My last week of classes in Quito was good. We all had group presentations which went well. I presented on the topic of ‘Defining Sustainable Use of Wildlife’. Essentially touching on how ambiguous a term sustainable can be, and how there are biological and social perspectives on the issue. We had a final exam on the last Friday, the 16th that went well. Then Friday night some of my friends and I went with our Ecuadorian buddies to spend our last weekend camping. We drove out about 2 or 3 hours from Cumbaya to a little pueblito where there was a huge beautiful cliff for rock climbing.
We arrived at dark so we could only see the outline of the cliff, but even then we could see how cool it was. There was a river running by where we camped, so we played music, sang, and enjoyed our last weekend together Friday night by the riverside. Then we woke up Saturday morning and went rock hoping up the river for a bit, then came back and went to the cliff to rock climb. There were a lot of people so I didn’t try to rock climb this time, but it was a lot of fun to see some of the people 50 or 100 meters up on the Cliffside climbing. Then we returned Saturday evening and went to a bar in Quito that had a room with walls covered completely in fur and just pillows on the floor. It was nice to relax after camping and before we left for the Galapagos early Sunday morning.
We left early Saturday morning to meet at the University to go to the airport and fly out to the Galapagos. Everything went without a hitch, I was able to bring my guitar on the plane which was my only worry. We flew through Guayaquil to San Cristobal getting there a little before mid day. We met Sara, the leader of the GAIAS program in San Cristobal at the airport and hopped on busses to go to campus. It was cool flying into San Cristobal because you could see the coast of all of the island as well as Kicker Rock, a famous snorkeling and diving spot right off the island. We drove through the town and go to the university, and picture this…
The university is a nice 2 story building on the right side of the road, and then right on the left side of the road is Playa Mann, the beach. And like almost all of the beaches in the Galapagos there were lots of sea lions just lounging around on the beach. After one and a half weeks I don’t think I have seen less than 10 or 15 sea lions on the beach ever. Once we got off the bus we dropped our bags off and went directly to the beach where we took off our shirts and went swimming in our shorts. The water was cold but refreshing.
Then we had our orientation to GAIAS, just giving us general information about the program. We had a group of local GAIAS English students come and give us a tour of the town. Then when we came back we met our host families and went to their houses for dinner. I was picked up by my 2 host brothers Huber and Aaron. We live on the opposite side of town as the university (about a 20 minute walk-it’s a small town) The family is good, they like making jokes which is good because it forces me to try to start joking with my Spanish which is good practice. That first night I went with one of the English Students to Punta Corola, one of the beaches past the university to see the sunset, it was amazing.
Classes started on Monday, I am taking a class called Environment, Culture, and Health. My teacher is Fernando Ortega, who I have been very impressed with. He has represented Ecuador in UN conventions and gets himself involved in lots and lots of interesting projects. So every class he has a personal story related to whatever the topic is that day. The class is formatted so that we have a good amount of reading every day and then 2 or 3 people will present on each of the different chapters we read each day. So this makes every student have 3 presentations over the whole three week class.
So my daily schedule is class from 9am-12 and then lunch, which sometimes we will go into town, but this past week I just bought groceries and ate at the university. Then after that it is a mix of relaxing on the beach, doing readings for class, playing guitar, creating presentations for class, snorkeling, or walking around the town. Since I’ve been playing guitar all the time this semester everyone in the program knows that I play, and they knew I wanted to try to play some gigs this semester as well. This lead to when Chauncy, one of my friends in the program from Australia, learned that his host brother was in a band he told him about me. This started the ball rolling for me and music here.
The first Friday we were here was the viernes culturales, something that the town does every other Friday or so. They set up a small stage on the boardwalk and have different performances, like a town talent show. So I went to the tourist office and talked with them and got a spot to play at the viernes culturales. Of course they put the gringo who signed up 2nd to last, but it was fun. I played Do Wrong Right by Devil Makes Three, an upbeat song that got the crowd moving even if they didn’t understand it. Then I my friend David, a talented musician as well, played one of his own songs. Every now and then I also played some with Chauncy’s host brother’s band and band mates just jamming and having fun. Then after the Viernes Culturales I went to one of the bars in the town New Moon which I heard sometimes had live music. I went in and talked to the owner, and when I asked him if he would like live music in the bar sometimes he looked down at his watch and said, do you want to play in 20 minutes? So I went back to my house got my mic and cables, and I was able to borrow a mic stand from Chauncy’s host brother Ivan. I played for a bit and the David played a bit as well and it was a fun night. We ended up repeating this Saturday night as well.
Saturday we went on a ‘field trip’ on a boat to Isla lobos and kicker Rock which was absolutely amazing. We all got on three different boats and went out first to a small island off the coast of San Cristobal and went snorkeling. One of the coolest things we saw was something the guide showed us… he put a sea urchin on a patch of algae on a rock and then 2 or 3 damsel fish quickly swam up and worked together to push the sea urchin of the algae. The guide explained that the algae are the fish’s food source, so they protect it which is why they pushed the urchin off. I also spotted a Marble Ray and we got to see some turtles and sea lions as well. Then we hopped back on the boat and went a little further out to Kicker Rock. There when we got in the water we couldn’t see the bottom, but we were going to snorkel through a small little gap that’s between two parts of the rock. As we got to the middle we were able to see Black Tipped Sharks! It was amazing! There were about 10 or 15 of them swimming underneath us as we were snorkeling. We also saw a large Spotted Eagle Ray, many more sea turtles, large star fish stuck to the rock wall, and of course lots and lots of fish. It was incredible. Then we went to a beach to eat lunch and then headed back.
Sunday was just a relaxing day, I did some homework, and relaxed on the beach for a bit. It was a busy first week so it was nice to wind down. Sunday evening there was a small festival on the boardwalk where Ivan’s band was playing. He talked to the organizer and got me and David to open up for them and play for a little bit before they went on which was a lot of fun. There band was really high energy and a lot of fun to listen to. There was a contemporary dance performance and at the end there was cuerpa pintada. Which was a painter who painted this woman’s body, it was amazing, he painted kicker rock with a large shark on her back, and fish on the legs with bubbles going up the back. It was pretty amazing.
This week has been essentially the same schedule as the first week, class in the morning and then a mix of work and beach in the afternoon. I am doing a research project for the class about Environment, Stress, and the Government. I’m trying to see if the Environmental factors that stress people out are ones that the people think the government should be concerned about or not. Also, I am trying to see if it is different in different locations like the Galapagos, Ecuador mainland, Guatemala, the United States, and Mexico. So I created a survey that I have sent out to friends and I will be going around town to try to get some locals responses.
This is a short version of all that has happened because it there has been so much that has happened that I probably forgot some things. But this gives you a general idea of what I’ve been up to. I still have not been able to find anywhere with internet fast enough to upload pictures, sorry. The semester's been great so far and I only expect it to get better! Thanks for keeping up with my adventures! I
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