First Three days in the Galapagos

Well, I'm in the Galapagos! It's even better than I thought it would be! I arrived here on Sunday afternoon where Yulika met us at the airport. One we got all of our bags together, we got on a complementary bus that took us to a dock where we went aboard a ferry that would take us to Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz. On the ferry, Yulika told me that the old lady sitting next to us was one of Puerto Ayoras first inhabitants. After getting off the ferry we boarded yet another bus that would take us into town. The whole ride, Yulika, who is something of a Galapagos historian, told me of the different inhabitants of the islands. She talked about the abandoned buildings we saw in Baltra, the island where we landed, the remains of an old town built to cater to an American naval base built during WWII. It even had its own casino called The Rock! I asked her about her own history and found out she has lived here since she was a year old! She was born in Quito but her mom moved her and her two older brothers to the Galapagos when she got a job with the Charles Darwin Foundation where she still works today. Yulika also started working for the foundation about 2 months ago. Derek and I are staying in Yulika's house. She lives only with her mom in a small house in Puerto Ayora. They were kind enough to fix up a spare room they had for us to stay in.

So far, living with locals has given us a first hand look at the local culture. They have been so nice and accomodating. Everyday we meet them for lunch at their favorite local restaurants. Today we ate at the Hotel Castro. Yesterday we went on a tour of the bay. First we stopped at La Loberia, which is a spot where sea lions congregate. In spanish sea lions are called Lobos Marinos which is where the word Loberia comes from.





Then, we went to Las Grietas which is a huge gorge with water at the bottom. The locals like to swim there and dive from the cliffs. The minute I stopped paying attention Derek went up and decided to jump himself. I was really scared for him but the guide assured me as long as he did not hit the rocks he would be fine.











Next, we went to El Canal del Amor (The love Canal) where we finally saw the famous Blue Footed Boobies!


Lastly, we went on a short hike and saw the Iguanas Marinas that are only found in the Galapagos.

After such an eventful Monday we decided to take Tuesday a little slower and visit the local beach. Little did we know that would be a mission of its own. We went to Tortuga Bay which is a beautiful beach frequented by surfers both local and from around the world. Our host assured us that it was only a short walk from the middle of town, however this walk turned into an hour long hike over a mountain. By the time we reached the beach we were exhausted!

Still, the evening spent there was way worth it. We saw hundreds more iguanas and countless different types of birds. Not to mention swimming in crystal clear water.

Today, at two we leave on a boat to Isla Isabella where we will stay until Saturday morning. I am really excited because it has a rich history of the Archipelagos inhabitants. I have decided to focus my project on the invasive species that are humans. This is due to not only how interesting their history is here in the Galapagos, but also because access to the Islands with the most invasive species problems are prohibited to tourists.

Till next time,

Cristi

The last few days in Guayaquil

Hey! Sorry for the lack of updates but Guayaquil has had me busier than I would have ever imagined. These last two days I have been doing all of the tourist things. On Thursday Derek and I went to El Malecón 2000 where we walked through the whole thing and stopped to eat. It was really nice and the whole area has improved significantly since the last time I was here, they even have an IMAX. Still, we couldn't help but notice how much better it would look were the water cleaner. The Malecón as I mentioned before is a boardwalk and the river that it overlooks is called the Guayas river. It is an important river in South America because it is the only one that does not flow in to the Atlantic Ocean. It's also included within the Ecuadorian flag. The appearance of the water is brown and murky with some trash along the banks. I've been looking up some information on the state of the river and found one Ecuadorian source claiming that although the river does contain pollutants such as oil, the concentrations are below levels considered harmful to aquatic life. The company Soluciones Ambientales Totales (SAMBITO) led by Ecuadorian environmentalist José Guarderas, "achieved a 20 percent reduction in water consumption in farming processes, substantially reducing contamination in the Guayas River and mitigating bad odors that were affecting neighboring communities through the utilization of environmentally-friendly technologies.” Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool that there are people that want to make it better here.

After walking down the Malecón we went up Las Peñas and that was amazing. My aunts husband who drove us there told us that the neighborhood is one of Guyaquils oldest. Just a few years ago it was one of the most dangerous and poor parts of the city but the government decided to rehabilitate it. They gave the residents a lot of paint and invested money in improving the entire area. Today it is one of the nicest tourist attractions in the city. You go up a long flight of stairs exactly 444, I know that because they're labeled! The houses are bright and wonderful and at the very top there is a church and a light house. We went up and the view was amazing we saw the whole city from up there. Also at the top is a huge panoramic photograph of what the Malecon, which the Penas look down upon used to look in the 1880's. It was crazy to see how many less buildings there were. Aside from just along the river bank, the rest was all natural forest.

Yesterday, we took a day trip to El Parque Historico de Guayaquil. It was awesome! It's pretty much like the Jr. Museum in Tallahassee. They have several indigenous animals like the Tapiar and the Harpy eagle which can grow up to a meter tall! The park also has a reconstruction of the Guayaquil river front as it was in 1900. This includes actual buildings that have been moved and reassembled inside the park. They also have people that dress up in period costume. It was a really fun place, we learned a lot about Guayaquil's history. For example, Guayaquils economic boom was due to it's farming and exportation of cacao (cocoa beans). Ecuador is still the worlds fourth largest exporter of cacao, but number one in quality!

Tomorrow we leave to the Galapagos, Guayaquil has been nice but we're ready for a Galapagos adventure!

-Cristi

P.S. It was great to meet the Miami wedding party at the Historic Park! Hope the rest of your visit is great!

Day 1: Guayaquil

I'm updating quickly as I'm about to go out with my cousin Romina to the opening of some Karaoke bar. Today was nice we mostly hung out with some of my relatives and watched The Lovely Bones with my cousins. We are currently staying in Guayaquil, we will be here until this Sunday when we head to the Galapagos. Tomorrow were doing all the tourist traps which I'm actually pretty excited about. We're visiting El Malecón 2000 which is a boardwalk and then going to Las Peñas which is a colorful collection of houses on a mountain side next to the Malecón.

Las Peñas

El Malecón 2000

Hopefully I get great photographs of both.

Till next time,

Cristi

I can't believe I leave tomorrow... today

It is currently 12:40 am on May 11th 2010. Just a few months ago I was putting together the proposal for my Galapagos project just hoping that it would be worthy of an amazing summer. The idea was simple yet ambitious, to document through my photographs the effects of invasive species on the Galapagos archipelago. At the time, I was enrolled in an Art and Ecology class taught by the amazing Linda Hall whose class was the inspiration for the project. As soon as I came up with the concept for my project I asked Linda to help me with my proposal and got it in just in time. By some miracle the wonderful faculty at Florida State's Undergraduate Research Office gave me the Mentored Research and Creative Endeavors Award (MRCE) and now here I am unable to sleep with anticipation.

A few days ago I created this blog to keep my family, friends, and mentors updated on my projects developments. I purchased a camcorder to include footage of my adventures and possibly even interviews of locals. I will be living with the Cedeña family for three weeks and hopefully learning a lot about how the islands locals interact with the islands ecology.

Well, I'm exhausted and really should go to sleep but I'll try and think up more things in the morning to update with before I leave.

-Cristi