Well, in the last week and a bit I have experienced my first South American country, studied (in far more detail than expected) 13 sub-species of Finches and found Milo for less than $5 for the smallest jar. So I am a happy, happy girl! Since my last rather unenthusiastic update I have had a brilliant time exploring Ecuador. This is my first port where I was free to do as I liked. No Academic Field Programmes for me (which was a shame because Conflict Studies was working with a local NGO building houses for disadvantaged families). Instead I had two free days in Guayaquil and then spent 5 days in the Galapagos Islands.
Guayaquil was uninspiring. I am sure there are brilliant pockets of the city that would amaze me if I had the time to find them. Unfortunately for me though, I did a whistle stop tour of the city. I did love the markets though. Summer and I ventured to an Artisan’s market. It was full of cheap tapestries and souvenirs. Very touristy, but fun all the same. The real find for us though was the Bahia Mall. An outdoor market frequented by locals where you could literally buy everything – including (wait for it) Milo - which I had been craving. So I was a very happy girl! This market showed much more of Ecuador’s heart. It was busy, unorderly, noisy and full of Spanish, which was better than the Artisan’s market which was orderly, quiet and full of broken English. The only people around were locals. Shopkeepers shook our hands when they met us because they said white people never visited them. I am sure this means that we also got ripped off, but I am ok with that.
After venturing in Guayaquil we began our Galapagos adventure. I am not a fan of the packaged tour, but this was the ultimate. For the entire 5 days I didn’t have to think. Somebody told me where I had to be when, picked me up in various forms of transport and pointed out all the wonderful animals to me. I had no research papers to prepare for, no essays to relate to my experiences and no reflections statements due and I feel like I had a bit of a holiday from all the craziness that happens on the Scholar Ship. It was a really lovely week. And that is before you even think about the animals!
So on our first afternoon in the Galapagos we had a short tour around the harbour of Santa Cruz Island. In just under 3 hours we saw sharks, blue-footed boobies, hawks, various birds and (my favourite) sea lions. The wonderful thing about the Galapagos is how close you can get to the animals. To start with, the animals have almost no fear because they have no natural predators. The tight management of the area has also meant that the animals have had no reason to be scared of humans (except perhaps the whales – there was a whaling station in the Galapagos many moons ago). So this means, that when you see a sea lion and you are in a boat, the first thing you do if put on your snorkel. And then you jump over the side and go and say hi. The water is freezing (17 degrees is in no way the tropical temperature that I expect when jumping into water), but after a while your body turns numb and you forget about the cold anyway because of the animals. The sea lions are inquisitive and immediately came to say hello. There is an official no touching policy in the Galapagos. This means that we spent a great deal of time swimming away from the sea lions so as not to accidentally touch them. I failed. I think on no less than three occasions I simply could not swim fast enough to get away from the sea lions. It is a bizarre situation when you have to try and stop the animals interacting with people so as to preserve their natural behaviours and habitat. But I will never forget coming nose to nose with a sea lion. Or snorkelling along following a parrot fish, and turning around to point it out to a fellow traveller who I thought was beside me and instead finding a sea lion cruising along with me. It took my breath away. And then I managed to breathe in sea water through my snorkel and freaked out the sea lion when I had a coughing fit.
We hiked up ancient volcanoes (nothing like the jungle people there was a path), crossed islands to secluded white sand beaches and took stunning photographs of these amazing islands. There were simply too many amazing things to take pictures of them all. For example, one afternoon I was sitting on a beach, having just been less than half a metre away from white tipped sharks and enjoying the shade when three finches landed on me: one on each shoulder and one on my knee. I have never been anywhere where little tiny birds feel so unthreatened that they land right on peoples shoulders. What was more amazing was each of them was from a different sub-species of Finch. Our local guide used this as an opportunity to talk about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The Finches hung around long enough for him to explain their similarities and differences before they flew off to entertain another tourist.
We ventured to two of the outlying islands – Floreana and Bartholomew Islands. Both of which were a 4 hour boat ride away. 4 hours in open sea in a boat that isn’t as stable as the Scholar Ship had a few people looking a bit green. But it did mean that we saw more sea lions, whales and dolphins. One the islands we explored lava tubes, pirate caves, black sand beaches and yet more snorkelling sites. I can also add a penguin (yep that’s right, a single solitary penguin in the Northern Hemisphere) to the list of animals we saw. There is a small colony that lives on Bartholomew Island. The rest of them must have been off having a party somewhere because we only saw one lonely soul. I will have to go searching for them next time I am there.
Another highlight was seeing the giant Galapagos Tortoises in the wild. We saw tortoises between the ages of about 70 and 150. They were huge. They were also slow and again we were allowed to take a limited amount of pictures with them (the pictures from the Scholar Ship are so varied and diverse!). I hope to have some of the photos up on facebook shortly.
All too soon our time in the Galapagos was over. It was time to return to the ship for our last day in Guayaquil (where we did the usual shopping we do on the last day in port) then at 4 pm we cast off the lines and headed back out to sea.
As I write to you now, we are heading back to the Galapagos Islands to evacuate a sick student. I probably won’t be able to see land but I am hoping for a few last glimpses of whales before we head back out to open sea.
Next stop is Tahiti, but first we have 10 more days of ocean crossing. So it’s back to classes and those assignments that I have been putting off.
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