel badly for those who are unable to study abroad because it is an experience that should not be missed in one’s life. But onto what we did that Thursday. (Can you see the lizard in the middle of this picture?)

About 5 of the students from our group were willing to get up at 5:00 am in order to climb the observation tower and observe the change from nocturnal to diurnal life. Once again, due to the lack of rain and possibly the season, we were not able to see a whole lot. We saw the branches move as monkeys swung from tree to tree. We could hear a colony of howler monkeys off in the distance. We were able to see scarlet macaws off in the distance and a baby bird that sat on the Kapok tree in which the platform was perched. There was also a really cool view of a crescent moon through the trees and a beautiful sunrise through the fog. Seeing the sunrise in the Amazon was well worth waking up in the morning and I wish I had been able to force myself to get early more often. It is also a bit sad that the sunrise cannot be seen from the side of the island on which we live here, but there are refreshing sunrises that mean cooler temperatures (and the onslaught of mosquitoes).

Between breakfast and lunch we were in the classroom working on the project that I described earlier. As I mentioned, the oil company really has control over much of the Yasuní National Park and the Waorani have been hunting and living unsustainably. There are also scientists around the national park looking to do research and the national park itself whose infrastructure could use some serious help. In about an hour and a half, we had to come up with a strategy that would overall help the environment of the park and the people involved. My group decided an artisan market along with domestication of small typical farm animals would be the best way to go. None of the groups ever actually won out because the professors thought each group had its pros and cons.

After that rather stressful project (I was reminded once again why I switched to a zoology major from the environmental science major because I have no wish to deal with policy), we had some free time before our next scheduled activity. What did we decide to do with our free time while in the Amazon rainforest? Play barefoot soccer with some of the staff and eventually our professor. As I mentioned before, I am not good at soccer because I always want to try to use my hands, but informal soccer games are really fun. We had planned on playing often on the island, but I do not think we even have a ball yet. After the game another amazing adventure began.

This is probably one of the greatest experiences I have ever had, in part because so few people have had the opportunity to float down a tributary of the Amazon River in search of the wildlife. Being on the Galápagos Islands is an experience that I hope to repeat later in life; however, the Galápagos are a true tourist destination. A rather absurd number of people make it to the Enchanted Islands each year. Far less than a thousand people are able to get to the TBS each year. We literally floated down the Tiputini River with life vests (or seat belts, as my professor kept calling them) on for an hour or two. We were able to let the current take us and just had to avoid the trees and rocks that were sometimes in the middle. On this trip we saw an egret fishing, blue and yellow macaws, some form of flycatcher and other birds. Once we were tired we climbed back aboard the boat and stopped a ways downriver in order to fish. Several people actually caught some smaller fish before our final night adventure began.

We took the boat back up the river rather slowly, as Myers stood majestically at the bow of the boat with his searchlight looking for the glinting of eyes. We saw 5 or 6 caiman, which as I said are related to crocodiles. These were all rather small caiman. Black caiman that live in different parts of the Amazon have been able to get up to 30 feet in length; however, no one has been able to confirm that the black caiman are still extant (which is the opposite of extinct, so alive). We were also lucky enough to see a pair of capybara that I saw several other times as well and a kinkajou! A kinkajou is an odd species that I believe is related to raccoons, but I could definitely be wrong on this point. Sadly enough, mammals are very difficult to photograph because they are skittish and move under cover quickly. That night there was also a gecko in our cabin! One of the guys in the group managed to catch him and get him outside. In fact, I now have a tiny lizard living in my shower and I know several of my friends also have lizards or geckos in their rooms. And that night we once again went to bed at a reasonable hour as we had to get up early Friday morning and start our journey back to the Andean region.

Traveling back on that Friday was also made more difficult due to the lack of rain. We left right after breakfast to make our way back up the Tiputini River to the port. We once again were traveling with supplies that needed to be replenished and were squished onto one of the safari trucks until the other one came by and half of us switched over. We made it to the station where we once again went through security. We waited around for a little while as the professors tried to figure out what was going and we tried not to die in the heat and humidity. We were given several different explanations, but we ended up taking the trucks to another dock, taking smaller boats across the Napo River to another dock in order to take a bus to Coca. The river was literally too shallow to navigate. On the way there we had to zigzag across the water in order to avoid sand banks and on that Friday we were able to see most of those sand banks completely uncovered and dry.

Driving from the Yasuní to Coca was actually quite interesting. I would have loved to sleep on that bus ride, but it was rather bumpy so I watched the scenery and the small towns that we went through. Ecuador is a country in the middle of change (I suppose most countries are always changing). In the cities you are able to see all of the different socioeconomic classes literally living right next to each other. There are paved roads and giant green road signs identical to those that we are used to in the States and houses that we would consider shacks. There were also some really cute kids playing Ecuaball and others trying to get their friends or siblings to throw something down from a roof. I think traveling through a country by slower means of transportation is one of the best ways to get to know a country.

