The coast of Ecuador March 14 - 23 2011

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You must have a very good reason not to go to the Galapagos Islands, when you are a biologist. Specially when you are already in Ecuador and even in Guayaquil, thé place to leave for these worldfamous islands.
One of the reasons could be that the Galapagos Islands have become too turistic. There are lots of people who do not have any reason to be there. Like the reporter of the Volkskrant (a Dutch paper) last year, who just slept on the beach and reported on that.
Another reason might be that nature of the islands have become under pressure by all these turists. As a good biologist you might set a trend by not going there.
And last of all: Darwin hated to be there. When he walked over the black lavarocks in between the Sea Iguano´s he felt like being in an inferno. Only later, when he had already passed Capetown, he got the idea he had seen something special. Puzzled he looked at the birds he had collected at the damned islands. His collection was in a big mess. So meticulous captain Fitz Roy had to help him. It were the Mocking birds who put him on the trail of evolution (you can still see them at the Natural History Museum in London). And not the Darwinfinches, the PR finches of the Galapagos.

So we do not go to the Galapagos Islands. We will try to find alternatives on the mainland. So that biologists who in future only visit the Galapagos Islands must come with very good reasons why they did not visit the mainland. A limitated budget could play a mayor role in their decision.


Guayaquil
After more than 18 hours we climb out of the bus, who brought us from Trujillo in Peru to Guayaquil. Suddenly we feel that we are in the tropics again. It is warm and everywhere we see green. Guayaquil is a nice tropical surprise. The Malecón, the boulevard along the immense Guayas river, demonstrates the selfconfidence of Ecuador. Ultramodern buildings, beautiful trees and trendy restaurants make the boulevard. There is even a tropical garden where you can spot hummingbirds. South of the Malecón we walk between the little houses of Las Peñas. It is like Montmartre, including the hill. Along the river we see big Iguanos. They are not the same as the ones on the Galapagos. These ones cannot swim.

We stay at the excellent Hostel Suite Madrid. It is located in between some disco´s, where you can hear real Salsa. Guayaquils love noise. There are regular traffic jams at the Avenida de 9 Octobre. What else to do than claxoning? It seems that everyone is the lucky owner of an alarm on his car. We have the idea it begins to work as soon the car stands still. Tv´s are tuned as loud as possible. Some restaurants have even two tv´s, with different programs and both as loud as possible of course.
The busstation is most impressing. Three stocks high and everywhere there are shops and restaurants. All what you need is there and everything is pretty well organized. With one of the busses we go to Puerto Lopez, about 4 1/2 hours from Guayaquil. The bus is not as good as in Argentina, Chili or Peru. But it does not matter, because distances are short here. Every now and then someone hops on to sell drinks or foods. One of the sellers has a big speech. He sells some butter, a kind of elixir, good for all your deseases. The public is listening seriously. It is clear: here speaks an authority. Some passengers fall even asleep. Finally half of the bus buy some butter. It costs 1 dollar.

Puerto Lopez
Puerto Lopez is part of the ´Ruta del Sol´. A bit exaggerated to call it like that, because it is often overcasted. Maybe that is the reason why they call it also the Ruta del Spondylus. But even that is too much, because this big oyster, which was used in the past by Inca´s during ceremonials and which has always been on the menu of the local restaurants, has become almost extinct. Still Puero Lopez is a nice village near the beach, which is halfway to become a turistic hotspot. We stay at Hotel Piedra del Mar, a fine new hotel, with friendly and helpful owners.
Along the coast are nice fish restaurants. In a Colombian restaurant we eat Zazuela, a kind of fish soup. It is the best soup we have ever eaten. Bamboohuts are on the beach where you can drink exotic coctails, while hanging in a hammock. On the background we hear some salsa like music. But it is less mechanic. Is it Pasillo or Marimba? We see Pelicans and Frigatebirds hanging around the fisherboats. The boats bring lobsters and we see even two hammersharks. With one of the boats we go to Isla de Plata, an island about 25 kilometer out of the coast.

