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Published: November 6th 2006
Our House
This is the house we stayed in at Jatun SachaSo now we are out of the Galapagos and in Quito, tomorrow we leave here for Figi!
I suppose I left off in the middle of our volunteering. The rest of our time at Jatun Sacha was better, we concentrated on more useful tasks, a lot of killing of the Mora (a seriously thorny blackberry plant, that is taking over the highlands of San Cristobal) and planting the native and endemic species, along with weeding around the station and working in the nursery. In the end I feel great about the work we did, I believed in it. My least favorite thing aside from the day at the neighbors bar, was carrying heavy bags of soil up hill to the nursery, I don´t know how many trips we made but it seemed like forever. There were a few afternoons that we played soccer too, the staff guys were impressed with my skills, I even scored 3 goals in one game, haha. I also left them with a couple ¨personal projects¨to remember me by, a painted box for questions and suggestions, and a motto painted on wood (hopefully hung above the kitchen). We also made a lot of friends at the
Hoeing
despite what I said about hauling dirt, hoeing is the worst job on the station...me and Dan hating life... station that we´ll surely be visiting on our trip. All in all, it was an incredible experience, and now that my mosquito bites are finally gone, I only have the fond memories left.
A few weeks ago it was my birthday (sorry for not posting a blog, obviously we were having fun instead of sitting in an internet cafe) My birthday was a saturday, so we weren´t at the station. 10 of us volunteers went on a snorkel trip to a place on San Cristobal called Punta Pitt. Its a place where you can see all 3 types of Boobies (sea birds) Blue footed boobie, red footed boobie, and the Nasca (masked) boobie, we saw all three and went snorkeling. The water was incredibly warm and the visibility was great. We did have to end the trip early because one of the volunteers, (who had just arrived that week and we didn´t know very well) became seasick, then I think she had a panic attack or something when we made it to land, then after I gave her motion sickness pills, her neck became cricked in an unnatural way and she complained of pain, she spent the rest of
Birthday trip
The crew (minus one) that went on my birthday trip to punta pitt the day in the ¨closet¨ on the boat, it was strange, and as we were headed to our last stop she told the crew to take her to town so that she could go to the doctor, without saying a word to us. (she took the next flight back to Quito...) It wasn´t really a big deal though cause we were basically ready to go back anyways and get ready for my birthday dinner. We all went out to a nice restaurant looking over the water and I had a great coconut lobster dish. After dinner we went back to the hostel, and Aaron surprised me with cake, 9 pieces bought from the bakery with # candles, 25, cause they didn´t have a 4, haha. It was great. We went out to the bar and then to a dance club, it was super fun, great birthday. (I ended the night by smashing my toe at the club and it bled a bunch, but I didn´t even have a hangover the next day, birthday miracle!)
The next weekend we left the station for our cruise, it started on the island of Santa Cruise, a scary 2.5 hr boat ride away.
kicker rock
cool photo from the birthday trip of kicker rock, the spot where we snorkled the week before We made it alright and after a lot of trouble with the booking and paying for the cruise and changing our flight, we successfully made it to the ship. The Sea Cloud was a great motor sail boat. It had room for 10 passengers, but there were only 7 of us. A father and son from Colombia, one girl from London, one girl from Melbourne, and one from New Zealand. Here is a copy of our itinerary:
Day 1 AM Baltra I. Arrival
PM North Seymour I
Day 2 AM Darwin Bay - Genovesa I.
PM Prince Philip´s Steps - Genovesa I.
Day 3 AM Bartholomew I.
PM Sullivan Bay - Santiago I.
Day 4 AM Pto. Egas - Santiago I.
PM Rábida I.
Day 5 AM Highlands - Santa Cruz I.
PM Charles Darwin Research Station - Santa Cruz I.
Day 6 AM Gardner Bay - Española I.
PM Punta Suárez - Española I.
Day 7 AM Santa Fe I.
PM South Plaza I.
Day 8 AM Black Turtle Cove - Santa Cruz I.
AM Departure from Baltra
The first thing we did was go snorkeling when we arrived
working hard, or hardly working
this day of work we collected seeds for the manzinilla tree, and went down to the beach for a swim, multi-tasking as usual (jackie, me, pooja looking hot) to North Seymour Island, it was great visibility and we saw a few sea turtles too. On the island we saw mostly a large frigate bird colony, they are the big black birds that look like pterodactyls when they fly and the males have these big red pouches that they inflate to win a mate. This was the first outing for our group and we realized that the idea is to walk really slow along the short trail so that it takes at least over an hour to walk about a half mile. This was difficult to get used to, but we figured out how to be zen about it eventually...sort of. That night we sailed all the way to Genovesa Island, which is one of the farther out islands, and we definitely had rough seas, catching air in bed is not the easiest way to sleep.
Genovesa was a really cool island, the first hike we did took us to a red footed booby colony. After the hike we went snorkeling, and saw more sea turtles, and I saw an eel, light brown with bright neon spots. We saw a hammerhead shark from the dingy too. That afternoon
send food...
