Well we're done with the Galapagos but we're still in Ecuador in the capital city of Quito. Here are some pictures from out first couple of days of site seeing.


View from the top of a mountain overlooking the city. You take a cable car called the TeleferiQuo to get up there and then you can walk ever further towards the top. You can see that Quito is located right in the middle of the Andes Mountains.


The indigenous people of this region still live separately from everyone else, up in the mountains. Here is one of them on his horse.


Derek and cousin Alex looking over the edge of a precipice. Falling here would be a very bad idea.


A view of Cotopaxi, the largest mountain in Ecuador. It is also a very active volcano.


The Pululagua valley. This was once a huge volcano but the top was blown off during the last eruption. It is now the 5th largest volcanic crater in the world.


A real shrunken head. It is around 120 years old and was the son of the tribes chief at that time. The head hunters still shrink heads today, but are no longer allowed to do it to their enemies. Now they only do it to animals and members of their own tribe if they want to honor them.


I was the only one able to balance an egg on the head of a nail. You can do this anywhere but it is easier if you're directly on the Equator, which we were.


The Equator line. This one is actually fake though, it's around 200 meters off. Not bad though considering it was calculated before GPS or anything. We had visited the real Equator line right before this.


Llama eating some flower that had just been planted.



We had to try cui (guinea pig).


We liked it. Not enough to eat the head though.

Last Few Days in Galapagos

Yesterday afternoon I arrived in Quito!

The last week in Galapagos after the Floreana day trip we went to Isla San Cristobal. Due to the need for some serious money saving at the end of the trip we only stayed for one whole day. Although I wish we could have stayed longer we were extremely tired since just a day prior we had done the Floreana trip. Every time you go to any Island it costs you $25 each way but most painful is the two hour boat ride to every island. It seemed that as winter is coming in every boat trip we made got worse. The farther into winter the rougher the seas.

San Cristobal was beautiful. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the main city, was fairly developed similar to Puerto Ayora but not nearly as busy. This is probably what made it our favorite island. Some of the other islands like Isabella and Floreana were nice but were so remote it made living difficult. Meals were especially difficult because there were very few, like 2 or 3, options as far as where to eat. Puerto Ayora was the exact opposite of this but was so busy it was loud and dirtier than the other islands. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno provided a happy medium.

Our first morning in San Cristobal we chartered a taxi to take us to see the highlands. We got really lucky as the taxi driver was a local who had been born and raised on San Cristobal, so he made for a good tour guide. First, we stopped at El Progresso, a little town that used to be part of Manuel J. Cobos' plantation of the same name. Manuel J. Cobos was the islands infamous tyrant. He owned a sugar plantation, El Progresso, that made him very wealthy and gave him unchallenged power on San Cristobal. He considered himself not only the owner of the island but of his workers as well. He abused them to such an extent that they eventually rebelled against him, dragged him from the second story of his house, and murdered him. You can still see the remains of his plantation home. Still visible is the section of his house where he used to hang and torture his workers.

After El Progresso we headed farther into the highlands to see the Laguna el Junco, the only fresh water lake in the Galapagos. Found on the top of a mountain, which you have to walk up to get there, this lake is an amazing site to see. The air at that altitude is so fresh it felt great to be up there (after you recovered from the hike up the mountain. We were so high up that the altitude, combined with the wind, actually made the air a little chilly at times. While there you could also get an amazing view of the rest of the island. Overall it was one of the most beautiful places we have visited thus far. While there we also got to see a flock of Frigates for the first time. While walking around the lake we saw several volunteers working with machetes to remove the Blackberry plants that are one of the islands' most invasive species. At the same time other volunteers were planting more than 1000 Miconias, an endemic plant, for Ecuador's earth day.

In the afternoon we walked to the Center of Interpretation which is a museum that outlines the history of the Galapagos' Islands. We also snorkeled at Las Tijeretas and passed by Mann Beach which was covered in sea lions. San Cristobal has more sea lions than any other of the islands. Although this is pretty cool to see there are so many you can barely even use the beaches. The sea lions are very territorial so there are often fights between males, plus they defecate all over the beach and it stinks.

