Week 2 in Galápagos

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We just finished our second week of work at the reserve...the time is flying by! This week included a lot of machete work, clearing some land for the organic garden. Other than that, we did some seed planting, watering, and a trip to the Interpretation Center where we read all about the history of the Galápagos.

During the week we had the chance to go on a authentic Galapaganian pig hunt! We ventured into the dense island woods at night with a flashlight or two, a sling shot, a bucket of rocks, a few guys speaking spanish, a quite german girl, a friendly little black dog (the supposed pig hunter) and a machete. Three hours later, after an extended battle with pricker bushes, we walked out of the woods with a live chicken and an orange.

Pigs, chickens and rats are all invasive species on the islands and wreak havoc on native forests and birds (nests). The idea is to hunt them for food and simultaneously (inherently) remove them from the woods.

We went into the woods and set the first pig trap. it is just a slip knot tied to a sapling that is bent over and stuck in the mud. the pig is supposed to blunder through a loop, trip over the line and cause the sappling to snare a little peice of line around its waist. the guys are always surprised when the pig (up to 350 lbs) breaks the string, or bites through it. technology is limited and patience is high on the islands. after collecting a bucket of little rocks and walking through the woods for a while, Cesar (our volunteer coordinator) pulled out a sling shot, told us to stop and pointed to a big rat in a tree. we then figured out why we were carrying a bucket of rocks. cesar missed the rat. we used the same technique to catch the chicken. cesar missed three or four before finally hitting an exceptionally stupid chicken snoozing in a guava tree. the hit was indirect, but the chicken fell out of the tree anyway and I (zack) carried it around in the pricker bushes the remainder of the hunt. we ate him for lunch the next day.

all in a weeks work in the galapagos.

now it´s time to go to the beach!

p.s. we posted some pictures from the last two weeks

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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Photos

Waterfall
A beautiful waterfall/Zack´s shower that is only a 6 minute walk from the volunteer house!

Machete
Zack hard at work with his machete.

Wild Horses
Last Friday´s hike to the melaconia (sp?) forest. We saw wild (obviously not native to the island) horses!

Los Lobos (Sea Lions)
Either Zack is getting along really well with the locals or he partied too hard last night.