Some observations by Clark, mid-Galapagos

Some observations by Clark: Today is our ‘day of leisure’ at the Galapagos – which can be loosely translated as “we have to ferry a bunch of folks to the airport and get the next batch here so we won’t be conducting any tours today”.  Tour days are very busy – and between the travel, the tours, the meals, and the priority of getting Christopher’s journal onto the web, I haven’t been able to upload yet (and the keyboards at the Internet Office are funky, with extra keys and different shortcuts, and I can’t do much without error).  So today I get a chance to  sit near the pool and borrow Jana’s netbook while she does math-work with Christopher.  I should buy a pad and paper so I don’t forget too many things before I can beam them to the cloud. So far, our trip has exceeded our expectations.  The food in Ecuador has been very good.  They take their meat very seriously, and I can appreciate that. Ecuadorians also use US dollars (since the Sucre collapsed some ten years ago), which is convenient.  Prices here are very reasonable for most things.  Dinners have been less than half of what I would have expected in the US – even in very nice establishments.  I was able to purchase a 1.5L bottle of coke and a 1.5L bottle of water for a total of $1.50.  However, a very small tube of sunscreen (about an ounce?) costs $17.70.  Our tour in Quito was nice.  The older part of Quito was particularly cool – with ornate Baroque churches that took 150 years to build under the supervision of a series of Bishops (and in the United States, people get antsy when a road project takes 6 months, or the national economy can’t be rebuilt in under two years).  Every inch of every wall, ceiling and pillar of the Iglesia de la Compana de Jesus church was covered in gold leaf.  An amazing sight.  The other striking part was the paintings on all of the walls depicting various stories from the bible.  The one that really caught my attention was a picture of Hell, with various folks undergoing very specialized tortures – and the name of the sin printed in Latin directly below the sinner: liars having molten ore poured down their throats; usurers being eaten by demons; murderers being hacked with knives; adulterers, vain people, gluttons – they all got their special treatment.  I imagine that this must have had quite the impact on the people that the Bishops were trying to convert. Outside of the historic district, the architecture is more reminiscent of the ‘70s with a lot of concrete and primary colors.  Many of the walls have some graffiti, but it is not the same graffiti as in the US.  In the US, much of it is like a dog marking his territory.  Here, much of it is very political in nature.  Some of the ones I was able to translate said things like, “The police are not your friends,” “The cost of living is unacceptable,” or “The president has corrupted the constitution.”  (I found a bit of the story behind this last one – Ecuador changes its Constitution on a very regular basis; in the last revision, the provision that allows a president to serve only a single 3-yr term was eliminated, and he is now preparing to run for a third term. Part of our Quito tour took us outside the residential area to the Equator Monument (which is 600 feet South of the Equator – they suffer from the same problem as our 4-corners monument – GPS technology is superior to surveyors.  Unlike the 4-corners monument (which we found to be ‘under construction’ [it is being moved] during our drive to some National Parks in Utah last Spring Break), there is no way this place will be moved.  Regardless of whether or not the exact location of the equator runs down the line of tiles on the ground didn’t bother me in the least.  The monument and surrounding pillars/statues/parks/shops were impressive and everyone was having a great time.  According to our guide, the place was excessively busy (it was Nov 1st – All Saints Day), but compared to comparable places we have been in the US, even very big ones like the Grand Canyon, the crowds were not bad at all.  I would have liked to have stayed longer, but our guide wanted to rush us to the Science Museum, which was located on the “Real” Equator.  From the name, I was expecting a museum.  I was also expecting it to be on the Equator.  Unfortunately, this was more along the lines of a roadside “Mystery Spot” or “Vortex House” or any of a number of other shams that can be found in the US.  The first thing I noticed (since we had our GPS), was that we were still about 200 feet away.  Later, I tried to walk to 0.0000 N, but found it would have taken me onto the Freeway.  I am guessing these folks know that, but that someone’s entrepreneurial spirit was not going to let that get in his way.  At this location, I learned a large number of things: All people weigh exactly 1 kilo (or exactly 2 pounds) less when they stand on their ‘equator’ than when they step off; also, people are stronger when they are standing exactly on the ‘equator’ than when they step off (one of the folks in our group said she saw the same demonstration of strength on a magnetic-band infomercial in the US); and it is easier to balance an egg on a nail on the ‘equator’ because there are fewer forces acting on it.  It was kind of interesting to figure out how all the sham-demonstrations worked, but I would have preferred to have spent my time at the Official monument.  