Saturday, October 29, 2011

happiness and a tremor!

My host brother (Mario) is currently in the US for work and play.  He drove through Chicago yesterday and met up with my parents!  And Sally was there too!  Of course, in true Tassie-fashion, about a million photos were taken of the event.  Here's one:


It make me so happy that my two lovely families are meeting.  And we will all meet again in December!


October 29, 2011 09:00: EARTHQUAKE!!

Actually, it was just a small tremor.  But it was enough to shake me up and scare me.  I was trying to fix the internet, and all of a sudden, it felt like the world just lifted me up and then dropped me.  I was like...What the...???!!!! A book fell off of my desk, and I stood under a door frame...is that what you're supposed to do?

After it was over (it only lasted a few seconds), I went to go see if María Elena was ok.  The phone began to ring off the hook: "Did you feel it?"  " Yes, how scary!  Are you ok?" "Yes we are fine, I'm going to call ____ now!"    I tried to call Alison, but the lines were all tied up and I couldn't get through for a few minutes...

But now the internet works!



I'm off to the rainforest  (near Yasuní Biosphere Reserve) for a month on Monday.  I'm going to try and post every week, but I don't expect to be able to upload any photos until I get back.  See ya later!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

mindo and musings

Phew, I´ve got to catch up!  It´s been a busy week of writing and preparing for the presentation I gave today.  So now I can finally talk about Mindo!
I went to Mindo last weekend (about a 2.5 hour bus ride from Quito) with all the kids on my program.  Yes, that´s 13 of us--which is a large group to coordinate...

We had a lot of fun!

Eushavia and me in the tram headed to hike to some waterfalls
The group mentality is what drives me crazy about traveling with so many people.  For example, when we got to the other side of the tram, instead of consulting the map on where to go, we all just followed someone blindly down the only path with a sign.  Well, the walk turned out to be about an hour (which was fine with me, but some were complaining) and it only led to one waterfall.  Granted it was a beautiful waterfall (see below), but we could have gone down a different path (unmarked, but on the map), walked for the same amount of time, and seen 5 different waterfalls.  Frustration.
waterfall!

Of course, we went ziplining!  I can now say that I´m not really a fan, but maybe that´s because I had two near-death experiences.
That´s an exagerration...  Let´s just say I got really shaken up out there.  The first incident, my glove  got caught between the pulley and the line, and I lost my glove (not my hand, thank goodness).  So my glove plummeted to the ground below, and the guide had to come rescue me.  The second incident occurred because, on some of the routes, the guides would bounce the line just to hear us scream like crazy people.  On one particular line, they bounced me so hard that the track of my pulley was bounced off track of the line.  So there was a moment (which seemed a lot longer at the time) in which I though I was going to die.  I had to be rescued again by the guide, who had to get me a replacement pulley.  I was probably their worst customer.  Ever.
see you on the other end!
haha, ziplining with Natasia...hello double chins
 
getting stopped is the worst part 

On the last line, I caught a bug in my mouth!  I think it´s good luck for something...
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After all of that excitement and scariness, I went to El Quetzal, the chocolate factory in town and took a tour!  It smelled and tasted amazing!  I´m too embarassed to disclose how much chocolate I purchased at this location, but it´s not all for me!

beans drying after fermenting
pods drying out
ginger! they put it in the chocolate
ají for the chocolate
what comes out when cacao nibs are ground
pressing cocoa butter (the yellow stuff) out of the cacao
what´s left when the cacao butter gets pressed out...YUM
Ali, tucking herself in for bed...she still got a spider bite...
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Some news from Quito:
Mario, my host brother, is in the US for work, and tomorrow he is supposedly going to meet up with my parents in Chicago!  My families are merging!  And, they´ll merge again in December when my family comes to Ecuador to visit!
My host sister, Carmen, is pregnant!  I just wish that I could be here to meet the little one!  Oh well, another reason to come back!

Things are getting a bit monotonous here--I like having a routine, but I need a little bit of variety too!  I find myself writing almost the same paper, over and over, and I´m getting pretty tired of it.  The class leaves for a month-long trip to the Amazon on Monday, and I am sooo excited! It´s going to be a sweaty, wet month, but I´m really looking forward to the change of scenery and the freedom to roam around in the forest.  I´m hoping that I´ll get a few chances to post here and there.

Look what countries are reading my blog!
But I wonder who I know in Russia...
Thanks so much for reading!!

Monday, October 17, 2011

galápagos

Hola!  I'm back in Quito from a week in the Galápagos Island, an archipelago 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador.  Here it is by the numbers:

9 islands
1 boat
2 equator crossings
1500+ photos
2 lava-related injuries
3 different tour guides

El Eden, home for the week
Day 1--Isla Lobos
It is sea lion mating season in Galápagos right now, so whenever we landed on an island with sea lions, it was important to be aware of the alpha male's position on the beach or in the water.  The alpha male patrols the beach and protects his harem from other "bachelor" males.  Sea lions are very smelly and make terrible sounds as if they are throwing up.  Throughout the entire week, we saw lots of newborn young sea lions.  How cute!
the tough life of a sea lion
male yellow warbler looking for insects on a baby sea lion carcass

