Galapagos: Part 1

I´ve decided that since it would take me forever to blog about all that i did and laughed at in the Galapagos, i´ll do a bit each day until its done.

So we arrived in the Galapagos and it was HOT!!!!!! The sun here is already really strong because we´re at the equator but then we added the element of tropical island weather.

We island hopped...

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To Santa Cruz...

where we saw beautiful forests of scalesias...

and giant craters that had collapsed...

A few of the girls in my group together in front of the crators

We spent the night in this cute little hotel that had a boat. Not sure why, because it honestly didn´t look like it could possibly be used. Maybe they just take decorating to a new level here...

A picture of the bay...

And an iguana crossing the street. No big deal. It happens every day.

 

We saw these sealions on a private dock. After reading (and apparently just ignoring) the area restricted sign, our guide ushered us in to take photos.

Taxi´s here are all just boats... we were frequenters on them as we toured around

If you look closely you might notice something that does not appear to belong... no, the bird didn´t step in wet paint. They have this species of birds called blue-footed bubi. As a lover of the color blue, i was impressed.

We went for a short walk to a place where we went cliff jumping. One of the scariest things of my life. You jumped and then the water took forever to come. FOREVER! Fortunately i landed in a perfect pencil dive, but others who landed on their butts or a bit on their backs were not so lucky and had huge purple welts...

Then we headed to some lava tunnels. As lava flows out of a volcano, it does so in veins like these. There´s apparently tons of them on the islands, but you can´t actually tell they exist until part of it collapses and reveals a tunnel, like this one.  We walked aways through it, even had to crawl for part of the way. The guide told us if we had positive attitudes, it wouldn´t collapse while we were inside. I guess we must be optimists or something.

Contrary to popular belief, "Galapagos" is not actually the name of the islands. The real name is the Archipiélago de Colón, though Christopher Colombus never actually visited. Go figure. But anyway, everyone calls it the Galapagos because of its inhabitants: the galapagos (tortoises like the one seen above). For every volcano (natural land barrier entre the , there is a different subspecies, so there´s 15 different kinds, 4 of which are extinct. Sadly, because of introduced species, the tortoises are dying out, so they have different hatcheries on the islands to repopulate them. No one knows exactly how long they live, but some estimate at least 100 years.We visited a ranch that had tons of turtles, and got to witness a rare event: tortoise sex. Let me tell you, it was an interesting experience. Apparently it takes at least 2 hours. But we realized the reason why. After about 20 minutes, the macho looked like he was quitting and dismounted. Then the head of the sembra popped out. Wrong way dude! Other side! I had a video to upload but it wont upload!!! :( i've spent 2 days trying to get it to work, so i'm just going to give up for now and move on with my life.

They had an old turtle shell there and there was a challenge out to walk 150 steps in the shell for the girls and 250 for the guys. After completing the challenge, i completely understand why turtles walk so slow. With a 25kilo (about 55 pound) shell, it was a rough walk in an uncomfortable position. Only two of the girls and one of the guys in our group finished.

Me chillin on the bow of the boat. BEAUTIFUL taxi ride!!!

We then headed out to an island where iguanas are in the middle of their ´´laying egs´´ time. All the females (hundreds of them) are up on the beach and digging holes to lay their eggs. 

Some get lazy and don´t want to dig a hole. So they try and fight another iguana for theirs, as seen in the video above. Once again, the video wouldn't upload... :( maybe i'll figure it out later...

My hole!

A pretty bridge under the mangle trees

Me with a baby sea lion. And no, its not dead. I swear. And yes, in case you were wondering, I did get a bit burnt. (yes mom, i did reapply with the 50 spf) The only person in our group that didn´t burn was the girl who brought 100spf and applied liberally countless times. She stayed the exact same color as when she arrived. Even the one african american and all of the asians got burnt. It was an epic attack by the sun. And I lost. But i do have some more color now. I´m pretty sure that i´m tanner than i usually am in the states. My brother last night called me negrita, which here is a term of endearment like gringita, gordita, flacita (also terms of endearments). I guess there´s a first time for everything. I never thought in a million years i´d be considered negra.

