Last few days on the Guantanamera
On the 30th, we went to Isla Floreana, which was the first island in the Galápagos to be inhabited (it also has a greenish/gold tinted beach on one side, which is pretty cool). The first person to live on the island was named Patrick Watkins and he was kicked off his ship in 1804 for being a weirdo (apparently). He then managed to survive and grow some food, which he began to grow in such quantities that he could trade for guns and other items. Eventually he commandeered a ship to Guayaquil, but when it arrived, he was the only one left alive and he ended up dying in an Ecuadorian prison. So yeah he was pretty weird. Then later on there was a woman and her two lovers (and a couple other people) living on the island and one of her “lovers” mysteriously died. Apparently one of her descendents still lives on the island. Then our guide told us the story of some crazy Germans who wanted to move to the island but were worried about there being no dentists – to ameliorate their predicament, they inexplicably decided that pulling all their teeth out would be the best way to avoid the problem. Our guide, Marvy, told us that the island makes people crazy. Now though there are 112 people living there. Not sure if they are all psychopaths or not. Marvy was really cool though – he was only 21 and had been a park guide for three years! He was extremely knowledgeable and was very helpful and nice. He was only annoying when he went around ringing that darn bell. We rebelled by showing up for snorkeling or hiking maybe five minutes after the ring…but then he started ringing it five minutes earlier!!! We were seriously fed up. Ah well. On Floreana there is also a brackish lagoon where flamingoes used to go to feed, but the bachelor sea lions in there kept peeing in the water so much that they ended up killing a lot of the organisms the flamingoes were feeding on, so they hadn’t been seen in the area for over a year. Silly bachelor sea lions. They should go do something useful. Or that may have been another flamingo lagoon on another island…I can’t remember…I think the one on Floreana hadn’t seen the birds in awhile because there was a cool period about a year ago and the level of the lagoon dropped quite a lot, and a lot of the sulfur in the lake kind of overpowered it. Anyways, we learned about a lot of different plants on the island and later went snorkeling, which was fantastic as always. We saw some great fish, a huge lobster (HUGE), and a Chocolate Chip Sea Star (it seriously looks like a chocolate chip cookie from afar, and I immediately craved homemade cookies as soon as I saw it). The same day, we went into a gigantic lava tube (pretty much a long cave) and that was very interesting to see. It was filled with water but it was so hot outside that a bunch of us went in the water because it was freezing cold and felt fantastic. You could walk the entire way to the end of the tunnel and only at the end did you have to start treading water. It was very fantastic. This island they also have the “post barrel” where people drop off post cards for other tourists to pick up and hand deliver. It’s been in use since the pirate days!
On the 31st, we docked at Santa Cruz in order to go to the Charles Darwin Station, the place where they educate tourists about the island and also keep a massive land tortoise breeding program. There were once 14 original subspecies of land tortoise in the islands, but now there are less than 10. The CDS is working hard to help out dwindling populations in some islands and facilitating reintroduction in others. We also saw Lonesome George, the only representative of his subspecies from the island Pinta. For years they have been searching for a female for him from Pinta, and this has been unsuccessful, so they have tried breeding him with females from other islands but he isn’t interested. They even brought a different tortoise pair into his refuge to show him how to mate, but he still couldn’t figure it out. They are thinking now about cloning, but they are going to wait as long as possible for that because he is only around 90 years old (haha….they can live to be around 120 years old, and one was even recorded to be close to 200 years). Later on in the day we traveled about the highlands (I was surprised the island even had highlands – cloud forest even!) and we saw tortoises (HUGE ones) in their natural habitat and we also got our feet chomped on by ridiculous little ants. We also went to a crater called “Los Gemelos,” and we all made Jurassic Park jokes because the crater seriously looked like it could house dinosaurs and other crazy things. Very cool. The night before was when we actually docked in Santa Cruz and we all were allowed to go out on the town so we definitely took advantage by heading to a bar called the Rock or something like that. Four of us, including myself, ordered Long Beach Iced Teas (like a Long Island but with cranberry juice) and it was quite delicious. Later on we went to “Discoteca La Panga” and danced the night away! It was so much fun. I salsa-ed with one guy a couple of times and he was a very good dancer; he even dipped me a few times, which was very fun.
April Fool’s Day arrived with an interesting joke…
8th of April
Yesterday was, of course, my birthday and it was definitely a good day (how could it not be when I’m in the Galápagos?). We had to turn in our research proposals and then talk to our professors about them so I was a little worried, especially because we didn’t really have our methods finalized at all. But when we got our comments back they weren’t scathing or nasty or anything, they were just general helpful comments, and when we actually talked with them they seemed to be really interested in our project and were very helpful. A big part of it I think was that we were doing something very different and it wasn’t something that there is a lot of knowledge about. While other groups are doing damselfish or sea lions, we are doing marine iguanas and thermoregulatory behavior. Plus, they knew I really wanted to do a project on iguanas and perhaps they appreciate that I’m really trying to make it work. After the talk with them, we revised our proposal a bit and then I went to a place to call home before I met the rest of the group for lunch. After lunch, I was presented with a slice of ice cream cake, a bowl of ice cream, and everyone sang to me, including the people who owned the restaurant! It was really nice of everyone and the ice cream was delicious. After lunch I went with the two other girls in my research group to check out a possible second site for our iguana research (the Naval base) and found no iguanas but many good-looking guys in uniform (I believe all the tall boys that are ever born in Ecuador are kidnapped and taken to the Galapagos Naval Base). Later we just sat on the beach until lecture, and that evening, even though it was pouring rain off and on, a bunch of the people in my group all came out with me to celebrate! It’s very nice going out somewhere on your birthday because you don’t have to pay for anything – people just want to buy stuff for you! Had my first tequila shot, which wasn’t bad at all actually, and just had a chill night hanging out with friends and dancing a little. Got soaking wet on the walk back home, counted that as my shower for the day, and then woke up five and a half hours later to go do research on iguanas.