It also makes me wonder how many stories from our guides are going to simply be stories. Maybe not the real monument, but close enough – and it’s not moving. The Galapagos has been very cool so far.  I always thought that the Equatorial regions would be hot.  It hasn’t been that way.  Highs have been in the mid-70’s to mid-80’s, depending where you are on the islands.  In the evenings, we have needed jackets.  The water is also cold – maybe a bit less than 70 degrees.  Cold enough that you can’t inch your way in – you either commit or you stay in the boat.  A lot of folks gave up on snorkeling after the first day (or rented wet-suits) because of the temperature – even some couples who came to the Galapagos because they travel specifically to snorkel. The concept of Seasons here is a bit different.  They define July-December as Summer, which is cooler and drier; Winter is January-June and is warmer and wetter.  The seasons change depending on which water/air currents are dominant at the time.  Also, there a some ‘submarine’ currents that run along the equator, are rich in nutrients, and are very cold.  When they hit  the Galapagos Islands they rise and keep the water temperature low (another thing I try to find a second-source for later…).  We are in the tail-end of Summer. The landscape and animals here are amazing, which you can see from Christopher’s Blog.  They are also tame enough that anyone can look like a professional photographer.  I always imagined that the Discovery Channel guys would have to wear camouflage and hide behind bushes for hours to get some of their footage, but that is just not the case.  We’ve walked among the sea-lions; had to watch our footing so as to not step on land iguanas; and I’ve seen herons, gulls, ducks, and frigates swimming in the pool next to me while I’ve been typing.  And during a walk this morning, Christopher was almost hit in the side of the head by a flying duck.   It doesn’t make the animals any less impressive, on the contrary, I feel privileged to see some animal behaviors that I didn’t image I would have seen otherwise.  We’ve seen giant Galapagos tortoises feeding; male sea lions challenging each other for territory; newborn sea-pups going to the water for the first time; male land iguanas feeding on prickly-pear fruits; land iguanas challenging each other for territory; a female land iguana turning down a male suitor, and the ensuing chases and rebuffs – which crossed through the middle of our tour group; frigate birds (pirates of the bird world) chasing gulls; pelicans diving for fish; marine iguanas on both land and sea – including the famous salt ‘sneezes’ to expel excess salt from their systems; and reef-sharks patrolling along the sea-lion shore waiting for pups.  We swam with juvenile sea lions who played games with us in the water – and one tugged on my flippers playing ‘tag; and spotted a white-tipped reef shark, much bigger than me, swimming maybe 5 meters below me.  And we have only been here for 4 days so far.  The only difference between us and the Discovery guys is that they have more expensive lenses, and a bigger budget.  It is difficult to take a bad shot. I am also thankful for Dramamine  And for sunblock.  Generous quantities of each.  Without these, I would be struggling mightily. Under other circumstances, life here would be most unpleasant.  The Galapagos are is very young group of islands.  The youngest (on the West) have very, very sparse vegetation.  Only a few small cacti, some orange grasshoppers (lava hoppers?) that blend in perfectly, geckos and some snakes.  As you move East, the flora and fauna become a bit more diverse, but not much.  It is not hard to imagine that the vast majority of creatures that arrived here never got a foothold.  The version of prickly-pear cactus on this island (opuntia) is under competing stresses that cause it to have different behaviors on different islands.  The tortoises and land-iguanas try to eat the pads and fruit.  Where there are iguanas, the plants grow very tall to prevent the iguanas/tortoises, that can’t climb, from reaching the pads (like in the photo in C’s blog), making this the tallest cactus in the world.  However, this makes it subject to being ripped apart by the wind, so this can only grow on the leeward side of the islands, and in some places this limits the height.  On islands with no iguanas, the height is much closer to what can be seen in AZ. And, this place was considered punishing enough that until 1959 it was a penal colony of Ecuador (until it became a national park).  The most hardened criminals were sent here so that there was no chance of them returning to the mainland.  One of the English couples on our tour thought this to be a terribly inefficient way to deal with criminals, until I pointed out that the Galapagos is much closer to Ecuador than Australia was to England… Swimming with the sea lions After a rough day at the office.  A Galapagos land iguana. A number of marine iguanas at the tops of the cliff, sunning and sneezing. Some Sally Lightfoot crabs and a Galapagos penguin – the only penguin that can be found North of the Equator. A view from the top of Bartolome, with two half-moon bays.  Not much flora/fauna here, but the landscape is remarkable. An orange and black grasshopper.  Ironic, because there is no grass here. One of the few plants we saw on Bartolome (a half-dozen of this type of cactus, and some grey coldenia in the background)