After getting back on Friday we spent the last days taking photo's of some of the older homes in Santa Cruz. Many of these are close to La Playa de los Alemanes which translates to German Beach. Here is where the islands first settlers, many of whom were German, chose to make their homes. We also went back to Las Grietas to go for a nice swim in its crystal clear water. =]

Leaving was sad. It felt like leaving home a little but we are in Quito now and it is truly a beautiful city.

-Cristi

Videos from Floreana

First video: These are some Boobies resting on a rock off the coast of Floreana.

Second video: A sea turtle that Derek found swimming right under our boat when we got out to snorkel. I didn´t get to see it because I decided to get stung by a jellyfish instead...

Third video: Yulyka´s new dog Coco.

Isla Floreana

Yesterday I was finally able to go to Isla Floreana. I have been particularly interested in this island because of it´s amazing and mysterious history. For years its many caves and fresh water made it the perfect resting place for pirates. Later, those same caves would become the home of adventurous individuals who would come for health reasons and some to conquer land. Today the island is still home to some but not many. The national park along with the Charles Darwin foundation has also managed to almost completely eradicate the invasive species which included goats among the most destructive. It is said that their invasion began as far back as when the pirates would visit. They would come bringing animals like the goat so that they could feed on the fertile lands and be nice and fat for the pirates to eat whenever they came back. The Wittmer family is one of the most important as they settled on the island for the well being of their sick son but ended up owning a good portion of it. Margarette Wittmer who died just 9 years ago wrote an autobiography making her seem like a brave heroin. For many locals however she is known as a greedy woman who was obsessed with making the land hers and even a possible murderer. Yesterday, our tour guide told us that many think that she may have been the real culprit behind the mysterious disappearances of the Baroness Wagner (to locals the ´Nymphomaniac´) and her two lovers. The Baroness had come to Floreana to make a hotel for millionaires, something that Mrs. Wittmer would not like. According to the tour guide, Mrs. Wittmer would like her even less when her own Mr. Wittmer started to show interest in the sex crazed Baroness. The mistress of Dr. Frederich Ritter, who had arrived to the island even before the Wittmer´s, also mysteriously disappeared. Many also speculate that Mrs. Wittmer also had a hand in her disappearance.
I love these stories because they really make me think. It´s strange, when I first got here it seemed such a perfect marriage between man and nature. It seemed that the locals here all had a deep respect for nature and a responsibility to keep their islands pure. Although this is still true, I have also seen the darker side of their relationship. I have spoken to fishermen who resent the strict fishing rules that have been placed upon them. At night by the bay you could see all of the plastic that they litter the water with. Even before all of this, the only reason why the islands are even populated is because of the people that came to use the land for everything it had. Kill its wild life for its meat and oil.
Here in Santa Cruz they have already sold land to expand the city farther up land. For the growing population here in Puerto Ayora that would seem like a good thing, Yulika herself has a nice piece of land where she will eventually make her home. But these islands don´t have much fresh water, especially not Santa Cruz. Its land is made up almost entirely of volcanic rock so it is impossible to have an efficient sewage and plumbing system. So, not only is there not enough water for the growing population but its also really difficult to spread. Every morning we have no water. No way of showering, washing our hands, flushing the toilet not until after 11 am when it finally arrives. After it arrives we still don´t know how long we will have it since it is shared by three different households. If everyone is washing clothes that day we can´t expect to have it for more that a few hours. I have lived here for three weeks now. I personally interact and know many of the locals by now. I know that this is there home and I know how much they love to live here. Still, sometimes I wonder if anyone should be here at all.

Anyway, Floreana was amazing. We snorkelled with baby sea lions again and I finally got to see the caves I had read about. The videos are taking a little too long to finish loading so I will try my best to upload them before I leave today at 2pm to Isla San Cristobal where I will be until Friday morning.

Till then,

Cristi