Field Trip Day (Galapagos Style!)

As promised - a brief overview of my sweet field trip that I took!

The field trip was for my political ecology class. We were going to take a look at the agriculture and farming on the island.

Our first stop was in town where we had the chance to sample some delicious Galapagos coffee and watch a movie about how the coffee is made. We'd be going to that same planation in the later in the day which was exciting. 

After we got a little boost of caffeine we headed up to the highlands. Stop one was the Hacienda - the same one that we made delicious pizza at a couple weeks ago. It was my third time there but this time we got to learn about their sustainable practices. We saw how they had a whole mini farm area where they teach farmers how to get good produce without pesticides and use land in an efficient manner. This way, instead of just telling farmers that something works they can demonstrate how it works

A flower growing on the grounds

                  One of the horses under a tree

I have no idea what this structure actually is but it was fun to swing on! The view behind me is another part of San Cristobal with Leon Dormido (the place I went snorkeling) in the top right corner.

After our Hacienda tour, which also included munching on some fresh blackberries, we headed out to that aforementioned coffee plantation. The drive up there was really pretty. However, we did see some abandoned farms which was depressing. In the Amazon when someone abandons a farm the natural plants overtake it. Unfortunately, in the Galapagos, invasive plants (like blackberry) take over. This means the land is now unusable since it's usually too expensive for people to clean and reclaim. 

At the coffee plantation we took a twenty minute walk through the plantation on our way to see where they actually processed things. 

 At the place where they process the fruit they gave us a 'cherry' to try. I ate the whole thing - I can't say I really liked it all that much. I'm not the world's biggest coffee drinker but I have to say I think I prefer the drink over the fruit.

We also learned a lot about their regulations, how the coffee can be labeled as organic, what their growing season is like, etc. It was pretty neat.

From here we continued further up to go to "El Junco" - a lake that we had head was very beautiful. We noticed a decline in temperature and a light mist as we got farther up but it will still comfortable weather.

When we arrived we saw the hillside was covered with miconia. Miconia is a native plant and volunteers have been removing blackberry and planting miconia instead. El junco is a minor tourist destination and so for that reason this is one of the only parts of the island that the government has been trying to make a concerted effort to reclaim the land. Otherwise, it's just not a priority....

This is me taking a rest break at the top. The lake is fresh water so a lot of birds come here to wash their wings. Its actually a little creepy when they call come swooping overhead but neat to see. 

This is looking down to the ocean from El Junco. The mist was rolling in and everything was getting covered with fog. It felt a little like Lord of the Rings (the tropical version)

After this we got to head to lunch which was good because everyone was extremely hungry. We had rice (of course), delicious juice, an omelet type thing, fried plantains, and bananas. We even got ice cream for dessert which was a nice treat!

The end of the day was the most fun. Out first stop was at the Galapaguera - a breeding area for giant tortoises. These were the guys I'd been waiting to see! They were amazing! This place raises little tortoises to protect them from wild animals. They keep them until they are about 5 and then send them into the wild. A tortoise born at the same time as me could easily outlive me so 5 really isn't that old. They also keep some big ones around 'just in case' something wipes out the species. There are 11 species currently (and when Lonesome George on Santa Cruz dies there will be 10) but not all of them are endangered.

Hanging out with a 60+ year old turtle

 

These guys are so cool! The one on the left is just five years old and the one on the right was having a mid-day snack.

Our final stop was... THE BEACH! No.... I don't think this had anything at all to do with farming but it was definitely a really awesome beach.

Jac and I after swimming. The waves look small but the big ones were well over my head. There were turtles floating in the waves and when the big waves crashed in you'd wonder if the turtles were going to fly right into you. It was so fun to play here!

On the way home we were treated to a beautiful beautiful sunset. It was an excellent day and a great field trip!!

Now I'm off to finish up all my homework (presentation tomorrow, paper du Friday, and summer papers due Friday too). Then on Friday I'll be off for a week island hoping with GAIAS and Jon comes next Saturday!!!!! So exciting! 