Here, we also saw a few nesting blue footed boobies.  A booby nest consists of a guano (poop) ring, and if the baby steps outside the ring before they are supposed to, their parents will abandon it.
juvenile blue-footed booby in a pretty awkward stage
Day 2--Santa Fe
Here, we got to see the rarest terrestrial vertebrate: Conolophus pallidus, the Santa Fe land iguana.  This iguana is only found on this island in the Galápagos; there is another species found on the other islands.  But I'm not sharing their photos because they aren't that exciting... how about some cute sea lion photos instead?
preciosa!!  a baby sea lion waits for its mama to feed it
the back-bend, my favorite sea lion pose
Crucial tourist snapshot with snoozing sea lions

This was our first snorkeling stop.  It was slightly nerve-wracking to swim with sea lions and sharks...
*gurgle gurgle*

i got to swim with my most favorite animal: the green sea turtle
I'll die happy now


Day 2--South Plazas
This is a small island off the northeast corner of Santa Cruz.  It was my favorite island because the male land iguanas (Conolophus subsritatus) were bright yellow and contrasted wonderfully with the bright red cesuvium that covered the island.  Because there are land iguanas present on this island, the cacti are taller and have spiny trunks to avoid excessive herbivory.  We also saw some swallow-tail gulls.
red cesuvium, Opuntia cactus "trees," and blue sky
look!  dinos? no, land iguanas!
it was pretty darn windy on the cliff, and red-billed tropic birds were whizzing by

Day 3--Santa Cruz, Puerto Ayora, Galápagos National Park
At the the Galápagos National Park Darwin Station, we met two famous tortoises: Super Diego and Lonesome George.  Both are saddleback tortoises, but there are also tortoises with dome shells.  The saddlebacks are found on drier islands (because, like giraffes, they have to reach for their food), and the dome shells are found in wetter environments.

Super Diego, originally from Española, was returned to Galápagos from the San Diego Zoo in 1977 to help revive his species.  He did work and is now the father of around 1500 tortoises, and the tortoise population on Española has been revitalized.
super Diego!
Lonesome George, on the other hand, has not been so successful at reproductive attempts.  He is the last remaining individual of his species, and scientists have been trying to get him to mate for at least two decades.  They have tried many females, both tortoise and human, to try and coax just the smallest bit of interest from George, but to no avail.  Whenever his mates do happen to lay eggs, they don't hatch.
lonesome George

one of Darwin's many finches...maybe a small ground finch?
Santa Cruz is also home to an extensive network of lava tubes.  A long long long time ago, lava was flowing through these tubes, but the outer shell remains and has created tubes.  We got to walk in one!
lava tube

Day 4--Isabela, Sierra Negra
Sierra Negra is a shield volcano with a huge crater on Isabela Island.  There floor of the crater is covered with lava flows of various ages.  The Galápagos is a series of volcanic islands that were formed by a hot spot.  Because the oceanic plate is moving over the hot spot, he oldest islands are in the east, and the youngest are in the west.



Day 5--Isabela, Punta Moreno
The site of the lava injuries!  First, Ali fell through the lava and destroyed her legs.  A few minutes later, I was the next to go down: the lava tripped me and I fell forward, cutting my hand and bruising my leg on the way down.
Ouch!  Lava injuries...
Pahoehoe lava
flightless cormorant drying its wings

Day 5--Isabela, Elizabeth Bay
In the afternoon, we took a panga ride around Elizabeth Bay.  Tourists cannot land here because, well, there is no land...  The area is made up pretty much entirely of red mangroves.  These trees don't need land because they grow on stilt roots.  There were loads of turtles hanging out here.



penguin!
In the evening, Kelly (professor) was giving a lecture on Darwin and the captain came to inform us that there was a whale nearby.  So class was, of course, put on hold to go watch the whale.  It was most likely a Bryde's whale, and it only came up for some air every once in a while.


Day 6--Isabela, Tagus Cove
Sorry folks, no photos from Tagus Cove--they mysteriously disappeared from my memory card and I have been unable to find them anywhere.  So unfortunate because I had a lot of good penguin shots...

Day 6--Fernandina, Punta Espinoza
There were so many marine iguanas warming up in the afternoon sun.  They "sneeze" to excrete excess salt from their bodies.  So we were walking around on the beach, surrounded by sneezing iguanas.  Weird.
marine iguanas soaking up the sun after a low tide lunch
marine iguana swimming
more snorkeling
amazing and beautiful: the green sea turtle

Day 7--Santiago, Puerto Egas
Darwin reported finding many land iguanas here when he visited, but today there are none.  This is possibly a result of competition and nest predation by introduced goats or rats.  The island had a huge goat problem in the past; the goats were killing native and endemic flora and fauna.  They have now been eradicated--park officials used helicopters to spot and kill them...killing one population to save many species.

basaltic lava creates these lovely formations and the black sand beach here
baby sea lion playing with a marine iguana
blue footed booby diving
fur seal!


Day 7--Rábida

red sand beach means felsic lava--the iron has oxidized to create the rusty red color
natasia, my roomie for the week
panga ride back to the boat after snorkeling from the beach
Day 8--North Seymour Island
Last day, how sad!  But the light was perfect for pictures!  It was overcast, so the red pouches and blue feet aren't washed out in the photos.  Frigate bird mating season is almost over, but we were lucky enough to see the classic red pouches on some of the males.

male frigate bird showing off