And the flamingos... just because they´re cute.

Mi gatito

You're probably wonder, wait what? Alison has a cat. I'm actually wondering the same exact thing. I came home from school today expecting to find my family. Instead, this is what awaited me:

But seriously, I walked in the door and saw a little bit of white moving around the furniture. I was thinking, wait! my fam got a cat? since when? Maybe i'm imagining things. Then i proceeded to go and use the bathroom and found that my shower had been transformed into a house for the kitten. And there it was, sitting next to its litter box, eating out of one of the glasses that was full of cat food. Go figure! When my sister and brother-in-law came home, they asked me where the cat came from. I honestly thought they had gone out looking for it because they had lost it, so as a joke i said it was mine. Then i realized they weren't kidding. They had no idea either. I guess only time will tell! And until then, I have a lovely study buddy. That happens to enjoy turning off the internet on my computer. And type on my keyboard. 
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Case and point. Probably means something in cat-lingo, but i'm only studying Spanish here, so i wouldn't know :)

Adios! Hasta probablamente miercoles/jueves de la proxima semana. 
ME VOY A LOS GALAPAGOS JUEVES!!!!! :))))))

"That moment when..." The Sequel.

Well, its that time again for all those moments when I just shake my head and crack a smile. I have realized my life could possibly make it as a reality show. The only problem is that the vast majority of the people that would watch it in the states probably wouldn't understand the whole Spanish part of my life, which happens to be a lot of it. Oh well. Instead of making a tv show, i made this blog. For free too! :) Now on to my recent experiences...

That moment when...

Your mom herds the cows with a machete. Very effective, actually.

You think the mosquitoes on the soccer field are flies. And the misconception lasts for about an hour before someone asks you if the mosques are bothering you. It is in this moment that you realize that you have been allowing them to devour your flesh and blood without putting up a fight for 60 minutes. Yeah. Talk about 50+ mosquito bites...

You begin to use anti-itch cream as lotion because in reality its like killing two birds with one stone: smooth legs, less itchy mosquito bites. Also very effective.

You find out your family has guinea pigs. To eat. And you get a mental picture of your guinea pig you had as a pet when you were a kid...

Your family asks you if you want to go for a walk and you say sure thing! You don't need to rest after eating lunch. Then you climb a small mountain. Maybe you should have taken the rest to digest first.

Once again, only one week later, some Ecuadorians ask you if you want to walk to the picnic spot by the garden with a nice view. Then you climb another small mountain. You fell for it it again- should have learned the first time! What's that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I shalt not be fooled another time by this whole "walking" business!!!

You drive only 10 mins to reach a water park down the street from your rustic farm that has a bridge that breaks all the civil engineering rules. You think to yourself: can't they just transplant the slide from the water park to your house and you could cross the river that way? It might save a few lives...

You milk the cow. And make the chocolate from cocoa beans. And drink the chocolate milk. Then you realize how much easier it is to just buy chocolate milk in the store.

You drink some coffee because you really need to study for a test and then realize why you don't drink coffee. Oh, how nice it is to watch the light fill the night sky from your skylight...

You see a man carrying his kid with a plastic bag over her head and no one says anything or seems to notice. Interesting tactic to avoid the rain hombre at the bus stop. Very interesting tactic.

You are walking down the street and happen to pass an ez-up manned by a police man. The shelter says "punto seguro" (secure point). Suddenly you have the urge to stand under it. After all, it is the punto seguro. You also begin to rethink your walk home from school...

You eat an empanada bigger than your head. NBD.

The brother of your brother-in-law invites you to play indoor soccer, though probably just to get in a good laugh or to humor you because you told him you play soccer in the states for your university. He and his friends (all guys in college) let you play on their team for the night. You are the only girl, and the only white person at the field where they play different teams for money. Plus one for surprise attacks. Hello 5 goals.