Isla de Plata
With a speed of 20 km an hour the boat brings us from Puerto Lopez to Plata de Isla. Our guide is talking to a young couple. He has a loud voice and he makes big gestures to underline what he is talking about. ´That big was that fish and out of his stomach came a huge...´I do not understand a word of it, but the couple is listening breathless or maybe polite. The story goes on and on. Suddenly I see a herd of dolphins jumping out of the water. Everyone sees it, the Argentinian couple, the German couple (at least I think they are from Germany) and all the others, but not the guide and his two victims. They are still busy with the story. The dolphins come nearer and nearer. A little bit farther some dolphins jump some 4 meters high in the air, like schoolboys do when they jump in a swimmingpool. It is a big show. Maybe they want to impress the females, maybe they just make joy. They turn and twist while they are jumping. Then suddenly it is over. Two dolphins swim near the boat as if to say goodbye. I point at them. The guide follows my finger and then he finally also sees the dolphins. ´Dolphins´, he says with the face of the expert and gone are the dolphins.

Isla de Plata means Silver Island. Here you can see the same animals as on the Galapagos, but not the Darwinfinches and the big turtles. Therefore it is not isolated enough. But you can see the Vermillion Flycatcher, a highlight in the life of birders. It is the ´Galapagos for the poor´ as they call it here. The Galapagos islands are gold and Isla de Plata is silver? No, Plata stands for the silver Francis Drake once hided here. No one ever found it, but the island is still called Isla de Plata. ´In England Drake was awarded with a knighthood, but here we see him as a pirate´, tells Umberto, our guide. We walk over the green Island. ´In summer the warm Panama stream comes southwards and replaces the cold Humboldt stream. That brings rains and that is why it so green here now. For the rest of the year it is dry´, explains Umberto.

In the trees we see Frigatebirds. They feed their youngs, while they are several months already. The frigatebird cannot dive. Most food they get by chasing other birds so that they loose their prey.That is why they are called Frigate birds. They are like pirates on a frigate.

The Bluefooted Boobies steal the show. This bird breeds only on the Galapagos Islands and on Isla de Plata. We have to walk around them, because they do not step aside for you. Not one centimeter. With their blue feet they impress the females. The bluer the feet the better. They even make a dance: ´The Bluefooted Boobie Mating Dance´. They bring their feet high up meanwhile looking at the clouds above, as if they look for the weather, but not at their blue feet and definitely not at the female, who has to be impressed. The blue feet alone should do it.
Boobie comes from Bobo, which means stupid. Boobies do not walk away for you, so you can easily kill them and eat them. Suddenly a song of Elvis Presley crosses my mind. I am sure Elvis had the Blue footed boobies in mind when he sang:

´Do anything that you want to do,
but uh-uh honey
Don´t step on my blue suede shoes. ´

´Three procent of the Boobies die because they are bad navigators´, tells Umberto. We see some dead bodies of Boobies who crashed in a shrub, like a F16 of a drunk pilot. But to call them stupid is too much for me. When you see how these birds catch their fishes, you only can show big respect. From 50 meters high and higher they dive with a speed of almost 100 km an hour in sea. Mostly they have a fish in their beak, when they come out of the water or they swallowed it already under water. Their heads are completely adapted: no nostrils and their eyes are in front so that they can focus on their prey.
The sea is full of life. You do not have even to snorkel to see some beautiful coralfishes. We see even some Seaturtles. In winter Humpback whales come here to mate.