Luckily our flight was not until later in the day and luckily there was a flight just leaving when we arrived at the airport that had the exact number of seats needed for both the GAIAS group and the Saint Olaf group. Ironically as we flew into Quito there was rain coming down and, it being a Friday evening, we were also stuck in traffic so it took at least an hour to get home. What was roughly a 6 hour day of traveling turned into a 13 hour day of traveling by the time we all made it home.
All in all, going to Tiputini was one of the best experiences I have ever had. I still do not know if research is exactly the path I would like to pursue, but these opportunities that I have had to go out into the field are certainly ones that I never want to forget. My current professor is actually leaving the islands for a few days to take a group of botanists from the states to Tiputini. I think we might all be wishing that we could go with him, but I suppose staying on the islands is not so bad either.

As I approach the halfway point of my trip I find myself getting a bit too comfortable with San Cristóbal. By that I mean the “honeymoon” phase of studying abroad has passed and now I need to find more to keep me busy. Although I have been volunteering at CIMEI, I think I need to find something more beneficial to do and find a way to interact with more locals or at least Spanish speakers. There are many Ecuadorians here from the mainland for their summer vacation. I am very excited to visit Santa Cruz, Isabella, and take a four-day cruise around the islands. Those journeys start in about a week and a half and until then I will be observing pollinators that come to a few different plants for my class on the native and introduced flora of the Galápagos.

Best wishes to everyone reading this! For UVM students, enjoy your spring break next week!

Cotopaxi... or The Brave Go Camping

 As I sit by the sunken pirate ship on the campus lawn of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, I am still in shock that it is already February and that in less than a week I will be leaving for the Gálapagos Islands. We were given our student IDs a couple of weeks ago and I finally have my censo (my official Ecuadorian ID) so I now feel more like a real student. It is a bitter sweet feeling that I am finally getting to know this area of Ecuador as I am about to leave. I think I could live in a tropical region without seasons for a few years. Maybe after 5 years I would start to miss the variation and the excitement of the first real day of spring when it is finally “warm enough” for everyone to wear shorts and sandals again. However, for the time being I still feel like I am living in a dream. Of course, it felt a little more real when dealing with the cold and the challenge that is Cotopaxi National Park.

Ecuadorians will tell you that they have the highest peak on Earth if you are measuring from the center of the Earth, a mountain peak of the Andes by the name of Chimborazo. They also have one of the highest active volcanoes on Earth. This volcano is Cotopaxi, which is currently a snow-covered peak. Cotopaxi hasn’t erupted since 1942 but is noted emitting steam daily and geologists keep an eye on its seismic activity. Despite it being a volcano people still often climb the glacier of Cotopaxi. We did not actually climb the volcano, but stayed in a cave that overlooked the snow-covered peak.

Originally almost all of the GAIAS members were going to go camping by Cotopaxi.When it came down to it, only 8 brave girls and our guide (one of the international student coordinators) were brave enough to handle Cotopaxi National Park after going to Maquipucuna and before heading into the Amazon. For the trip we rented repelling gear and sleeping bags and bought enough food for an army. We headed out early in the morning, as usual, picked up our gear, had some breakfast, and were on our way.

Cotopaxi National Park is south of Quito and higher in altitude. As it was my (and some of the other girls’) first time hiking with a backpack on and all of us are used to lower altitudes, it was a bit more difficult than I expected. The hike that we did in Papallacta was difficult, but nowhere near as challenging as this weekend trip. Of course, in Papallacta we were hiking downhill most of the time. As you may notice from the pictures, Cotopaxi is the same páramo ecosystem as Papallacta with relatively few organisms per area compared to the rest of Ecuador. Of course, there are always those flowers that pull through. There were also cattlek, beautiful wild horses, and a hummingbird kept flying in and out of the cave/gazebo. The hummingbirds like to stay there during nesting season (around November).

It took us about 2 ½ hours to reach the cave where we were sleeping, including a stop food and another rest before climbing the final hill up to the cave. One of the first things we encountered on our way was the remains of a wild horse. The bones had been picked clean and that was left was some hair on its skull. Luckily this was not an omen of any sort, just an interesting sight. Once we were up there we decided it was really more of a gazebo than a cave because it was just a covering by a rock overhanging that was carved out by one of the eruptions of Cotopaxi. Because we were not sleeping in an actual cave, we quickly discovered that it would get very cold at night. In case it was not evident by the dropping temperature, it started to hail about 5 minutes after we reached the cave.










In the morning we ate a rather quick breakfast and headed up to the top of the cave in order to go repelling over a rock wall and through a couple of stories of nothingness. Although I would have loved to have been able to do this, I chickened out once up on the top because I have a near-paralyzing fear of heights. I was particularly afraid of having vertigo while still on the rope. All that keeps the rope from sliding too fast through the harness and clip is one of your hands gripped around waist height. It was still really cool to see Cotopaxi from that view once it finally came out of the clouds and it was at the top of the cave that we were lucky enough to see 2 Andean condors. There are only around 30 of those birds left in the world today. The guy that was with us said he has been coming to that spot with different groups for years and had never seen them until that day.


After everyone else was done repelling down the gazebo face, we headed on our way back to the bus. The way back was not as bad, probably because my pack was lighter without food in it. It was still a taxing process and feet got wet as we hopped from cushion plant to cushion plant trying to avoid the marshy ground around us.

So it was definitely an experience to be able to say that I have hiked in the Cotopaxi national park, where most of the ground is covered in ash and massive rocks from past eruptions, and slept in a cave overnight. Although it was a very cold and rather tiring trip, I still much enjoyed having everything that I needed to survive on my back and using my own two feet to get to shelter.