Galapagos 2010

Islas Galapagos

We spent two amazing weeks in the Galapagos Islands, seeing the awesome wildlife, walking in all the very different and unique landscapes of each island, and snorkeling with the beautiful sea life! Apart from Africa the Galapagos Islands have been one of my favorite places on our trip because I really enjoy seeing animals in their natural environment.

Let me tell you about some of my favorite animals like the Blue footed boobies. As their name already indicates the boobies have amazing bright blue feet, which help the males attract the female bird in mating season. The male blue footed boobies do a funny dance for the females were they lift up their feet one by one, slowly so that the male can show the female that he has good feet for incubating the egg , than the male will lift up his wings, stick out his behind and make a funny whistling noise! It was really cool to watch!!!

Another one of my favorite animals were the Marine Iguanas! Marine iguanas are about three feet long including their tails and are black in color. These iguanas are special because they have adapted to the islands so that they can swim! Their only food is the algae that gross on the lava rocks in the ocean so they have to dive down to the rocks to get their food! To keep warm they pill on top of each other in the sun.
The White Tipped Reef Sharks were another one of my favorites! It was my very first time swimming with sharks and I was a little bit scared but actually the two times I saw a shark while swimming it was pretty uninterested in us in terms of like eating us or something! White tipped reef sharks only get about five feet long and are one of very few that give birth to their young instead of laying eggs.


We also saw a few different kinds of sting rays like the Golden Cow Ray, spotted eagle rays , and the diamond ray. The rays that we saw were really cool I thought because when they swam in the water they looked like birds in flight! Rays have developed teeth for eating the shells of the bottom dwelling crustaceans of the ocean. Rays are also related to sharks!!!
We started our trip in a place full of amazing land animals, Africa, and now we are ending our trip in a place full of amazing marine life, Galapagos Islands. I found out on this trip that I really enjoy watching animals live their lives in their natural habitat, not in captivity!!!
I really feel lucky!
Skye

galapagos reflections

I'm in a thoughtful mood, standing on the bow of our little boat the Sagitta watching the sun set while running downwind along the rugged coast of Isla Isabel about to cross the equator one more time. Its been a year traveling the world, and the past week boating around the Galapagos visiting the volcanic islands filled with native species so specially evolved that they helped to inform Darwin's Evolutionary Theory. The Trip of Lifetime has been just that. Wandering the backwaters of Africa, Asia, North and South America has deepened my love for Marci and Skye and shown me how much life, diversity and creativity is still out there.

Bottled water and cell phones has made it easier to visit the world than when I was in my 20s. Now everywhere accessible by motorized vehicles, you will find tourists and facilities to serve them (including internet here in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Ecuador). This changes everything. For one thing, you can get a pizza practically anywhere. For another, the far away communities are becoming more mono-cultural, economically globalized and transparent. As people, ideas and stuff from far away places arrive, things that are truly local including language, food, dress, religion and culture are hybridizing, becoming tourist attractions or disappearing completely. Some of this makes sense, like when a Bolivian silver mine becomes safer, a sick or orphaned child gets help, or a far-away national park receives notoriety and visits. But it will be a shame when the women of the Peruvian Altiplano only wear their colorful hats and outfits for us when we visit.

Over the coming years, all communities and individuals will have to choose to save that which is unique and sacred to them. And this won't be easy. With all the information available, people have more choice which is good, but it can lead to more discontent with the old 'backward' ways of living. While slower, less efficient and uneconomic (in the current system) these old ways often include more direct knowledge of how to live in a beauty in a specific place, keep the peace and create a meaningful life from no thing.

When discussing climate change and sustainability (two of my favorite conversations) Alejandro, our naturalist guide on the Sagitta, pointed to the boobies in front of us and said, 'life, animals and nature will be fine; it's the human species that's most at risk. Our kids. That's what we have to focus on.' I agree completely.

Peru Slide Show

Machu Picchu

as i ran my hands along the cool square stones of perfection that were chiseled so perfectly, i thought what it would be like to live here in the Machu Picchu city 400 years ago. it must have been beautiful! With giant mountains surrounding you for miles around and you look up into the clear blue sky and you think you could fly as high as a condor! Spending most of your days out on the steep terraces, building new houses out of stone, preparing for ceremonies, and praying to the many gods. Life seemed so simple for them compared to our busy lives!
skye

dreaming

Ever since I was 12 years old I wanted to to go to Machu Picchu. I had my favorite teacher ever in 6th grade by the name of Heather Drake. We studied the Incas, and did a dig with another class.