You realize you shouldn't actually be worrying about the mangoes on the counter going bad before you have the chance to eat them. After all, they probably just came off the tree down the street and need the time to ripen up.

You take a tour of the historical center and learn that legend has it, one of the artists in the church stabbed his model in the side in order to get the facial expression of Jesus dying on the cross for his painting. Oh yeah, and the model died. I know people often use the expression "i would die if i could [fill in blank with activity, in this case capture the facial expressions of Jesus on the cross]," but i didn't know anyone actually took it seriously.

There's an airplane in the park. A full-size one, actually, that's covered in really cool looking graffiti and has a slide coming out of it. When you ask your mom about it she tells you it didn't make it to the airport and just landed in the park. So they left it there and it became part of the park. Chevere.

You're running down the street and a chicken crosses the road in front of you. You weren't actually aware you were in a rural area, and after thinking about it, decide you really aren't in a rural area. Hmmm.

One of the other runners in your track class informs you that he's actually plays paintball professionally and is going to the USA later this year for the world cup of paintball.

You and some other gringos dance with a mime. There's a first time for everything, right? And i suppose talking never was a requirement of dancing...


Some people claim they try to live every day like its an adventure. 
I don't even have to try. :)

Empenadas the size of your head

I always thought that empenadas were those little things that fit in the size of your hand. But we went to my aunt's restaurant and it turns out that you can buy GIANT ones. Ecuador never ceases to surprise me. 

 YUMMMMMM!!!!

But i guess if you eat an empenada the size of your head you have bragging rights. :) 

La Finca

My family owns a farm in La Coasta, a more tropical region of Ecuador that borders the coast in some parts. Naturally, I skipped school on Friday, and left thursday night to head to the farm. We (me, two of my friends Hannah and Katie, and my sister) took a night bus at 11:15pm and slept (on and off) all the way to the farm. After changing buses at 7, we finally arrived at our sometime around 8am. But to get to the farm, we had to cross a bridge over the spot where two rivers merged. This i had known, of course, because Mami had drawn me a map of the farm in her spare time. But when she said "bridge," i imagined a more modern type, something secure, stable, etc. Well, I was wrong. We were met with the adventures of Indiana Jones and crossed a bridge of bamboo poles (mostly) tied together about 1 meter wide, and railing on one side. It wasn't too sturdy; the poles moved a lot, and it only could bear enough weight for one person to cross at a time. It was the beginning of a weekend of adventures. 

But vale la pena. It was worth it. And we got better at crossing the bridge. There's really no need to fear if you can swim. Here's a pic right outside my house of the area and my family's red truck. 

The hammock where I spent quite a few hours sleeping. :)

 Our quaint little room. I swear people would pay money to visit this place and stay for a night...

Our house, built on a rock. Symbolic, eh?

 Our means of transportation. Typical.

 Papi took his machete and cut down a yuca tree for the roots. We would soon find that chopping down trees is normal. Like the time when Papi wanted some bananas. Instead of climbing the tree, he just cut it down. But i'm not complaining. I got bananas.

Picking some papayas... 

 Peeling an orange with a machete. Interesting tactic. I prefer a smaller blade

 Our truckbed of fruit and plants for the weekend.

 Mula the mule. yes, mula is the spanish word for mule.

 Ah, yes! the cage of guinea pigs! our family raises guinea pigs. to eat. Its a delicacy here. We had guinea pigs when i was a kid. But i don't recall ever eating them. Although my mom may have been sheltering me...

 My mom uses her machete to herd the cows. A very effective tactic i might add.

 The tree of buttons. Somehow you take the seeds and make buttons. I think I kind of lost a lot of it in translation...

 We also happen to have a mountain side of cocoa trees. No joke. My padres asked us if we wanted to go on a walk. I think the meant a hike. We walked up the side of a mountain looking at all the trees and picking the cocoa, bananas, and other trees we saw fit to cut down. Later i understood why they asked us if we wanted to wait awhile after lunch before going out...

