Finding a Routine

This week we officially passed the half-way mark of our time here in Ecuador. It is crazy to look back at all that has happened and to realize that we still have all of that time for more adventures! And more adventure is what is on the horizon, as this Friday we leave for out island hopping spring break. I don’t know many details about the trip yet, except that at the end we will start our classes at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz. We have a meeting Tuesday where we will be given the rest of the itinerary.

It is so wild to feel like I live here and to have a sort of routine in place. I am used to (kind of) the sound of our water machine screeching outside my bedroom window, at least during the day. If it isn’t unplugged at night I still can’t sleep with it, but I don’t notice it as much during the day! I have also given up hope of avoiding the millions of super fast mini ants that swarm everything regardless of what it is, and I notice the incessant cat-calling us “Gringas” get here less too.

This sense of normalcy has caused me to take fewer pictures, because who takes pictures of somewhere they are used to living? Therefore, this week I tried to snap a few photos of the town and my house to share with you!

First, I forgot to share this photo of the highlands. It is so different up there. It is cooler, more moist and very green. Up there they grow oranges, bananas and plantains. The oranges here are green as are the “lemons” (they call two fruits lemons, one is smaller like a lime and one is a green lime/lemon thing) which makes us wonder what fruit actually looks like when it hasn’t been modified for mass production, like most food in the US.

Speaking of fruit, here is ONE of our papaya trees at our house. Needless to say, we will be eating a lot of it soon! Last week I ate my weight in watermelon. We had one at home and it was so wonderful to have a cold piece after coming home from class!

This is the view from the hammock in front of our house. It is really beautiful and a nice place to relax.

Another older picture, but this is Mariana and I with our host mom at Puerto Chino a few weekends ago. She is really nice and cares a lot about us!

Okay, now for some photos of town. Here is one of the main streets through town that I use to get to the university. The buildings here are interesting because no matter how nice they are, none of them are completely finished and all of them have the metal rods sticking out of them. The white pickup trucks are the taxis and are how people get around town.

Next to most of the buildings there are usually lots filled with trash and rubble. One thing that surprised most of the students here was the amount of trash locals produce and thrown on the street. I guess when they implemented their trash system here, people didn’t want to use it so they threw their trash in the public trash cans. Therefore, the government took away the public trash cans and now there is no where to throw away trash when you are in the main areas.

Also, remember that ship wreck I talked about before coming to the island? The one crashed with all of the food, causing a food shortage? Well, because they couldn’t remove any of the raw meats, vegetables, animal feed, cement and everything else on it, those things have been stewing on the boat for well over a month. Last week we were told not to swim at the beaches near the university because the boat was leaking and people may be getting sick from it. Yuck!

At least we get to go on field trips to clean waters! This is the view of Punta Pit, where we went last week to look at coral health. It is such a beautiful and, to me, a classic Galapagos view!

Punta Pit is one of the few places in the Galapagos that have the Red-Footed Booby.

This is where they nest, and you can tell them apart (without seeing their feet) because they are the only Booby that nests in trees.

The snorkeling at Punta Pit was slightly less impressive than other areas, but we were looking for the corals that are found there. Here is one coral head that has started to bleach on the tips. The only coral reefs in the Galapagos are on Darwin and Wolfe Islands, which are in the far north west.

Well, there you have it! This week is paper writing and data analysis week again!