The iguana research was actually very interesting, even though the rain was kind of hurting our data collection (and everyone else’s too), and plus it wasn’t exactly a picnic sitting around getting rained on (on the other hand the temperature was much improved). I did a focal animal for two hours, which means that I pretty much sat and watched the same iguana for two hours. Well he walked around once in awhile so I had to follow him from a safe distance (as in I didn’t want to startle him, not that he was going to eat me) and it was so cool just to watch him! If I ever met Darwin, I don’t think we would get along because he has this strange negative fixation on marine iguanas – every passage he’s written about them has the words “stupid” and “ugly brute” in there somewhere. He’s totally weird; he says the same thing about land iguanas. I’m like dude, your beard was ten feet long, you look like a freak. Whatever. If you just sit with an iguana for awhile, you kind of get to know them in a way. The one I was watching was almost dragon-like in his slow, deliberate movements, but also because he had nice long claws (for hanging on to rocks when they have to dive down in the ocean to eat algae). At one point he was climbing up a large rock and with one of his feet looked like he was slowly tapping his “fingers” on a table. It was hilarious because their digits are so long and it was just such a reptilian movement! Reptiles have the coolest eyes too – whenever he would blink, the membrane that covers their eyes when they’re in the water would come from the side of his eye and cover it really quickly and go away. They are quite fascinating creatures. We did some data collection and then went back to the university for breakfast, and then we had to return for more data collection. We saw a lot more during late morning – it had warmed up a little and some of the largest ones (I did see a few smaller ones though) had come out of hiding and were basking or walking around. I even saw one coming out of the water, probably returning from feeding on algae. The waves were pretty brutal, so it was kind of funny seeing this tiny black head bobbing in the water and all of a sudden this crazy reptile jumps out onto a rock and scrambles as fast as it can away from the waves. We ended up being late to lunch because taxis here are weird, but then we were done with data for the day and took the next few hours to do internet, amble around, and study (I did more internet and ambling than anything else). After lecture, I power-walked home as fast as I could because we had to return to the University to watch a movie about sharks and I wanted to get food and have a little study time before then. They made me a special dinner tonight – sea food kabob! I ate shrimp, calamari, and octopus. Yes, octopus. One of the pieces even had the sucker things still on it (I cut that part off and tried as hard as could to not picture a cute little octopus as I was eating it). It is kind of chewy, but it did taste good. Don’t think I would ever voluntarily eat it again though – Cephalopods are just too cool to eat. They’re too intelligent too! I read for awhile, and then headed back to the university for the movie Shark Water, which is a documentary this man made about all the troubles that sharks have. It was very powerful, and extremely saddening. They started out talking about the myths about sharks – that they are bloodthirsty and will eat humans whenever they can get them blah blah blah – it’s not true. They are extremely shy creatures. I would know, I’ve swam with them. The guy who did the movie summed it up perfectly – once you actually get in the water with them, you realize they are just these amazing, beautiful creatures, and you are just awed to be able to swim with them. But still today people are so uneducated about them and the myth of their ferocity and visciousness persists. Due to fear and fisheries, the world’s shark population has declined by 90%, which is horrific not only in itself, but also because they are top predators on the food chain, and when top predators are gone, everything gets messed up. One way that they are killed is by long-lining – these are fish nets that can literally go on for kilometers and kilometers and they have thousands of baited hooks on them. Most of the time they don’t even catch the species they are looking for, and end up killing hundreds of sharks, turtles, large fish, and sometimes even seabirds. Then there’s the shark-finning market, which is second in money-making only to the drug trade. It is a horribly cruel thing that people do, and what’s worse is that it’s a cultural thing. In China especially, having shark fin soup is some huge class symbol thing, and popularity of the dish has skyrocketed in the past two decades. In many countries, shark-finning is banned but it is done illegally everywhere. Boats will catch sharks, cut off all their fins, and throw them back in the ocean still alive, where they will die a horribly slow death because they can’t move, and therefore can’t breathe. It’s absolutely barbaric and cruel. People still keep on eating it though, and they also buy shark products because they think that sharks are somehow magical and will cure anything. It’s like, what the hell is wrong with you. You don’t eat sharks. You don’t engage in animal cruelty all for some goddamn disgusting soup. The movie was seriously saddening. They did talk a lot about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – they are the guys that go around ramming Japanese whaling ships and stuff. Honestly, I think they are pretty cool. What their mission is is to enforce the laws and the governments and stuff don’t actually enforce, or don’t have the guts, money, or desire to enforce. They may be radical, but they are the only people out there doing anything, and I think it’s pretty cool. What right do we have to kill all of these things for no reason? Seriously? Everything here has just as much right as we do to live here. We are no better than anything else here, but we do have the power to do something to fix it.