Aaron before dinner... Aaron saw a hammerhead while we were snorkeling, and I saw a large reef shark, scary! We also saw a lot of the fish that were in Finding Nemo including the school of fish that spell things out. The afternoon walk took us to the Nazca boobie colony, we saw lots of babies and adults making nests from small rocks and sticks. That night we had another rough night but made it to Bartolome Island.
Bartolome Island looks like what I would imagine Mars to look like if it had very small plants and lizards eating big grasshoppers. We did the hike up to the top (not far) and got a good view of the martian landscape. We then went to the beach and relaxed for a while and I went snorkeling while Aaron read. I didn´t see much in the water, but I did get to see 2 penguins on land, I kept telling them the water was nice and to jump in, but they didn´t, just hung out on the lava.
Than we sailed around to Sullivan bay on Santiago Island and surprisingly snorkeled again. That time we actually swam with the penguins! It was the
red footed booby
up close and personal, red footed booby moment I was most looking forward to, I love penguins and it was the first time I saw them in the wild, let alone watched two of them diving through the small schools of fish. It was seriously awesome. Then we hiked on the lava fields. It was great to have something new to be interested in other than boobies. I have never walked on a lava bed like that, and it made me think about my parents, and how much they must have liked it there. The lava looked all ropey and like spaghetti and intestinal. That night we sailed around santiago to Eggas port, it was an easy night.
We got up early for a walk on santiago and saw hundreds of marine iguanas and sally lightfoot crabs, I even saw an iguana eating a crab, I thought they were vegetarians?! After breakfast there was another snorkeling activity, but Aaron and I skipped it due to the cold weather and rain, but the other girls saw 4 sea turtles feeding and even got to touch one! Damn!
Then we were off to Rabida Island, where we landed on the red sand beach and had a kinda
lava field Sullivan bay
Huge lava field, santiago island boring walk. The snorkeling was cool though cause we saw a reef shark really up close, Aaron got a good photo of it. We then set sail for Santa Cruise island, the trip took like 4 hours longer than expected, apparently due to the moon being almost full, and everyone was seasick, Aaron even felt bad, luckily I was fine.
Santa Cruise was good, we went for a hike in the highlands where we got to see an actual Scalsia forest. It meant a lot to us because we were planting a lot of Scalsia on Jatun Sacha, and it was great to see what the forest was supposed to look like and might look like some day. We also stopped at our guide´s family farm which had wild giant tortoises, it was so neat to hang out with them in their naturalish setting (not like a zoo). That afternoon we went to the Darwin Center and saw the captive breeding program they have for the turtles and land iguanas. We had a beer in town and went out to a bar at night with a couple of the girls, it was a nice change to evenings on the
Check out the marine iguanas
piles of them, we could barely walk without getting spitted on, Eggas port, santiago island boat... Later that night we set sail for espanola island, where we arrived 2 hours late after not sleeping a wink due to the rough seas (presumably due to the moon as well)
On Espanola we landed on a beautiful beach where the main attraction was sea lion watching, for an hour...we took a nap sea lion style. We then went kayaking and snorkeling and didn´t see much other than a few rays and large schools of small fish. After lunch we actually sailed with all our sails up and no motor to the other side of the island, it was totally peaceful and calming. There was a huge pirate ship too that followed us with all the huge sails and even a pirate flag (it was only another tour boat actually) On that side of the island we went for a walk and saw a great blue footed boobie colony, a nazca boobie colony, and the finale of a waved albatross colony. The albatross do this crazy behavior and kinda thumb war with their beaks and then open them real wide, it looks hilarious, along with the way they walk, heads bobing to either side, they really are
Turtle turtle
woah, check it out dude! Sweet a sea turtle (think finding nemo)also on santiago huge birds. That night we sailed to Santa Fe Island, it wasn´t too bad, we actually slept.
On Santa Fe we went snorkeling for the last time and it was the worst, coldest, snorkeling we did the whole time. But the hike on the island was interesting because we got to see land iguanas, which aren´t on any of the other islands. We then went to south plaza island. South plaza island also has its own species of land iguana, I really liked them, all yellow and dinosaur looking. That night we sailed around Santa Cruise island to black turtle cove.
We did a sunrise dingy trip in black turtle cove which was awesome. The blue footed boobies were flying in formation like a school of fish and dive bombing the water for fish, it was spectacular. Then we went over to another area and must have seen 10 rays, and 20 sharks (possibly the same ones over and over, but heck) we saw sharks swimming together 5 at a time, it was sweet. We even saw a ¨marbled¨ray that was like 7 feet across. Great ending to the trip.
Now we are in Quito and we´ve
mmmm grass
this giant tortoise and I shared a moment of gazing into eachother´s eyes... done some sight seeing, but I got some bad news that an old friend of mine, Allen, was killed in a motorcycle accident last week, so I havn´t been in much of a mood for going out. I´m alright, but its weird to be away from home at a time like this. Keep his friend and family in your thoughts and prayers for me.
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Jesyka
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<3
"It was great to have something new to be interested in other than boobies." Best quote so far. Allen is in my prayers. I love you.