Agua Blanca
´Do you need a doctor?´, asks the young woman. She has a big stethoscope hanging over her belly. We just entered a restaurant in Agua Blanca, a little settlement about 12 kilometer from Puerto Lopez. Santiago, the owner of the hotel in Puerto Lopez brought us there.
´No, we want a Cola´.
Well this is a clinic´, the doctor answers. When we look around we see 30 doctors in grey surgery jackets and all of them have big stethoscopes, like esculapes hanging around their body.
´When does it stops to be a clinic?´, we ask.
´At 5 pm´, says the doctor with a clear American accent. ´We are screening this village.´
We wonder why Ecuadorians need so much help. We think Ecuador is developed enough to take care of its own medical care. We talk about it with Sofie. She is 23 and from the US (Michigan) and she lives here since january with a family in the village. It is the same family in whose yard we have put our tent.
´When someone needs a doctor here, he has to pay 20 to 30 dollar, which is lot of money.´, she points out. ´Moreover people have a completely wrong lifestyle. When they have e.g. diabetes they think they cannot do anything about it, because it is genetical. While there are two different forms of diabetes: one is genetical and the other depends on your lifestyle.´
Sofie is politocologist. She helps the people here with reading contracts. ´The governement wants to kick the people out of the parc´, says Sofie. ´But they have their rights of course.´
While we are talking I am preparing our dinner in the kitchen of the family. Father Nilo, mother Cecilia and their 8 kids are looking at me. The family finds it strange that a man is cooking.
´In Holland almost every man can cook´, I say.
I see Cecilia thinking. Then she says ´I want a Dutch man´. She laughs at me. Her front teeth are gone.


When we awake next morning in our tent the sounds of the birds in the village mix with sounds of cows and goats. We are up to make a hike across the Machalilla National Parc. Our guide is called Stalin. We see everywhere candelabre cactusses around. It is a Tropical Dry Forest here. I realize if there were not the warm Panamastream it would have looked like here like the stonedessert in Peru. But now their is a forest,though a dry forest. Suddenly we stand for a strange tree. Images fom Madagascar are crossing our mind. Is this a Baobab?
´No, it is a Ceibo or Kapoktree´, tells Stalin. Like the Baobab it stores water in its trunk. That it is why it is so swollen. The similarity is so striking, that we think Baobabs and Ceibo´s are family of eachother. Or it is covergent evolution in a similar (dry) environment? But we see also differences. The Ceibo has big buttress roots, to anchor the tree in the ground. And the trunk is green. ´It is for the fotosynthesis´, tells Stalin. In the dry season the tree looses its leaves. With its trunk it still has some fotosynthesis. The tree has soft wood, so termites could easily attack it. But the young tree forms spikes as a protection.´In the past the fibers were used to fill mattresses and carseats. The fibers can resist watersaturation. That is why it was used to fill life preservers. It is a special tree. The Maya´s believed that a big Ceiba stood at the center of the world connecting the terrestrial world with the spiritual world above.
In the Ceiba´s we see hanging nests. ´Those nests are from the cacique. We see how the yellow-black birds protect their nests against predators. We call them often hammockbirds because of their nests. In another tree we see two big owls. ´Buho blanquinegro we call them´, says Stalin.

Then we go higher up. It is a strenuous hike in the tropical heat. The forest is changing. Agaves make place for big Bromelia´s, Ferns and Orchids. The trees are bigger. There are waterpalms. Stalin demonstrates how the people in his village make roofs for their huts of it. ´We are in the Cloudforest now´, he says. It is clearly more humid here. A little bit later he climbs in a an orangetree and picks up some oranges They are delicous. Here we see the beautiful Morpho butterfly. With his big blue wings he moves around is, but we cannot take a picture of it. Too quick. We hear Howler Monkeys nearby. As if a lion stands behind next tree.
After a hike more than 7 hours we come back in the village. We are exhausted. A jump in the volcanic sulphur lake is very welcome. It is a pity sulphur stinks so much.

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Comments

[J aap van Elst]

the first reptile!!
Beste Linda en Andre, Ik geniet elke keer weer van jullie reisverslagen! Wat hebben jullie ondertussen veel gezien, gehoord, meegemaakt. Lijkt me niet te bevatten, al die ervaringen. Mooie foto's elke keer en nu (eindelijk)ook 'ns een reptiel, een schitterende leguaan... Ga door zo, met al dat mooos tonen Jaap