Galapagos – last week of work

July 16, 2009 (Thursday)

I had a relaxing day to myself – I sat in the hammock and read a long time for fun (there’s certainly not enough time during graduate school for this – at least more me there wasn’t). One of the shops at the airport has a free book exchange so I get to rotate my reading selections.

Since it was getting late in the afternoon, I headed towards the beach at the Darwin Station and ran into Joseph and his boys here. It was really low tide so there was basically no water at the 2^nd beach so I walked back to the 1^st beach. There was a large group of American teenagers that took over the beach – throwing the Frisbee, hackysac, volleyball/soccer, etc. I was loud and annoying – especially when the ball got away from them.

Jimmy and the rest of the Air Force team were in town at the Naval base to play soccer – they lost 1 to 4. When I first arrived, a volleyball game was finishing up. Then the volleyball net came down and the kids took over the court practicing kicking goals (well – this happens anytime there is a break in the official game action).

Although the court was outside, they played ‘indoor’ soccer which means it’s a much small field, smaller ball and much faster action back and forth. It was fun to watch the various games. One of the goalies during the first game loved to try kick the ball from his goal area into the other goal – the audience at the other end of the court always had to keep on eye on him whenever he had the ball because he kicked the ball so hard it could really hurt someone if it hit you – especially when the audience stands are right there on the edge of the court.

After the game, we all went for dinner on the kiosk street. I finally got to eat at one of the long tables in the street. Then it was a night of dancing at La Panga, El Bongo and Tequila Bar before crashing for the night.

July 17, 2009 (Friday)

After my late night last night (maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep), I’m understandably tired today. Work was really busy – which is good because it keeps me awake.

Half of the Air Force group went on leave last week and the other half leaves today – so that means I get to see a bunch of friends at the airport as they are coming or going. At first this leave thing really didn’t make any sense to me since the group is only based here for 6 months and they will be returning to their bases in a couple weeks anyway – then I found out that many of the guys work on bases that are a long distance from their families and so this is their chance to go home.

July 18, 2009 (Saturday)

When we arrived in the islands, it was a warm and humid. This week it has been cool. Today with the with drizzle, it’s almost cold.

Some of the Air Force guys returned from their leave today so it was fun talking to them – especially the guys that normally aren’t at the airport because their job is located on the base itself.

Marcelo has left, but Roberto is still living at the house. Marcelo was really easy-going and would have conversations with me. In turn, if he was alone at the house, I would invite him to come along if I was heading to the internet café or the beach. Gabriela and Roberta alone are nice people and I enjoy their company, but when they’re together – they live in their own little world. I chatted again with Gabriela about the situation and I think this time she understood why I have been uncomfortable living in my own house. Although there’s only a few days left, things need to change.

July 19, 2009 (Sunday)

The problem with not staying up to date on the blog (or at least the blog notes for later reference) is that you don’t remember what happen – just like today. I have a blank space in my notes and whenever I try to remember something, nothing comes to mind. So I guess I’ll talk around random observations.

Kids are better behaved here. You rarely hear a kid giving a temper tantrum or being obnoxious. Instead, they seem really happy and peacefully play with each other. Perhaps part of the problem with kids in the USA is just the availability of too much at hand – which teaches the kids to never be satisfied with what they have (which develops into competing with the Jones’ later in life). Is that really a good idea – for them as individuals or us as a whole society?

At the small eateries, waiters don’t write down your order. Instead, they remember what everyone ordered and take the appropriate dish to the appropriate table when it’s ready. When you are ready to leave, you walk up to the cashier and tell them what you had. During lunch – most people order the set meal for the day. However, it gets more complicated when there are two options for the main entrée and different sizes that can be ordered (full $3, half $2 or shared $1.50). Gabriela and I use to get the shared lunch (a full lunch split between two), but on my own I get the half lunch (which is between half and two-thirds). Even then, it’s still a lot of food. When I get a full lunch, my stomach is so full that I don’t want to do anything in the afternoon.

July 20, 2009 (Monday)

I’m a bit sad that it’s our second-to-last day of work at the airport. Where did the past seven weeks go? Now that the end is here, I want the job to keep going. Not so much for the job itself, but for the house that goes along with the job. I’ve enjoyed my time here in Puerto Ayora and want to spend more time with my friends. And I like the house.

Again, I didn’t keep notes on today so I don’t know what else happened.

July 21, 2009 (Tuesday)

It’s our last day of work – difficult to believe. During out down time, I talked with my various friends (security, SICGAL inspection, Air Force). I collected photographs and emails (so I could send them the photos). When I was trying to save the photos from the camera as smaller files on my thumb drive (so it’s easier to email), Gaby saw all the photos and called me Queen Nicole. It’s not my fault that most of the people that work at the airport that hold positions with which I interact with on a regular basis are guys.

Tuesday night – we head to the WWF office for the last time to enter our last week of data into the SurveyMonkey.com database. All in all, I have attempted a total of 240 – which includes those completed, those that are partially completed before they had to check-in or board their plane and those that refused to participate in the survey after verifying that they qualify to participate (they are a tourist to the islands and spent a majority of their nights on a cruise boat). Between the three of us and the online versions, Cesar has just under 600 completed surveys – a good turnout of data to analyze now.

Cesar took Gaby and me out for a thank-you dinner – then we headed to El Bongo. I tried playing pool – but was just too tired to play well.

July 22, 2009 (Wednesday)

After running into my friend Javier at El Bongo last night, I arranged to tour the highlands with him and another one of his friends that’s visiting. He has his own pickup truck to use on the finca (farm) – I just have to pay the entrance fee to the various sites and split the cost of gas.

We went to a farm where gigantic land tortoises live and roam around freely. Being the highlands – it’s tall enough to gather clouds around itself most days and gets rain or at least mist so it’s necessary to exchange your shoes for rubber boots. The tortoises can be in the middle of the open grassland or hidden behind bushes. And they’re huge. I got a picture of me standing behind one – and it could be twice the width I am.

There are also a lot of lava tunnels in the area – we ended up going to three of them. The first was at the ranch. After walking down into a dark hole, I’m surprised by how well lit the tunnel is inside (I was hoping for it to be darker so I could use my solar-powered flashlight I always carry on my day bag). It’s interesting how the tunnel curves back and forth and then there are piles of rocks that have fallen from above or the sides. At one point, you have to crawl through the opening.