A lesson in high context culture

Shoot….. I know I have to post about my awesome field trip last week but my internet has been so awful. There hasn’t been wireless in days but there are only 8 computers in the university computer lab that have wired internet (and the lab isn’t even open on Sundays). This means to get internet you have to fight for a computer during the week or go to a café and pay (which may or may not actually get you internet that goes faster then the speed of dial-up). Anyway, that’s what’s going on with the lack of posts. However, I WILL post on my field trip soon with pics. I leave to go an island hoping vacation Friday so before then for sure.

BUT…. I just have to post about my 200^th cultural/language mistake that I made last night. It’s a long story but it’s pretty funny. Here goes:

So I did laundry this morning and noticed my host Mom cleaning up around the house. This is fairly normal for a Sunday so I wasn’t too surprised. She also seemed a little distracted but this also is fairly normal. I didn’t think twice about it. I went to the market, did some homework, and came back around 11:30am to hang my clothes on the line. I noticed all the furniture was pulled out but she was sweeping so again, this didn’t seem unusual. I even commented to a friend that I thought my Mom was really doing a thorough cleaning today!

I came home briefly before dinner (which was with the university tonight) around 5pm but went to my room to work on some hw with just a brief hello. Mom and Dad seemed preoccupied cooking dinner anyway…

I came home from dinner at 8pm and shut the main door. This meant I locked the door. This is also normal. This is the door to the outside on the first floor. The main ‘house’ door is on the second floor.

Shutting the door was quite the thing my first two weeks here. Since I don’t have a key (and neither does anyone else apparently) it’s important that everyone is in the house before the outside door is shut and also that the last person (often me) shuts the door to lock it. Well after learning the word for “close” (an important one when someone is trying to explain this whole concept) I thought we’d pretty much had a system down. I no longer asked when I came in if I should shut the door because usually it was obvious either someone was out or obvious that Mom and Dad were home and ready for bed.

SO. It’s 8pm and I’ve shut the door. I said a quick ‘hola’ to my Dad and went to my room to work on my homework (I have a lot due on Friday so I was really focused). I did notice the furniture was still spread out and there was some new decorations but other then noting this I really didn’t think about it. It really wasn’t that unusual.

Suddenly, at around 8:30pm, I think I hear a voice from below calling for my host Dad. It sounded like Isa (the little 5 yr old grandchild that’s often over). I waited a moment to see if he’d answer. Nothing. A minute later I heard the voice again and some banging on the main door. I figured she might be coming to stay over so I left my room and went to the window to see if she was there. I had already changed into my pink plaid pj pants and my hair was in a ridiculous bun to keep it off my face since it was salty from swimming earlier.

Oh boy. I leaned out the screenless window and not only was Isa there but there were 25 women processing in the street with candles. The women of the family (my grandma, her daughter, the granddaughters, etc) were in white and they were chanting Hail Marys (even I could figure that out). My Dad asked what was happening from across the room and I said “I don’t know” and he looked out the window. He looked, saw everyone and seemed to understood, and then seeing my confusion said something to me about a woman and a procession and something else.

“Si?” he said (as in, get it?)

“Oh, si, si” I said (as in, yeah, kinda, sorta, “ish”)

I looked out again and I see my Mom. She waved, I waved. All smiles. No big deal. I leaned back inside.

Moments later my Dad gets a call and his eyebrows raise very high. “En serio!?” he says and runs down the stairs. (En serio = seriously).

The door. They were trying to process INSIDE. The furniture was all moved so everyone could sit. They were having a church service IN the house.

(I know…. Everyone who likes to figure out the climax of the story knew four paragraphs ago something like this was going to happen. However, cut me some slack, I didn’t expect a whole church service in our house at 9pm on a Sunday – esp with my parents who rarely have people over or go out. PLUS everything was in Spanish and cultural and contextual cues all seem very different here. And yes, I did have a slight nagging feeling in the back of my head that I should unlock the door but not a strong enough feeling to actually act on it in time.)

