farewell Galapagos

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Time has definitely flown by in the Galapagos. This past weekend was full of despedida (good-bye) dinners and lunches. It is hard to believe that I leave here in 2 days to begin the next the leg of my South American adventure - I will be heading to Argentina to spend Christmas in Miramar, a little beach town where my friend Melissa has family. Since my last blog entry, which yes, I know has been way too long ago, I have had the opportunity to be more immersed in the culture and community here in the Galapagos. I also was lucky enough to have two friends come visit, which was a blast. Their visits also made me really appreciate my time here and rejuvenated me about the things that had become common to me - sea lions and iguanas everywhere! Just in case you were wondering what I have been doing on this tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the past month and a half, below are some of the highlights…

Also, I am awful at remembering to take pictures, but I finally downloaded some. Here is the link and the link to Emily Laws pictures because she is better at photo documenting than me! (Jenna, there are some blue footed boobie pics for you!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/mary.champion/GlimpseAtGalapagos#

http://picasaweb.google.com/elaw1313/GapalagosPicsPt2#


My work

Last Wednesday was my last day of work at CADI (Centro de Atencion y Desarrollo Integral para victimas de violencia intrafamiliar y violencia sexual), which included a beautiful despedida that almost made me cry. I will really miss my coworkers and the people that I was able to work with in my small amount of time here. At the Center I was able to teach a few self-defense courses to the women. With the psychologist at the center, we developed two support groups/charlas. We also did a violence prevention workshop with a group of high school students. (Nancy, I was able to introduce safety Jeopardy to the islands!). I also assisted the lawyer and social worker at the center with certain cases. We also organized a week of events and workshops for non-violence week, which ended with a well attended march to end violence against women. They had a rally after the march, with indigenous dance performances and lots of artwork. The march here was different than any marches I have been to in the States - everyone is silent as they march. The only noise is the people playing the drums with a simple rhythm. At first I was taken back by this and a little confused - I was ready for some chants, but then I realized that theirs silence truly made the issue surface in a way that almost made it seem tangible. Working at a center for women and children who suffer intimate partner violence and sexual violence within another culture has made me reflect on how truly global these issues are. No matter what country and culture we find ourselves, women unfortunately face the exact same issues and violence. Many women at the center believed that their situations would not be found in more developed nations like the US, but the reality is that I have heard their stories before - the only difference was the language spoken. So basically we need a global revolution in order to improve and demand the rights of women…who else is down?!?! 


Floreana

I always thought that if I could be any animal I would be a bird. However, my visit to Floreana may have changed that thought to a sea lion. In Floreana, we were able to swim with curious sea lions. They act like dancing dogs of the water - chasing each other gracefully, grabbing on to each others tails and coming so close to us and at the last second diving deep under the people snorkeling. If only I could dance as well as a sea lion….

Floreana, the pirate island, is the least inhabited island with only 130 people, most of who are pescadores that are rarely there. It also has fresh water on the island, which we visited and it is a mere trickle of water from the highlands. The people there have 45 minutes per household of running water to use in one day. Once those 45 minutes is gone, it is only bottle water! We also got to visit an area in the highlands that was covered with turtles and the remains of an eccentric German family that decided to live in the highlands, surviving solely on the land. You can see their make shift kitchen and holes carved in the rocks where they stored their few possessions. No one knows what happened to them. We also snorkeled in an area called Devils Crown, which had really intense currents and lots of sharks. It was definitely not as relaxing as swimming earlier in the day with the playful sea lions, but still amazing!

Bartolome

The most picturesque island is thought to be Bartolome. It is an uninhabited island that has beautiful rock formations made from the volcanic eruptions. The colors of the rock vary from deep red, orange, silver and purple, depending if the eruptions were under the water and how much oxygen mixed with the lava. After hiking to the top of the volcano, the look out is breathtaking. Beneath you are large pinnacles surrounded by white sand beaches caressed with the sparkling aqua marine water.

After the hike, if you are lucky you can snorkel with one of the most exciting creatures thus far - PENGUINS!!! The first time I went to Bartolome I was just that lucky! However, since the penguins swim so fast, they basically just zip right by you so you have to keep your eyes wide open! The second time I went to Bartolome, I didn’t swim with penguins - one was just basking in the sun on the rocks, but I did have a different type of luck. Apart from myself, there are three other volunteers here who give English lessons to the employees of a fancy hotel here on Friday mornings. In return, we normally just enjoy their beautiful facilities, eat a lunch, which also includes a salad (miss fresh vegetables here sooo much) and two drinks. However, we made friends with the boat crew, who said that when they have extra space, they will let us come aboard for free! Woohoo!