The most famous lava tunnel is the ‘Tunnel of Amor’ – named because it has a heart-shaped hole. This tunnel is the longest at 800 meters. Lava tunnels are formed when the outer edges of the lave flow cools and hardens, allowing the rest of the lava to continue to flow freely inside. All of the lava tunnels are massive in size – maybe the height of a two- or three-story building.

Galapagos – second to last week of work

July 9, 2009 (Thursday)

An annoying thing about being in a country where you don’t speak the language is that you are frequently left out of the conversation. And when you ask them to explain what is being discussed – they only tell you a very small portion that doesn’t really tell you much.

The plan was for Gaby, Roberto, Marcelo and I to go to Limon y Café to listen to a guitar performance. We get there around 10pm but it’s the usual DJed music – so I’m thinking the performance hasn’t started yet. They started talking about $5 and they didn’t want to pay since they had seen this guy perform at a party last night. We walk over to La Panga discotec to see what was happening there – they didn’t like that either.

In the end, they decided to go to the beach. I still wanted to see the guitar performance so I went back to Limon y Café to see what was happening – still the DJ music. I headed over to Bongo – and found out that there was a $5 charge to see the guitar performance that was happening THERE (not Limon y Café).

July 10, 2009 (Friday)

Do you remember going to the circus and watching the lady do an aerial acrobatic routine on a long piece of fabric that hangs to the floor? Gaby started learning how to do this a few months ago. 6-pack made her a structure to practice here. Tonight, I watched Gaby, Roberto and Marcelo play after they set it up in the street – the kids in the neighborhood were watching as well.

Jimmy and some of his Air Force buddies came over to Puerto Ayora to go dancing. One (very) good thing here – not only do most of the guys here know how to dance (salsa, meringue, reggaeton), but they enjoy dancing. Why can’t it be more that way in the USA – instead of it being ‘uncool’ for guys to dance?

We started at Bongo and ran into Cesar who was there with some of his friends that were visiting from Quito. We decided to play the pool table (not exactly level) that I’ve been eyeing for a while (there’s usually a long wait list on the board). I like to play pool – sometimes I’m good, other times I miss everything. Tonight – I was so good I was surprising myself on what was going in.

When Bongo closed at 2am, we headed over to Tequila Bar – which was a tiny hole of a place full of people dancing the night away. Now, for weeks, I have been trying to find a place that I can really dance salsa. Everyone keeps telling me three places – Limon y Café and Bongo which more often than not play club music so those are usually a wash. We usually avoid La Panga because there’s an ‘expensive’ cover charge – the one time I did go in, the place was dead. So I was very happy to find this Tequila Bar – even if the dance floor was packed with couples and really not enough space to do turns.

July 11, 2009 (Saturday)

I have to say that cerviche is good. Although it’s basically raw fish ‘cooked’ with lime juice, it’s quite tasty with red onions, green peppers, tomatoes, etc. And this is coming from someone who generally didn’t like fish in the past (because it tasted too ‘fishy’ – which I found out was because it wasn’t fresh anymore).

Generally, the best food is not listed on the menu. At one of the many food stands (grills) around town, you can get a grilled sweet plantain with cheese – oh so good. This particular food stand happens to be located at the edge of a restaurant and you can order whatever you want from the lady working the grill and the waitress. It wasn’t until my friends were paying two separate bills that I realized the food stand wasn’t actually part of the restaurant, but a separate business.

There’s one street that becomes the eating headquarters at night. All the food stands and mini restaurants along this strip open up for business and place their tables in the street for customers to come and enjoy a nice, relaxing evening with friends. Some of the larger restaurants are also open for lunch (which I have gone to many days).

One of the popular dishes here (especially for lunch) is pollo coca-cola – that’s right, chicken made with the soft drink Coke. I wasn’t sure about this combination, but it tastes just fine.

July 12, 2009 (Sunday)

When you don’t know the language, it’s easier dealing with kids – you can just play games with them that don’t require talking like playing ‘peak and boo’ with a little girl on the bus ride to work today. Other activities that I enjoy and usually don’t require much talking is dancing, playing pool and playing cards (once you know the rules of the game that is).

When we arrived at the canal, the front end of what looks like a scuba diving boat is sticking out of the water – I wonder what happened there (never did get the story). Today was the second time I’ve seen people who just arrived from the mainland carrying a box of KFC fried chicken – this really doesn’t make any sense to me since I really can’t imagine that the quality of KFC products are better here. But everyone has their own preferences.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I HATE to shop. But this afternoon, I had free and leisurely walked around and browsed the many souvenir shops – and actually enjoyed myself a little bit. I ran into my friend Javier while walking around (Gaby and I first meet him while swimming at Las Grietas) – it’s refreshing to talk with someone who knows English. Conversations go better when they talk in English instead of Spanish (since my Spanish vocabulary is still very small and get confused by all the verb conjugations) – but I try to respond in as much Spanish as I can. He gave me all kinds of suggestions of places and things to do around Quito when I’m visiting the mainland.

July 13, 2009 (Monday)

We believe part of the reason why the airport officials will no longer allow us to interview tourists beyond the security gate is because the airport is now conducting their own survey about their facilities and services – and probably refusing to do the survey for them on top of our survey probably didn’t go over too well.

While talking with Felipe during a break of tourists, he asked if I would look over the English translation of their survey. I started making a few changes – but ended up doing a full edit. It was fun – plus I got to sit in the AC Airport Security base room for a little while. On most days, I really don’t consider the airport to be hot and the AC room is just too cold.

The Air Force Commandant (the head guy of the entire Ecuadorian Air Force) is visiting the Galapagos. Because he was at the airport today, the security guys wore ties and there were a lot of extra Air Force guys hanging around.

July 14, 2009 (Tuesday)

Before we do a survey, we need to verify that who we ask are actually tourists to the Galapagos – and not people who live here, work here or volunteer here. One guy I asked today is a Belgium but was born on the islands – his parents have lived here for over 50 years.

Since he didn’t qualify to participate, and there really weren’t any other people around to ask, I sat and chatted with him and his mother for a while. I found out that tourism to the Galapagos Islands really started in the 1970’s – when an entrepreneur had the bright idea of getting tourists (gringos) onto the weekly military flight that resupplied the base here. Before that, it was a very quiet and isolated scientific center that required a long boat ride from the mainland. When the military found out they could make money at this, it just kept growing and growing (which is the Tame Airline today). Due to the economic problems around the world these days, tourism has slowed down some here – but still plenty of people come. Last year, there were about 190,000 tourists.