Anyway, I’ll spare you all the details, as I know I’m rambling. However, there was a whole service, singing, food, etc. After throwing my jeans back on and running a brush threw my hair I sat in the corner near the doorway with no clue as to whether I was suppose to participate, observe, stay in my room…..

I ducked into my room after the service when everyone starting chatting. When I came out after most people had left my Mom and Dad and their daughter and grandkids had a very good long laugh with me about the door (again, only ½ of which I actually understood). I think we were laughing together (you know, with me and not at me) but I’d probably have laughed at me too. Luckily they didn’t seem angry, just amused and slightly bewildered. I think they realized I couldn’t have known.

Oh. And just to top it off – I tried to ask “Can I help you?” (Puedo ayudarte?) after everyone had left (as in, “can I help clean up?” – you know, to make up for this door thing). However, “ayudarte” is one of a couple common words that really does not roll off my tongue well. My Mom didn’t really understand what I said so I tried to say I could wash the dishes. This somehow came across as “I want a dish of food” which led to:

“It’s chicken, Tina”

“No, that’s ok. I can wash dishes with chicken”.

“Ok.”.

Then she went to get me a plate of food…..

Oy vey. :0)

I politely declined, went up and got my laundry off the line, and went off to finish my hw. Quite the night. Very funny J

Oh, and if you’re wondering WHY there was a church service in my house…. well… I have no idea. Something about a woman… there was lots of Hail Mary, singing about “my heart”, lots of “baby Jesus, alleluia, salvation, etc” (typical church words) plus lots of other words that I didn’t understand.

First I thought it was a first communion since the grandchildren were in white. Then I thought it was a celebration of the anniversary of a death. They left two baby Jesus figurines and a candle burning when they went to bed though. So then I realized I have no idea. I think my Dad tried to explain it back when he was telling me about the procession but that was before I knew there was going to be 25 people in the house so when I said I understood…. Well…. I meant “more or less” which is pretty standard for me (just emphasis on the less this time).

Right. Anyway. Live, learn, laugh, keep going. J

(But, just in case, I think I’ll be asking if it’s ok to shut the door again, at least for a while!) 

And a closing picture, just for fun!

No internet

Went on an exciting trip to see giant tortoises, a coffee plantation, a great beach, and other parts of the island! However, internet is down so hard wire connections are scare so I'll post pics and an update when I get internet again!!

Day by day

Just a quick post before I head off to go tutor!

I had a great swim in the ocean this afternoon. I wasn't out for long but the sun is shining and it was so pretty. My day also included pizza (a rare thing here!) and some delicious coconut/chocolate soft serve from the ice cream man that drives around (sort of like a very old school ice cream truck). I think the chocolate part is actually made from chocolate milk but I'm not positive. It's a dollar a cone and it was well worth it today!

Yesterday I got to watch a baby sea lion necropsy. That was pretty amazing, sad, and incredible. There have been baby sea lions dying at a high rate here (about 60%). Since July alone they've done 41 necropsies on babies. They think it's a respiratory infection (leptospirosis) for most of them but this one may have also had a heart attack.  As a non-bio person I was pretty fascinated since I don't see this kind of thing often. They weighed the baby (it was SO skinny), measured it, and did an external exam. Then they cut him open - they cut open trachea first to look for fluid, then took samples of the liver, took out the kidney, and examined the intestines. I had to go but that was pretty incredible and quite sad to see on such a little baby.

This weekend I'm going to focus on writing papers and hopefully get some snorkeling in. As of today, I've swam in the ocean every single day for one month. It's like meditation to me - I love it :D

Fun on the island!

Woohoo! I have enough internet (albeit very slow) to post again!

An update on my Thursday breakfast... I did not, in fact, get eggs on my fruit but I did get quite a lot of fruit and a very large omelet. It was pretty delicious :)


The week went by very quickly filled with hw, relaxing on the beach, LOTS of swimming, and the like. It was also week two of my salsa class which I was taking 3x/week for 2 weeks. That's been very fun and I've actually managed to hold my own when dancing. Of course, it's somewhat easier since the guys have to lead :)

Action shot of me showing off my salsa skills with our instructor Oscar

On Wednesday I headed up to El Progresso (the highlands) to make some homemade pizza and do a little volunteering at the Hacienda where Amy works.