I have always been fascinated by architecture specially when it holds the beauty in detail of a unimaginable construction like Machu Picchu. When I was high up on those magical mountains, I closed my eyes and dreamed how it must of been 400 yrs ago. Gardens over flowing with food and flowers. Colorful festivals, and many hands working hard to make such a beautiful city.

Machu Picchu was as incredible as I always hoped it to be.

Marci

Ollantaytambo

Gods mattered. You can tell by the stones. Walls constructed for housing, storage and workshops were incredibly detailed, but by Inca standards C class; walls built for princes and kings were B class, unbelievable in their smooth, flow and joinery; A class were temple walls, virtually impossible in their fit, size, complexity and beauty.

Standing in the shadow of the stone ruins of Ollantaytambo - a spiritual center that the Spanish leaders begrudgingly acknowledged as an outstanding fortress - I feel how hundreds of years ago political leadership, intellectuals, and regular citizens played their interconnected roles built around serving god. Right or wrong, everyone had a role; everyone had a job. Life had meaning, whether you chiseled rock; grew quinoa; studied the stars; fought against intruders; or lead society. The majority must have grown food and made temples.

What do we do now?

The Face of Bolivia

Faces and tradition.

What will happen when country’s like Bolivia stop wearing their traditional dress, stop weaving their amazing cloth and give in to the mono-culture and dress of the first world?

The style will disappear and the colors will fade away. The beauty of what makes us all unique will become the same tapestry.

Why would you want to travel to exotic far off places? Not only just to see sites, another monument, a Church, a waterfall.

Where will the dance and music go? What about the yummy foods, flavors and tradition in the preparation? Who will pass on the stories? What about the great Shamans?

Who will pass these along when our young people aren't interested in the labor of it all? It is all such meaningful hard work if you believe in your true heritage.

On this trip it is the places that honor their culture and traditions that will stick with me the most and the lovely faces of the people.

marci

Getting the Bolivian Visa

A number of countries throughout the world have decided that an eye for an eye is the best response to the USA’s visa tariff of $100+ for their citizens. In brief, here's what it took in Salta, Argentina to get our Bolivian visas:

1. Go to the Bolivian Consulate at 10am. Learn you need more than your passport and money - lots more actually: 3 photos, $ deposited into Banco National Argentina, copy of entry stamp into Argentina, copy of credit card, copy of yellow fever inoculation, copy of address in Bolivia… you’ve got to be kidding… how do you do this at the border? It takes 24 hours to process and the Consulate closes at 2pm. Its now 10am. Better get going.

2. Hop a cab to the hotel. Put three head shots on a memory stick. Proceed to bank to make the deposit - $135 per visa for Skye and Marci – because I am a delegate at the Climate Change Conference, I get a 30 day ‘courtesy’ visa for no charge.

3. Go to the Banco National, an ancient and byzantine structure, looking for stairs to up to the second floor foreign exchange desk. Wander aimlessly through hordes of people standing in lines everywhere. Find stairs and proceed into room filled with bank employees literally shuffling papers back and forth between 4 desks. No one is available to help.

4. Finally, The Bank Person Who Deals With People Like Me arrives and says, ‘we only accept dollars, not argentinian pesos.’ Again, I think, 'you've got to be kidding...' I have to go down the block to the ‘cambio’ place to re-exchange my Pesos for US Dollars - they don't do this at the Banco National.

5. Line at cambio place is out the door. Wait for 30 minutes. Exchange pesos for dollars. Return to other bank.

6. Wait some more.

7. Do the deal and get the receipt. Walk down street to the Kodak place. Install my memory stick with our head shots. Fiddle with the machine. Lady tells me it isn’t going to work. Wrong formatting.

8. Walk 4 more blocks to different photo store. Wait. Get photos. Continue to photocopy place.

9. Photocopy all the other stuff. Catch cab. Deliver stuff to Ricardo at consulate. He smiles and says come back tomorrow, which I do and everything is in order.

The process is the journey. Or something like that. In this case there is a destination and its Bolivia.

Vamos!