The Galapagos Islands were formed as volcano eruptions from the ocean floor – so basically they are large lava formations. I like that the streets here are made from lava stones instead of tar. And when I see large vehicles and equipment – I imagine how they got here. My guess is shipped on large cargo ships – but do they come whole or need to be assembled once they are here? It’s not possible to drive them here.

July 15, 2009 (Wednesday)

I decided to spend the day at Tortuga Bay – and it was a good choice. I ran into Sandro (6-pack) who was on his way to work at the kayak rental spot (I think I’ve really only seen one kayak that might have been rented during all the times I’ve been there – so obviously it’s not a big money maker). Besides – when he spends a lot of time kayaking himself, or swimming or sunbathing or playing Frisbee with me, there really isn’t much time to rent the kayaks.

I also ran into Joseph – who was there with the two kids that came back from the mainland with him yesterday – it turns out that they are his kids. They were in the ‘heart’ of the beach – the corner between the rough Playa Brava and the calmer beach (don’t know what the name of it is). His sons were having a grand old time looking at the fish in the water pools that are protected by a big pile of rocks. We were able to see a couple marine iguanas crawl from the sand and swim across the water pools to go out and eat. We had a simple picnic of tuna sandwiches – which Darwin’s finches joined when Joseph stood very still and let them birds eat from his hand. The birds got more daring as time went on and starting fighting over the food.

Amber (who is volunteering to teach English) came and joined us. She just joined in and became best friends with the boys – of course it helps when she gives them cookies. I also saw Leah (from Couchsurfing) and her co-worker with the group of American kids that are here for a two-week ecology camp. They kids complained the whole time while at the calm beach (which I find so beautiful) – but had fun playing in the dangerous rough surf of Playa Brava, and then they started playing a game of soccer.

Galapagos – the work continues

June 30, 2009 (Tuesday)

Since we usually arrive before the tourists do, and I’m not one to eat breakfast as soon as I get up in the morning, I usually have an empanada at the airport café. All three flavors (chicken, beef and cheese) are good – although maybe not the healthiest breakfast option.

One benefit of not being able to work beyond the security gate is that we get to go home earlier since all the tourists are beyond our reach. There’s a row of souvenir shops outside of the airport – each morning they take the wooden planks out of the window frames and place their wares on display, then reverse the process when all the tourists are gone.

I’m glad that there are a variety of names here in the Galapagos instead of everyone being called Carlos or Jose. My friends who work at the airport include Mario, Felipe, Erik, Jimmy, Orlando, Javier – yes, all guys. They do the security checks and when there are no tourists around, we talk to them. Most of the women who work at the airport are in the gift shops – which if you know me at all, I don’t spend any time there. The only women I interact with on a regular basis is the cleaning lady and the lady in the cafeteria – but I don’t know their names. News headline for today – the USA is starting to withdraw from Iraq (about time).

July 1, 2009 (Wednesday)

What was suppose to be an overnight camping trip of four with Gabriela, Six Pack and Erik at Playa el Garrapatero turned into an afternoon trip of two – which was probably good since the campsite grounds were stone-hard and it would have been uncomfortable sleeping there.

The beach is about a half-hour drive from Puerto Ayora, and we arranged for the driver to come back to pick us up in 3 hours. If cell phone reception was available, I would have called the driver and arranged a later pick-up time. The place was so beautiful and peaceful.

July 2, 2009 (Thursday)

I was suppose to go to Playa las Grietas with Erik (since he’s on vacation this month from the airport) to go kayaking and see sharks, but he had to help the family transport stuff to and from the farm. At lunch, I ran into Joseph and we decided to go to Las Grietas (the lake within the gorge) instead. I decided to join the others in jumping off the side of the cliff today – but from the lowest spot. Others were more than happy to jump from the middle and top as well.

I went to the Bonga bar and ran into people I knew there. It was a fun night – playing pool with Joseph and others (although the games didn’t go that well since the table is not level) and practicing my Spanish with Erik and his friend.  It started raining after I got home. It sounded so relaxing that I sat in the hammock (under the porch overhang) and listened to it fall.

July 3, 2009 (Friday)

Not much going on today – we got new airport security passes that do not allow us beyond the security check. We went from a security code of level 2 to level 6. Guess I’ll talk about random things that I’ve noticed over time.

On the long drive between Puerto Ayora and the canal to Baltra Island, there are no lines on the road. Occasionally on curves, they use a road construction cone to indicate the middle of the road. There are also eleven speed bumps – usually to notify drivers of a ‘big’ intersection coming up or passing through the check gate (which is really a pole across the road that is lifted to left vehicles through).

When you buy eggs here, you say how many you want and then they’re placed in a plastic bag. There’s no protective carton to safeguard them.

The houses are made from cement block. Sometimes they cover it with a smooth layer and paint it in warm colors to make the place look nicer and finished.

The mosquitos here are really annoying. They’re harder to kill since they fly so fast, but at least they don’t carry any diseases (malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, etc.) to worry about.

Always carry Kleenex with you since you don’t know if bathrooms will have toilet paper or not. And the fastest way to dry your hands is to play with your hair (in case they don’t have any paper towels either).

July 4, 2009 (Saturday)

Happy Independence Day to everyone from the USA! I got fireworks today as well – but to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Galapagos National Park. There was a huge festival in Puerto Ayora – the Ecuadorian president and several big name musicians came to help celebrate.

I tried to get all the guys to go so I would have people to dance with – in the end, Jimmy and Joseph showed up. I did see Leah (from Couchsurfing) and others from the airport while walking around. The place was packed full of people and there really wasn’t much space to dance. While they were playing traditional Ecuadorian music, we went to Lemon y Café and danced there for a little while before heading back to the park for the salsa music. When it started to rain about 2am, the place cleared out. I only reason I headed home around 3:30am instead of continuing to dance was because I had to get up at 6am for work.

July 5, 2009 (Sunday)

Sometimes while interviewing people, I play a game in my head (no – it does not affect the survey results). While doing the part where we ask people how important they think different problems (i.e. fighting crime, improving public education and health, global warming, etc.) are for developing countries and the world in general, I try to guess what level of importance they will say for each type of problem – sometimes I’m right. I also try to guess their annual income level.

It’s amazing how much money people will spend on a vacation. On the low end, for backpackers and people who take the short 3 or 4 day cruises, they might spend $1,000 within the Galapagos Islands – which does not include the airport from the mainland to the islands (about another $400). People who take a week-long cruise on the small, medium quality boats will spend about $2,000. Then there are the large cruise ships or luxury boats where people expect to be pampered hand and foot – and they pay for it – could be $3,500 to $8,000 per person.