Our creation -- sooo delicious!! We were all craving pizza!

Christina and I with our machetes at the Hacienda -- we didn't really get to use them but it was fun to carry them around! Amy and other volunteers use them chop down mora (blackberry) so they were actually quite sharp. 

We spent a while cleaning up around the school after pizza and then hiked up to a view point to look at the ocean - that dot way out on the right hand side is Leon Dormido where we went snorkeling!

 Sarah picking oranges with style!

Then on Friday we had another service event! Jacquie leads an after-school project in the highlands at the library. They've been working really hard to put together an event that included a play in Spanish, games, face painting, and more! Starburst and Pixie Stix did make a brief debut along with some new clowns. Together we twisted 275+ balloon animals for some VERY excited kids!

 We also made some sweet balloon hats! This is Devin and I - Devin is an undergrad student and was volunteering at the library with Jacquie! 

That night Sara and I were invited to have dinner with Shelby's host Mom Dorys. Sara and I are both tutoring and we start each session by having both our tutees (Dorys and Jose Luis) come together for some fun games and warmups. She made a delicious dinner complete with an amazing quinoa cake dessert that was surprisingly really really good!

On Saturday there were international sailboats that were coming into the harbor from a sailing competition. GAIAS students made some signs to welcome them and we were told to come to the dock around 6:15am so we could get on the boats. 

However, when we arrived there was not much going on. We sat around until about 7:30am - then we were informed that the boat drivers that were going to take up to the sailboats were not coming. Ecuador won a MAJOR soccer game on Friday night against Venezula that ensured their place in the World Cup. This pretty much meant the entire island, including the boat drivers, were chuchaqui (or hungover) and we were out of luck. 

No matter! Saturday was still a day of partying to welcome the sailors and there was lots going on starting around 9:30am. After a quick trip home for breakfast we all came back to enjoy the day! 

(Everyone who saw this picture asks why I wasn't closer - I realize I may look far away in the picture but it felt a LOT closer when the sea lion looked back and barked to make sure I knew this was her bench!)

At 10am they starting serving the "Galapagos's biggest cheviche". For a while we were hearing "world's biggest" but that honor stays with a cheviche that over 7tons of fish. 

World's biggest or not it was still absolutely delicious with lots and lots of fish! 

The music starting going and lots and lots of people were out and about! Then we found out that, to our surprise, a bartending school needed to practice making mixed drinks. This meant that there were 4 stands set up (rum, tequila, whiskey, and beer) that were tossing drinks from 10:30-2pm for free! You walked up, sampled what they had out, told them what you like, and poof - a free drink! I think bar tenders should get this valuable practice more often ;) 

On Saturday afternoon we went up to the highlands to the Hacienda again. We were there for the "festival of the sun" - however the sun didn't really feel like making an appearance. It poured and was chilly instead but still lots of fun. We watched some of our GAIAS friends play soccer against a local team and enjoyed listening to music and walking around.

That night we celebrated Amy's birthday (which is actually today) with desserts, beers on the malecon, and dancing! 

While we were hanging out on the malecon around 8:30pm a school of rays appeared! They are attracted to the lights that are near the dock (the lights are blue/green why the picture looks green). They spent several minutes just swimming around the dock as we watched - VERY neat!

Sunday was spent working on hw, doing laundry, shopping for lunch food, and snorkeling for about an hour. 

Overall a really great week! Today started class, "Political Ecology", which will be from 9-12pm everyday. I'm still working on my service work at GAIAS as well as tutoring (which takes quite a bit of prep work). I think I'm going to be pretty busy for the next three weeks!!

Top 10 List

Since I finally finished one of my three papers I had left over from the summer I decided that I could 1) Treat myself to an amazing chocolate donut (yum!) and 2) Update my blog!