 This is cocoa, believe it or not. It is a fruit, with a sweet fruity flavor. you pop the seeds into your mouth and suck off the membrane/fruit/pulp. Then you set the seeds out to dry. The seeds are what you use to make cocoa. I never would have imagined that this is what cocoa is like! Nor that you spit out the seeds and then make chocolate from them. I'm not too sure about the sanitation...

 A view of a small part of the forest of cocoa.

 Our little piglets. Don't get too attached. They'll probably be in your breakfast really soon!

 Another bridge down the road a ways.

 However, this one is more secure. It even comes with a bit of suspension and concrete supports, and not one but TWO rails! wow. i never thought i'd be jealous. :)

 The church my family attends. We were going to visit it with them, but we didn't make it back in time from the carnival celebration.

 You know how you always joke around with your parents about how you want to put a chair on top of the car and ride up there. Well, here its normal. They have benches on top for riding. So naturally, we sat up there.

 A view from the top!

 Yes, I agree, it was peligroso. But extremely fun!!!

 A pic of what we rode in. The smart people rode on the bottom. We should have known that no one was sitting on top because they thought it was going to rain. And it did. I think i understand why windshields were invented. A car driving at 50miles/hr + rain = ouch. i am thankful for adrenaline.

 Which of these things does not belong... an umbrella, a man in a baseball cap, a dog, a bicycle, or a chicken hanging on a pole?

 The open air market. No refrigeration needed for this meat!

 The local casino. This picture is taken from a far with a lot of zoom. Yes, i feel like a stalker. but its not my fault i am a blond hair, blue eyed girl that sticks out like a sore thumb and gets whistled at! We couldn't really go any closer...

 Dinner anyone?

 Oh I crossed the bridge successfully again. Mami was out of salt, so we volunteered to cross the bridge and buy some on the other side. Here they use more salt than i could ever imagine. Most people buy salt in bags the size of flour bags. And go through them in a couple of weeks. Well, after 15 minutes of searching for the store and getting mixed answers in spanish as to where it was, we finally found it. However, it was locked. And the cousin of the owner said the owner wouldn't be there til april. At least we thought that's what she said. And there was a dead puppy on the porch. So, all in all, it was a fail. But we didn't die on the bridge.

 Saturday, my cousins, age 10,11,13 ish wanted us to go to the water park with them in the afternoon. After much persuasion, we decided to go. It didn't matter that we didn't have bathing suits (how was i to know that there would be a water park?) or that it was raining! But let's just say that we were surprised to find a modern day water park only 10 mins from our farm. I felt like I was at wild rivers! Water slides, saunas, wave pool, playground- they had it all!

 My cousin and I on the slide at the playground

 A view of the park. Maybe we should take a slide from here and replace the bridge at my house....

 Or we could use this bridge!

 The five of us in a photo shoot.

 Then we stopped by a fiesta on the way home at the house of some friend or relative, I'm not really sure. Here they have this week long celebration called Carnival.  It doesn't actually start for another week, but i guess its always okay to have a party! They smeared baby powder on our faces and we had some custom food and drinks. There was some great live music and we had a blast!

 Sunday morning we got up to milk the cows. Mami's boss at milking cows.

 And us? Well, not quite as good.

 Slow and steady wins the race right? hahaha

 And here's about half the milk we got.

 Take a little sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate (that we had made in quito)

 boil it with some water

 Put it in a blender with the milk. Yes, the blender. :)

 And this is what you get...

 An INCREDIBLE cup of hot chocolate- by far the best i've ever, ever tasted. Starbucks is about to go out of business. Well, if i can milk the cow a little faster...

Well, that's about it for the weekend! It was an adventure at every turn. I'm really considering moving to a farm when I grow up. Its so tranquila, as they say here. Time is relative (more than it already was), and life is great! Maybe if i spent less time napping in the hammock and more time working i'd change my mind, but for now a finca is on my list of things to buy. :)