One man I interviewed in the VIP lounge (when we were still allowed beyond the security check) paid approximately $218,000 to bring his extended family of 27 people. They traveled to the Galapagos Islands because it was a place that no one in his well-traveled family had been to before.

Another lady I interviewed basically wanted the world to herself. She and her husband paid over $25,000 each (she didn’t want to give me the exact amount) to charter a luxury boat that holds 18 tourists for just themselves. Based on her general comments, this is ALWAYS how they travel.

Just imagine what kind of money they have – and what could have been accomplished with that $50,000 or $218,000 instead of just a week-long vacation. It’s mind-boggling to me.

July 6, 2009 (Monday)

After work, Gabriela and I stayed on Baltra Island at the Air Force base (in the auditorium /guest-house) so some of our friends could show us the sites around the island. As I mentioned earlier, Baltra started as an US military base during WWII so they could watch traffic going through the Panama Canal. Driving around, you can still see some remnants of that period – empty shells of buildings that use to be bunkers to shut down airplanes if needed, pipe-lines to bring water to the camp, rusty vehicles left behind, etc.

The Galapagos Islands is a six-month assignment for the Air Force guys, but a two-year assignment for the Marines located on a near-by base. (There’s also a Naval base in Puerto Ayora.) It was a bit strange to be the only two women there – but as far as my assumptions of military life go, this is a fairly relaxed base. When you enter the mess hall, you weigh yourself so you can gauge on your way out how much weight you gained by just eating the meal. We ate at the head table with our friends (who must be pretty high in the ranks here), along with the Captain and the guy who oversees the mess hall.

Then it was off to see the various sites. We saw a lot of blue-footed boobies and their babies (who don´t have blue feet or beaks yet) along the side of the road. At the first beach – where sea turtles come to lay their eggs at the appropriate times of year – we saw sea lions relaxing in the sun and who looked like they were shifting around to give you a better ‘pose’ for your picture, marine iguanas having a feast of seaweed on the rocks and a huge flock of blue-footed boobies having a feast of fish just off the coast – they traveled in a continual circular pattern of diving, taking off again and circling around for another dive.

At the second beach, located at the Marine base and near the port for cruise ships (muelle), we saw more sea lions – where this group didn’t want anything to do with you and shifted away, another group of blue-footed boobies having a feast, a huge iguana (not the usual all black ones that I’ve seen so far), pelicans – and the best thing of all – a warm-weather penguin! It was so beautiful swimming here with wide-open bright blue sky and fluffy white clouds. The people here think that the water is so cold – which it is compared to the temperature of the water during September – May. To me, it might be a little cool, but very pleasant.  Back to the base for dinner, then an evening of listening to music, dancing and playing cards. All in all – it was a good day.

July 7, 2009 (Tuesday)

Another good thing about staying on Baltra Island, it’s a much shorter commute to the airport. And I already had breakfast at the base, so no empanada today. However, while waiting for more tourists, Gabriela and I both wanted something sweet so we shared a Twix – it hit the sweet spot. Roberto – a friend of Gabriela’s from Quito – and Marcel arrived at the airport this morning. Since we have extra beds at the house, we decided to let them stay with us for a few days. While waiting for the buses to take us to the canal (which only leave when the tourists on the arriving flights have collected all their luggage), the Air Force guys offered to give us a ride in the pick-up truck – just through the bags in the back and climb in – just make sure you have a comb at the other end for all the snarels you’ll get.  The four of us – as well as Carlos we met along the way – went to the Charles Darwin Station beach (Playa la Estacion) for a quick swim before meeting Cesar to enter this week’s data into the database.

July 8, 2009 (Wednesday)

Yippy – a day off.  I’m really glad that this week of work is over.  However, it also means that the job is that much closer to being done.  There’s only two more weeks of work left.  I can’t believe that my time in the Galapagos Islands is coming to and end soon.  Of course, I’ll stay about another week to travel around and see the other islands.  I’m trying to decide if I want to take a tourist cruise or take the ferry between the islands, stay in hotels and take day trips to the various sites.

Jimmy and Washington (our Air Force friends) came to Puerto Ayora because they needed to do errands for the base and they were suppose to play futbol (soccer) at the Naval base – the game was later moved to the Marine base on Baltra Island instead (the Air Force lost 4 to 2).  Washington went back to play, but Jimmy stayed to go dancing at the Bonga bar.

We danced until the end at 2am – but declined to go to La Panga which was still going – I was hungry and tired.  The music was ok tonight – a little bit of salsa and reggaetone, but mostly just club music which I feel like I’m doing the exact same moves over and over again – so I get bored with it.

Galapagos – over half way already

June 21, 2009 (Sunday)

As the day progressed at the airport, I wasn’t feeling the best. I have a feeling it was a combination of not drinking enough water (I’ve never been good about that), not eating much for breakfast and a warmer day than normal.

As soon as we got home, I laid down on the couch and Gaby started cooking in the kitchen. I must have napped for some time because when I woke up, Gaby was still in the kitchen – but washing dishes. A large bowl of rice and lentils was sitting in the refrigerator.

It was only when I went to the internet café that I realized it was Father’s Day – and it was too late to call since he would have already been asleep. But don’t worry, my daughterly duty was done – I had already sent a package from Amherst to my mom to give to him on this day.

June 22, 2009 (Monday)

It was a quiet – and short – day. I ended up taking a 3 hour nap (unintentionally) after work so the day was over before it really started. We did make a trip to Laguna las Ninfas – a lake with a legend that a very beautiful woman with long hair lived there and all men fell in love with her. One day, while she was swimming, her long hair got caught on the tree roots and she drowned. It’s a beautiful place where you can watch and listen to the birds – as long as there aren’t other people there talking and disturbing the peace.

June 23, 2009 (Tuesday)

Since we travel the same route to and fro the airport, it can get boring. I decided to make a game out of it today. I counted 18 curves on Balta Island during the10 minute ride between the ferry and airport. The first three curves are hairpin turns that quickly increase in elevation – good thing they don’t have to worry about snow or ice here.

One of the interviews I did today was a family from Minnesota. They were so nice and easy to talk to (‘Minnesota nice’ you know). The parents had done this Galapagos Islands trip last year and thought it would be a great family trip with their grown children and daughter-in-law. It reminded me of the trip I took with my family to the Azores in 2006 to celebrate my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary.