I've made it a goal to not dwell on differences between the US and Ecuador. I know that doing so can cause homesickness and trouble adjusting. However, on my way to school this morning I couldn't help but think of some differences that people living in the States (or elsewhere) might not realize. So, without further ado:

The Top Ten Ways San Cristobal Island, Ecuador is Different Than Living in Portland, OR, USA:

#10: The main language is Spanish (I know, it's an obvious one). In Quito I'd say about 30% of people I talked to spoke some English. I think that's about the same here but that 30% is almost entirely connected with tourist shop owners (and their English tends to be more limited). Therefore, this is a huge part of my life here and becomes a big deal when trying to make simple conversation.

For example: Today my host Mom asked me if I wanted fruit with breakfast. I already had cereal, toast, eggs, coffee, and fresh juice so I had to say no. I then tried to say that I really like fruit and I'd love to have some on Thursday (the next day I have breakfast at home). However, instead of saying "Thursday" (jueves) I accidentally said "egg" (huevo) making my sentence "I really like fruit. Please I want some on eggs". This lead to lots of confusion.... I think know she might think I want my egg and fruit mixed. This could make for an interesting meal on Thursday :-P


#9: Wearing flip flops, shorts, and t-shirts to work is completely acceptable. This is true if you're working at a restaurant, at the University, at a shop...etc. In fact, I can't really think of anywhere where this would not be acceptable! Some nicer hostels (or nightclubs) might have their employees wear a company tshirt or have girls wear a skirt but it's still very informal.

#8: I celebrated October by going swimming in the ocean (instead of begrudgingly dragging my rain pants of my closet where I just put them away a couple months ago).

#7: Don't expect to buy anything between 12:30-2 on a weekday or at all on Sundays. Really don't plan to buy anything between 12:30-2pm on Sunday! This includes groceries, touristy gifts, home goods from the crazy jam packed tiny general stores all around the island... etc. The only thing you can get is "almuerzo" (lunch special).

#6: Stepping in sea lion poop is a daily occurrence. It's worse than dog poop in the States - it's everywhere. I try not to think about how much I've stepped on/in both on the beach and on the street....

#5: The ocean is a 45sec walk from my house (instead of a 1:45min drive)

#4: Rice goes with EVERYTHING. No longer is rice a side with a meat or veggie dish or just part of a stir fry. It's included with EVERY dinner and most lunches. For example, the other day I had pasta with a side of white bread and a side of white rice. (Did I mention I expect to gain about 10lbs here?!).

#3: You say 'Hola' or 'Buenos dias/buenas tardes, noches' to everyone. Yes, I mean everyone. No, it doesn't matter that they are eating dinner, that you don't know them, that they are on the phone, or that they are in the middle of working intently. Every time time you enter you a room is it polite to greet every single person. You also greet on the street, at nicer restaurants (even if you don't know the person), and just about everywhere else.

#2: Familias estan muy importante! Family here is very important. It's not unusual to have multiple generations living in a house. It's common for kids to stay with their parents until they are in the 20s (far more so then in the States). Older parents generally live with their kids (there are far fewer nursing homes) and extended families get together often for parties or family time. Additionally, the idea of godparents (or "companeros") is much more important. Godparents provide financial and emotional support to their godchildren. They really become part of the family and can be closer than a sister or a brother to the godchild or the godchild's parents.

#1: The toilet flushes the other way. No, just kidding :) The Coriolis effect isn't THAT strong!! But the plumbing here is old..... really old. This brings about two differences: 1) Water. You can't drink water out of the tap. Water filtration here is poor (at best) so bottled water, filtered water, or boiled water is a necessity. 2) The bathroom. Toilet paper goes in the trash no exceptions. The plumbing here just can't handle it. In some places it's 40+ years old.....

There are of course many many similarities also but that's for another post!! That's all for now :)

Sea lion chillin on someone's front porch.... a risk you take when you live just off the beach :)