Santa Fe - Deep Sea Fishing Competition

Speaking of free things…One of our friends, Ingrid, got a new job working for a travel agency that just opened. They did a promotion and needed to fill three boats quickly for a snorkeling and deep sea fishing tour to Santa Fe. When we agreed, we didn’t realize that on our boat would be a national news camera crew nor did we realize that it was a fishing competition. The day began with a gun salute at the dock and then a few hours of fishing. We caught a 25lb Wahoo and an 8lb albacore. It was really exciting when a fish got hooked, but it was definitely way more brutal than expected -blood everywhere. When we caught the Wahoo, the captain said we could all hold it and take a picture with it (of course, it was also filmed…ugh). It was my turn and all of a sudden the damn fish started to wiggle violently, which completely freaked me out! I thought it was dead, but no it was just stunned from the club bashing to the head - so sad! After the somewhat intense fishing experience, we went snorkeling off the shore of Santa Fe. It was the clearest water I have ever seen here. The most impressive thing there was the “collision” of two huge schools of sturgeon fish that had a giant parrot fish, which looks like a rainbow right in the middle. It was beautiful to see. After snorkeling, we climbed back into the boat to find cameras in our faces and then we had to do a very awkward interview in Spanish. We hoped that no one would see it, but that was just wishful thinking. The next day, everywhere we went in town people commented about how they had seen us on TV…so embarrassing. I am still not sure, which was more embarrassing this interview experience, or the interview I had for the self defense classes where I had to teach a striking motion. I hope that television interviews cease to exist for the rest of my time in South America…

Cooking Up a Storm Equastyle

Norma, the woman I live with is a great cook and takes a lot of pride in her skills. She was very excited when I told her that I wanted to learn a few dishes before I left. I have learned to make empanadas and pan de yuca (the most delicious bread ever!), but the most memorable cooking experience was when we made sausage. Early on a Sunday morning, all the volunteers in the house, plus my friend Lauren who was visiting at the time, woke up to find an assembly line set up in the kitchen. She told us that we were going to make blood sausage and two “vegetarian” sausages. The process begins with having to blow into the intestines to ensure that there are no holes and if you find a hole, it is then sewed up. Then it is hours of stuffing and massaging the intestines to get all the air out. To top off the sausage making experience, with are hands covered in blood and guts, two Mormons stopped by to talk to us about religion as we finished stuffing the last intestines. It was quite the scene. However, the worst part of the experience was lunch time, when it was time to taste our work. She made a caldo de salchicha (sausage soup) that also included tons of chunks of congealed blood. Apparently, it is suppose to be a great hang over cure. I think I won’t be bringing that recipe back home, but I do have a new appreciation/doubt about sausage!

Lava Tubes and Giant Dinosaurs, oh I mean tortoises

Santa Cruz has a very diverse environment, especially when you think about how small of an island it is. Beautiful beaches, deserts, lava tubes and high lands that have rain almost everyday. We took a trip to the high lands where we visited huge lava tubes, giant wild tortoises and los gemelos, which are two large craters created by past eruptions. Entering the lava tubes felt like a scene from the movie Goonies. The colors and lines in the tubes were incredible. To pass through the whole tube, there was a section that you had to crawl on your hands and knees, which was practically sliding along my stomach for me since I am American size and not as petites as the Ecuadorians. The visit of the wild tortoises was incredible. I could, and have, just watch them for hours. Awesome creatures!

Camping at Garrapatero

Making friends with locals not only makes you feel like you are part of the community and helps you with the language and culture, they also have the inside knowledge to show you things off the beaten tourist path. Our friends organized a camping trip to a beach called Garrapatero. To go to this beach, you need a permit and a driver to do drop offs and pick ups since it is about 30 minutes outside of town. It has a beautiful white sand beach with dunes, a lagoon where there are flamingos and nice camp sites with BBQs that are unfortunately placed between toxic trees?!?! We cooked fish and corn over the BBQ, hung out at the beach, saw a huge amount of shooting stars, drank the traditional drink, caña, and played lots of games from our culture and theirs.


Ohh Galapagos…I will miss you!

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