It’s Tuesday – so that means it’s the end of our work week and we enter all our data into the SurveyMonkey.com database. Even though we only had five days worth instead of last week’s seven days, it still took us five hours to complete the work. Because it’s impossible to interview every tourist while they wait for their flight, we hand out nice bookmarkers that mention an online version of the survey as they board the plane. So far, seven people have done the survey online.

June 24, 2009 (Wednesday)

We spent the afternoon at Tortuga Bay and hung out with Six Pack – since he works there renting out kayaks. I had a great time – swimming, kayaking and watching a sea lion play in the water. While snorkeling, I saw a couple mantra rays, different types of small fish and what looked like a red-speckled snake that slithered along the bottom.

I took my time and kayaked along the mangroves that outline the bay to enjoy the view. I liked watching the pelicans and blue-footed boobies (yes – boobies (snicker, snicker) – there’s a lot of t-shirts here that play on this ‘joke’ – but seriously, boobies are a type of bird) soar in the air, then suddenly fold in their wings and dive into the water to catch a fish. In one section of the bay, there’s a rock cliff were I just sat still in the kayak for some time – watching a boobie, plus mama and baby marine iguana, just sitting there. Since the animals evolved here without knowing preditors, they aren’t afraid – they just sit there. At the end of the day, I was paying the piper – the front of my arms and legs, plus my back, were sunburned.

June 25, 2009 (Thursday)

I’m taking it easy in front of the tv today to minimize the discomfort – which luckily isn’t really that bad given what it could have been. I’ve been lucky so far with the strong equatorial sun. It helps that we work indoors and by the time we finish eating lunch and head towards one of the beaches, it’s already mid-afternoon when the sun is weakening. Plus, it’s been cloudy many days.

In trying to minimize the healing time, I was putting on aloe vera and calendula all day. A good example of things being more expensive here on the islands – a small tube of calendula costs $20.

There are a couple tv stations that have shows in the original English with Spanish subtitles (instead of just being dubbed in Spanish) – but it’s not consistent. The same station will switch back and forth between English and Spanish programming so you have to keep flipping through the stations to see switch are in English at that point.

June 26, 2009 (Friday)

Stop the presses! Big news (at least based on how people and the media have responded) – Michael Jackson is dead. I really don’t care – the guy who was important to the music industry had already ‘died’ years ago. It was only when I went online and looked at an USA news site that I found out that Farrah Fawcett also died after her battle with cancer.

While walking around town, we heard music and found the Air Force band playing in the park. And even better – we saw our landlord Jaime (pronounced Hi-may) dancing with his wife and others. Ladies on one side and the men on the other – taking turns to show their moves. The (older) men were so cute – they weren’t afraid to make a little bit of fun of themselves. I just wish today’s guys didn’t think it was so uncool to dance.

We then meet up with some other friends of Gaby’s – Carlos and his buddies who hang out at the artists’ pier. They played guitar and sang. There was an old guy who improved to known melodies – and I can only assume he was funny because everyone else was laughing. Something even funnier – they all thought I was Ecuadorian. I guess with my little tan now and not saying much, I don’t come across as a ‘gringo’.

June 27, 2009 (Saturday)

Cesar stayed home to take care of his sick family. During our down time while waiting for the next round of tourists to interview, we started talking to some of the airport security guys. After working here for three weeks, I might be making friends – and practicing my Spanish with more people.

I try to read the news pages to keep track of what is happening in the rest of the world. One story for today is that there’s an estimated 1 million cases of the Swine Flu in the USA – although most of them go unreported. And unfortunately, there have been 127 deaths due to it.

June 28, 2009 (Sunday)

We wanted to buy some groceries to make lunch at home, but forgetting that it’s Sunday – all the stores are closed. There’s a group that puts up a tent and sells food in front of the food market so decided to try it – they had a type of corn that looks like a mix with popcorn.

Six Pack came over for the evening to watch a movie – ‘Tango de Valentina’.  It’s makes me miss tango – and dancing in general.  We ended up playing different types of music – and I gave an improve performance for them (so happy).  Then I gave them a dancing lesson – trying to figure out the leader’s part along the way.  It was a really fun night!

June 29, 2009 (Monday)

We were told that we would no longer be allowed to conduct interviews after the security check. This is really bad news since we do at least half of our interviews after that point. Gaby and I do our best to get as many interviews as we can before they check-in. I spend most of the morning standing at the entrance of the security check handing out the bookmarks. All we can hope is that some of them go online to do the survey there.

After swimming at the Charles Darwin Station beach, we stopped to get some hot chocolate on our way home. Then it started raining – since I was already wet from swimming, it really doesn’t matter.

Part of the challenge of traveling is trying to keep everything running smoothly at home from long distance. My challenge this week – try to figure out what the story is with my credit card bill this month. The balance doesn’t seem right at all – and I’m having trouble getting any details on the computer or via the phone.

Galapagos – Continuing work

June 15, 2009 (Monday)

When I’m the one deciding to spend my time doing nothing (i.e. relaxing – or to be more honest for the past two years, procrastinating on schoolwork), that’s fine. But when someone else wastes my time, I don’t like it. This was one of those days. It took us two hours (instead of one) to get to the airport today – the ferry waited for a long time before it went across the canal, then it took forever for a bus to arrive to take us the rest of the way. Just waiting around makes me unhappy – and tired.

I saw an Ecuadorian family with a Down’s Syndrome child today. Based on a research paper I did for English Comp in college, I know that Down’s Syndrome is a genetic defect that leads to mental retardation. I can only assume that the genetic defect also determines the face structure as well since they all have the same ‘Down’s Syndrome face’ regardless of what cultural genetics pool they come from.

Gaby and I went to dinner at someone’s house – a guy that Gaby knows (I’ll call him 6-pack since I can never remember his name) had friends who just arrived so they were getting together and we were invited as well. I really wasn’t sure whose place we were in or who everyone was – but it was a chance to meet people.

Gaby pulled out my deck of cards because she wanted to continue looking at them from when we were playing earlier. Everyone else was interested in seeing them as well since each card shows an optical illusion. (This deck of cards was good at entertaining people on the trains in India as well.)

After dinner, we went up on the roof to enjoy the night air and look at the stars. I tried to reconcile what I saw here with what I’ve seen from my house in Massachusetts, but it just looked strange to me. There was a group of stars that looked like it might be a squished version of the Dipper, but I wasn’t really sure.

