Kicker Rock

As a surprise, our directors took us out on a snorkel trip to “el Leon Dormido” aka Kicker Rock. We spent the entire day out on the boat, and god it was great. We first stopped at Isla de Lobos, which was another shoreline snorkel site. The sea lions were insanely friendly and seemed to enjoy making all of us scream by popping out right in front of us. There were lots of Bullseye Puffers everywhere, some turtles and we even got to find some sand dollars. There were not really any new fish as it was a typical rocky shoreline, simply a bit more isolated.
Leon Dormido, however, was completely different, which was really cool for me to see and especially to compare the fish I was seeing there with those I’d seen other places. Leon Dormido is formed by two giant rocks with a canal down the middle (DSCN6807, DSCN6816). In relatively deep, open water, Leon Dormido has a much colder temperature than on-shore sites, and thus we saw a lot of different things, such as the Kings Angelfish, which was everywhere. While swimming through the channel we also saw some sharks swimming deep underneath us, appearing only as distinct silhouettes below. The water was also full of jellies and other invertebrates. Luckily they didn’t sting much, though our wetsuits gave us some extra confidence in addition to keeping us warm in the cold water.
After exploring for a while, we headed to a calm lagoon for some lunch and relaxing time. We sat in the glassy shallows, watching pelicans kamikaze themselves into the water next to the boat. Every once in a while, we’d jump off the bow to escape the painful bites of horseflies and biting flies. Synchronized swimming and afternoon lounging was enjoyed by all.
Unfortunately, I got severely burned over the day, although if you ask me, it was totally worth it if it meant I could have an awesome day.

Carlitos Darwin is My Homeboy

We got our first chance to explore San Cristobal a little. Went on a short walk-like-hike on the Frigatebird trail (Frigate bird aka iwa birds=tijeretas in Spanish). We got to see the bay where Charles Darwin first landed on the Beagle and got his first look at the Galapagos. Interestingly enough, Darwin only spent a total of 5 weeks in the archipelago, a supringly short amount of time for a place and person so strongly related with one another. Being here is amazing, I’m still riding my insane high. It’s cool to be in a place where I can just see so much ecology right in front of my face. We went snorkeling after the hike, and despite the sucky conditions (I felt bad for my poor Midwestern peers who are not as used to the scariness of the ocean, esp big surfing waves which are not good for snorkeling), I still saw tons of fish, several turtles, and got showed up by a sea lion in between the breaks. I am so excited to try snorkeling some more and see the fish! Ah! Basically, the Galapagos are still awesome and I'm still in heaven. Ah....

La Costa #2

Undeniable. I love the coast. I have an undying complete and total love for the ocean.
Costa Trip #2 was very different, but still awesome. Our Volcanology class went to Crucita, a small town on the Coast of Ecuador. Usually, I don’t enjoy the volcanology trips very much, but this one was actually really awesome. Instead of the 3 full busses, we took just one bus, about half Ecuas half gringos. It was really nice and a lot more chill than all the previous ones we’ve done.

The trip to the coast is between 6-10 hrs, depending where you go. We left Quito at 6pm on Friday and finally got to the hostel-thing at 3am. Yeah… long bus ride. But totally worth it. I also watch more movies on these volc trips than any other time in Ecuador (9 movies this entire weekend? más o menos?) Got back on Sunday around 730 pm, another very long bus ride (left at 1030 am, stopped only for 30 min for lunch all day). But still, totalmente vale la pena.

On Saturday we went inland to some nearby regions and learned rock things. Went to some quarries and other random stops all over the place, including a cute little beach. The beach was fun, although it was way too windy, cloudy, and cold to go swimming. We saw an exposed area of the Carnegie Ridge and other plate things used in the creation of the Galapagos. Was cool. Also got to see a raided sea turtle nest and another dead honu. That part was sorta sad, but also cool.

We got back to Crucita around 5 and all went to the beach. Our hostel was directly across the road from the water, which was awesome. I had an “oh man… we’re in Ecuador… this is so amazing” moment when we were in the ocean. Standing in the waves, bracing myself in the sand (had a surprisingly strong current for the relatively small waves), bathed in sunset, watching pelicans glide above the ocean… It was amazing.

The rest of the night was really chill and fun. We all just kinda sat around, drank some coconuts and beers, swam in the pool, played Kings with the Ecuadorians, and just kind of hung out. The Ecuadorians were really cool and fun (no screaming girlfriends this time, thank god). Add hammocks, the sound of waves crashing, and great weather to the mix and you can get a sense of the chillness of the night.

All in all, a good weekend. Sitting on the beach and seeing all the plants of the region actually made me somewhat homesick for Hawaii. If I had taken a picture and seen it without knowing, I easily could’ve mistaken it for the Leeward side of Oahu or something. It’s nice to be in such a familiar environment. I felt so at home in the water, jumping under waves and everything, it was definitely a (unexpectedly) good weekend.

La Costa #1

The Ecology kids went to the coast during this long weekend and it was really awesome. We took the 8 hour drive to Muisne on Friday, not a very pleasant experience (very twisty roads made us all feel unwell) but was totally worth it when we got there.

Muisne is in the province of Esmeraldas, close to Atacames. Muisne town itself is an island, though we stayed on the mainland in Nuevo Muisne. It used to be a huge shrimp town, as was most of the Ecuadorian coast, but has since lost its main economic source. During the 90's,

Ecuador was one of the top producers of shrimp, worldwide. It was crazy with people moving to the coast to make their fortune. Think: California Gold Rush style. Yeah, it was the time of plenty. Unfortunately, there was a huge virus that swept through the area, destroying the market. The sickness is still around, and this has prevented any large-scale shrimp farming from coming back. Because of this, the coastal region of Ecuador has remained pretty poor over the years.

One of the main reasons we went to Muisne was to see the mangroves. For me, this was not as exciting, given we have mangroves everywhere in Hawaii and that I have a dislike for these invasive species back home. But it was still fun and cool to be here in Ecuador doing ecology

things. On Sunday morning we all got up early to go through the man

groves to go see howler monkeys! It was really exciting since I've wanted to see monkeys in the jungle since I was in kindergarden.

One of the fun things about the mangroves is that it's super muddy. We also left in the middle of low tide, so at one pt we all had to get out of the boat and push so it could float to where we were going. Needless to say it was a dirty day. The picture up top is of the 8 of us after the monkey walk, waiting for the tide to come back up so we could leave.

That afternoon we got to the beach and it was glorious. I absolutely love the ocean. More than oxygen, probably. It does something to me that I can't explain, but I love being in and around the ocean more than anything. We all hung out, had some ceviche, played frisbee, jumped in the waves, it was great. We got to go to another beach (Mompiche) on Monday, which was also great. Took a walk and did some actual learning (looked in the tidepools, went to a cemetary and talked to some locals about Dia de los Muertos). But all in all just kind of hung out. That afternoon, we got a show by an Afro-Ecuadorian marimba group. (There's a very high population of blacks on the Coast, mostly from slave-trade days). It was fun to watch them dance and sing, getting even us up with them. We fooled around with the adorable kids for a while before heading back on the boat to Nuevo Muisne.

All in all, a great weekend comprised of beach, hammocks, no shoes, mangroves, and good people. It was hard for me to come back to Quito on Tuesday, but I'll be heading back to the coast this weekend for volcanology, so I won't be away from the sea too much this week :)