June 16, 2009 (Tuesday)

There are a lot of school groups traveling to the Galapagos this month. I’m told that Ecuadorian students make two big trips – the Galapagos at the end of 6th grade and one at the end of 12th grade which could be larger (i.e. Dominican Republic). Thinking back to my school days, I remember taking a field trip that would last one day here and there – but we didn’t take any big school trips. If you were in a language class (Spanish or German in my school), they sometimes organized a trip to a country that spoke that language – but you had to pay big bucks to go.

After collecting data for seven days, we needed to input all the information into our online SurveyMonkey.com database to get a basic idea of how the data was looking. Cesar has some agreement with the WWF (World Wildlife Office) to use their space and wireless internet after hours. It took us over 5 hours to enter all the data. In the end, we see that we have a survey completion rate of 80% (which is good – the other options are people qualify for the survey but decline to participate or people have to stop the survey before it is completed) and it’s pretty balanced between the two surveys (77 completed for version 1 and 74 completed for version 2).

The WWF facilities overlook one of the main streets in town. Through the open windows, we could hear the American tourists having dinner across the street. At one point, the ‘kids’ (at least teenagers, maybe 20 somethings) decided to hold races in the street. Since there is little traffic at that time of night, it’s really not a safety issue. But since they were loud and not considerate of disturbing anyone around them, my thoughts kept going back to the comment that the British guy made – ‘there are too many American tourists’. There’s a reason (or several) why we have earned a bad reputation.

June 17, 2009 (Wednesday)

It’s so nice to be able to sleep in until 8am (usually I get up at 6am) and be lazy on my day off. Gaby and I spent the afternoon exploring a new place – Playa Las Grietas. Just getting there is an adventure in itself. First, we take a water taxi (panga) across the harbor, then follow the signs that pass by Playa Punta Estrada and Salt Mines (more like salt pools) before marking a path amongst the rocks. At the end, we are standing in front of a lake within a gorge.

When we arrived, two tourists were getting ready to leave and then we had the place to ourselves. We had to be careful climbing down the slippery rocks towards the water. The water is cooler here since it gets less sunlight, but it’s not bad (the lakes in Minnesota and the ocean off of Maine can be a LOT colder than this).

It was so pleasant just swimming from end to end – enjoying the view and listening to the ‘music’ created by our waves hitting the rocks and crevices along the sides. A local showed up and Gaby started talking to him, then he let us use his mask and snorkel. The view of the gorge and lake itself is beautiful, but when you are able to see below the surface – it becomes more magical. The gorge continues down and you can see large fish with iridescent blue markings swimming around (I think they’re called parrotfish). I’m definitely coming back here again!

Since the water-level was low, the lake was divided into three parts by piles of rocks. Trying to cross the middle section was tricky since it wasn’t deep enough to swim in and the lichen-covered rocks were extremely slippery – I basically crawled like a crab across the way. Between the second and third part, you can use the underwater tunnel or carefully climb your way over the rock. When we were about to leave, a group of tourists showed up. Since I was wearing the mask and snorkel, seeing them was like watching an underwater ballet.

June 18, 2009 (Thursday)

On the path back to town yesterday from Playa Las Grietas, we ran into 6-pack and his friends that we had dinner with the other night. They wanted to have another dinner party. The evening didn’t turn out quite as planned – instead 6-pack came to our house to cook food – after buying stuff to cook that is.

We stopped at one of the several small specialized stores to by some fish (yes – I’m eating fish these days, it’s not too bad when it’s actually fresh). The shopkeeper opened one of the many freezers in the room and took out a chuck of frozen tuna, then went over to a jigsaw table (the saw, not the puzzle) and cut off slices to give us. On the way home, I was carrying the strangest collection of items – frozen tuna slices, a big bag of potato chips to snack on and a backgammon board to play later if we wanted.

June 19, 2009 (Friday)

It’s back to work for us. Luckily there were several tourists leaving so I was busy the whole time – even managed to get 8 surveys completed (the most so far). By the time we were finishing up, I wasn’t feeling the best. I think it was because it was warm, I didn’t get much sleep the night before and I didn’t have much to eat that morning. When we got back home, I took a nap. It must have been a long time because when I woke up, Gaby had already made and eaten lunch.

We had seen advertisements for a dance performance so we headed across town. Along the way, there are various food stands to buy skewers of roasted chicken or sausage, empanadas, fries, etc. People are out and about talking to each other, eating dinner, playing soccer or listening to music. When we arrived at the performance site, there was a band playing outside, but the building itself was empty. We figured it was better to wait outside where it was cooler. Then Anita and her family showed up so we talked with them.

Although it was suppose to start at 8pm, the crowd and dancers slowly filed in for an hour (and even long after that) before they started the show. I was really looking forward to seeing some traditional dances, but basically – I was bored. There were several groups performing, but in general – the kids weren’t always sure what they were suppose to be doing, they kept running into each other and weren’t coordinated in their movements, plus the choreography at times was extremely minimal (yes – I’m being picky based on all of my previous dance experience and observations). There was one group that did a wonderful job – they were well rehearsed and in-synch with the music. Also, there was a modern piece that had six girls and five guys – I was a bit surprised that there were so many guys willing to do it. I guess dancing doesn´t have as much of a stigma for teenage boys here as it does in the USA.

Anita, Gaby and I left to see what else was happening in town. A local band was supposedly playing in town, but no one knew where it was happening. After spending some time at the Limon y Café, I decided to head home and found a salsa band performing along the waterfront. I managed to hear the last couple songs before they packed up for the night.

June 20, 2009 (Saturday)

I had a pleasant surprise at the airport today. Some of 6-pack’s friends that we had dinner with were waiting for their flight back to Quito, before continuing onto their respective homes in Spain and North Carolina. I now know what they’re names are – the siblings Santiago and Launa. Santiago asked if I had my cards with me – yes I did (travel tip – always have a deck of cards with you since you never know when they’ll come in handy).

It’s always hit or miss at the airport. Sometimes there are no tourists, other times there are a ton – sometimes they don’t qualify since they stayed in a hotel instead of on the cruise boat. For some reason, the last AeroGal flight coming from Quito was delayed two hours. (There are two airlines that fly between the mainland (Quito via Guanyaquil) to the Galapagos Islands – Tame and AeroGal.) Our job is to survey tourists, so we moved from group to group as they were waiting for their plane to arrive. I found one group who was more than happy to participate in the survey just to have something to do to pass the time, but I had to disappoint them since they stayed in a hotel and didn’t qualify to participate (I felt bad about that).

It turns out most of these tourists stayed in hotels, and there are no buses back to the ferry until the plane arrives, so we were stuck at the airport as well. Gaby and I danced a little salsa, but it’s hard to do without music. Good thing I have my cards with me – we taught Cesar the quick game of ‘52 pick-up’, then Gaby taught me a local game. We were still waiting so we played the never-ending ‘War’.

Galapagos – Start of the real surveys

June 10, 2009 (Wednesday)

We´re back to work today.  They have decided to keep both versions of the survey because everything is useful information – it´ll give us some variation between the days.  Gaby and I decided to try a new restaurant for lunch – El Chocolate.  It has a large menu of items that seem more Western than what I would consider South American, but Gaby didn´t find it odd at all.  Luckily they still had the traditional ¨meal of the day¨ for my preference – today it came with black bean soup (yummy).

After meaning to go a couple times, I finally went farther into the Charles Darwin station to see the exhibit on the iguanas and giant tortoises.  Here´s some interesting facts for you – iguanas stand up and wait for birds to eat ticks off of them; the sex of tortoises is determined by the temperature within the nest where the eggs are stored underground.

Once again, the iguanas and tortoises evolved differently for each island based on the terrain and type of food available. Tortoises  that live on ´dryer´ islands have longer necks and a notch in their shell so they can reach up to get leaves off of trees, while tortoises on the ´wetter´ islands have shorter necks and domed shells since they have more food available at the ground level.  The famous gigantic tortoises can weight over 500 lbs and live over 100 years.

There are a couple areas within the tortoise exhibit that you can walk along a path to get a closer view of the animals.  In the giant female tortoise section, one of them was sleeping in the middle of the path so I had to tiptoe around her.  (And for the people back home who told me to ride a giant tortoise – sorry, no can do.  You are not allowed to touch the animals here in the efforts to minimize your effect on them.)

There´s a tortoise called ¨Lonesome George¨ since he is the only one of his particular species that has been found to still be alive in the area.  He lives with two females of another species that are close genetically, but George will not mate with them.  The staff continues trying to find a female of his species to try and continue the line.

June 11, 2009 (Thursday)

There weren´t very many tourists flying out of the airport today.  Cesar was under the impression that Mondays and Tuesdays would be the slowest days (and so our days off), but talking to one of the employees at the airport, it seems that Wednesdays and Thursdays might be the slowest.  This means we´ll be working Monday and Tuesday next week and compare how many surveys we are able to complete on the various days to determine what our final work schedule will be.

After being cloudy for a few days, it was good to feel and see the sun again – however, it also means it´s warmer out.  Gaby and I went to the beach that is located neat the Director´s house at the Charles Darwin station.  It is quieter here and fewer rocks.  We saw a path that continued through the trees so we took it to see where it went – it ended in a small area that has a bench to sit and observe.  There were a couple marine iguanas on rocks near us – and off to the side of the path a bit, a couple rocks were covered with a bunch of marine iguanas, including little babies.

June 12, 2009 (Friday)

Every day at the airport is different.  This morning was an odd morning – it took longer than normal for the tourists to arrive and then many of them didn´t qualify for the survey since they had stayed in hotels instead of on the cruise boats, then Gaby lost her cell phone and apparently I don´t come across as American. (I guess that´s a compliment.  And it´s not the first time I´ve gotten this while traveling around – it most surprising when it comes from other Americans.)

At the end of the survey, people can write down any additional comments they want about their visit to the Galapagos Islands.  The single additional comment by a British guy was that ¨there were too many American tourists¨.  We talked a little more and when he found out I was American, he was surprised.  (I told him I was a ¨good¨ American, not like the typical annoying American.)  He thought I was Ecuadorian with my ¨accent¨.

Since the project is funded partly by UMass Amherst and we wear the school t-shirts as our uniform, people sometimes ask if I go to school there.  Occasionally, I meet people who have a direct connection to UMass Amherst themselves.  Today, the nephew of one couple is a junior there now and the son of another lady graduated about 10 years ago.

The last Tame flight of the day was being delayed for a long time.  Since we have to catch the last buses back to the ferry with the passengers who just arrived, we headed back home instead of continuing surveys.  When we got to the dock, a ferry was coming across  with someone on a gurney to be placed in the waiting ambulance.  It turns out she got too close to the propeller while snorkeling and was being transferred to a hospital in Quito – hence the flight was being delayed for her.  I felt sorry for not only her – but all the people back at the airport who were waiting for their flight and had no idea why it wasn´t leaving.  Airlines aren´t necessarily the best at customer service in terms of sharing information.

June 13, 2009 (Saturday)

Nothing really interesting today per se – so I´ll just write random thoughts that I´ve been collecting.

This is the first time that I´ve traveling to another country and used the same currency as that of my home.  A few years ago, Ecuador switched to US dollars and now I don´t have to worry about converting prices.  Everything here is cheap compared to the USA, but two to three times more expensive than the mainland (since a lot of it needs to be imported to the islands).  It seems that all the $1 coins ended up here – really, how many do you still see in use in the US?  Although they do have their own version of the coins – the quarter, nickle and dime are roughly the same size so it´s easy to tell them apart.  They also have an additional 50 cent coin.  It doesn´t matter if you use the US or Ecuadorian version – it´s all good here.

Gaby has been helping me with my Spanish.  On the bus one day, she was trying to teach me the body parts – but they just sounded like random sounds put together in multiple syllables so I was having a hard time remembering them.  I started coming up with little tricks to make it easier – for example, the word for leg is ¨pierna¨ – so I use the trick ¨pier? nah¨to remember.  Also, the verb ¨to give¨is dar – so my trick is ¨I give a car, dar¨.  Do you remember the words now?

I´ve emailed the various Couchsurfing members in Puerto Ayora (the town I´m staying in) to see if anyone wanted to hang out.  I´ve meetAndrea and Veronica briefly at their work when I stopped in to say hello.  Tonight, Gaby and I meet Leah for ice cream.  It was nice just to sit back and enjoy the slower pace here.  There is a ¨catepillar train¨ ride that entertains people at night – while eating our ice cream and talking, it passed us by 3 times.  Although it´s Saturday, it´s really not that lively – which is partically due to the elections this weekend.

Whenever Ecuador has elections, they are held on Sunday since most people have the day off (and here – voting is required if you are older than 18, option if you are 16 or 17).  They also close all the bars for the weekend beforehand so everyone is clear headed when they go in to vote.

June 14, 2009 (Sunday)

I guess Sundays are going to be the busiest days at the airport – and the 12:30 AeroGal flight didn´t even run today.  One of the ladies I was interviewing today was with a group of blind with sighted helpers.  They made arrangements to have a special sighted guide to explain everything to the blind.  I wonder how their mental image compares to the actual view.

I had a great time swimming at the Darwin beach today and Gaby played tourist by taking lots of photos of the area.

On the way back home, I realized that Puerto Ayora is really feeling like home now.  Yes – I have many friends in Amherst after living there for seven years and almost all of my belongings are there – but it’s really not home anymore for two main reasons.  One – all my belongings are stored in a pile in the garage, and two – I no longer have a bed to sleep in when I return.  I guess ”no bed = not home”.  I know what my family will say as a follow-up to that — I have a bed to sleep in when I return to Minnesota.  But in that case, I haven’t lived in Minneapolis for nine years (and Olivia for fifteen years) – so most ties to the area (friends and work) have faded away over time.

Galapagos – Trial Run

June 5, 2009 (Friday)

We catch the 7am bus for the airport for our first day of trial interviews.  Cesar and his advisors want to test the two versions to see which one will give better results for their research model.  The first person I interview traveled around the islands on her friend´s private boat – that has to be some kind of life.

Since flights to and from the mainland only happen in the morning, we have between three to four hours a day to interview people.  The goal is for each interviewer to complete seven surveys each day.  We each manage to get between six and seven completed – some aren´t finished because people need to board their plane.

Even though Gaby and I went to the market, I wasn´t sure what to buy (and Gaby says she isn´t much of a cook).  Instead, we have settled so far on buying basics like bread, cheese and fruit to eat as breakfast at the house, then have lunch at one of the many local places.  We have found a place where we can share a lunch plate for $1.50 each — when you have juice, soup, a scoop of rice, a piece of fried plantain, a piece of the main dish (usually chicken or fish) and sauce – it´s enough to fill us up.

Since it´s Friday night, the plan was to go out and find some salsa dancing.  But after falling asleep at home, then waking up at 10pm – I was too tired to go anywhere.  When you think about it, I really have two years of sleep to catch up on since I only got about five to six hours of sleep each night during grad school.

June 6th, 2009 (Saturday)

We head back to the airport for the second day of trial interviews.  This time, we switched versions between interviewers so that the results of each survey version is not biased by the interviewer who gave that version.

The first group that arrived must have been on a high-class cruise boat because they were quickly ushered into the air conditioned VIP waiting area for their flight.  I approached a couple of them – but was quickly turned down because they couldn´t ¨spare¨ 20 minutes.  Boy – some of those rich folk can be rude.  I did manage to find a couple pleasant people from that cruise who were willing to do the survey (one lady was from South Africa so we talked a little bit about how Cape Town would be a safer place for a single female (me) to live in than Johannesburg).

After work, we grab a quick lunch at our local place and head to Tortuga Bay.  It takes about a half-hour along a stone path (which looks like a mini Wall of China), then another twenty minutes or so along Brave Beach (Playa Brava) where people surf before you go around the point and arrive at the calmer beach for swimming.

Gaby ran into a guy she knew who let us take a kayak out to explore the bay area which is lined with low mangroves.  We saw a couple turtles come up for air, large crabs along the shore (it seems that the small crabs start out black, then get redder as they grow) and various birds (one was a pelican and I think the other was a herron) –  I wish I was better at identifying animals.

Instead of the long walk back, a guy with a boat offered to drive us back to the main port in town.  It was a wild ride through the big waves (it´s ok mom – I´m safe).

We quickly gathered our bikes, ran home to collect our surveys, then found the World Wildlife Federation office to meet with Cesar and enter all the survey data so he could see which survey version gave him better results for his research model.  All my previous work in data entry has paid off – I was able to do it quickly.

Tonight, I am awake enough to explore the night life.  The bar / dance club La Panga didn´t have much going on and Limon Cafe didn´t have anyone dancing.  We ran into a guy we knew at Limon Cafe so we stayed – and he danced with us.  I have to say – the salsa here (C0lombian style) is a lot faster than what I am use to.

June 7, 2009  (Sunday)

Now that we have some trial data, Cesar is working with his advisors to determine which version of the survey will give better results for their research model.  While they figure that out, we have time off.

I went over to Cesar´s house for lunch – we had pesto, dessert was banana with nutela (good idea).  His son Matias is 2 years old and full of nonstop energy – just like the Energizer bunny.  They not only have a hammock on the front porch, but one in the central room as well.  I´ll keep that in mind whenever I have a house of my own.  Other than that, it was a quiet day at home for me to relax.

June 8, 2009 (Monday)

Another day off – this one was spent in pure relaxation.  A quiet morning (except for the work going on in the boat shop on the other side of the yard) was spent in the hammock – just slowly rocking myself back and forth while doing Sudoku (Heather – do you remember the days we use to do Sudoku puzzles during our lunch break?).

In the late afternoon (to avoid the hottest part of the day), I went to the beach at the Charles Darwin Center.  It´s high tide today and I basically have the beach to myself – there were a few people (I assume employees of the Center) who are swimming laps.  I find listening to the waves so calming.  While living in Amherst, I´ve forgotten how much I like the water.

In my mind, the days should be getting longer since it´s summer time.  However, being on the equator, the days are the same length everyday with the sun setting between 6:00pm and 6:30pm – at least it´s still warm after the sun is down.

June 9, 2009 (Tuesday)

Cesar and his advisors are still discussing the trial data, so it´s another day off for me.  Gaby and I went to Tortuga Bay to have a picnic lunch with her friend Anita, who is doing her thesis research about birds at the Charles Darwin station.  It only takes about 5 minutes to bike from our house to the entrance, but it´s a long 30 or 40  minute walk along the

¨mini Wall of China¨ to get to the beach.  We started counting the number of lizards we saw along the path to help pass the time and to practice my counting – we counted around 190.

I was afraid about being on the beach during the hottest part of the day, but it turned out to be a perfect day.  It was cloudy and we laid our blankets down under some trees for a very pleasant meal and nap.  We were entertained by Darwin´s finches hopping around us and even sitting on Gaby´s lap.  Darwin´s finches are interesting because the beaks of the finches evolved differently for each island – based on the specific type of food found on each island (eating seeds, holding cactus spines to dig bugs out of trees, etc).  We were also temporarily entertained by a baby shark that got lost and was swimming along the shore.

While we were at the beach, Anita was doing an experiment to see what colors the birds preferred to eat.  Once they have that information, they will place mix foods of the less favored colors with rat poison and place it around the island as a way to control the rat population that has gotten out of control.  The Galapagos National Park administration is constantly trying to eliminate or control invasive species (rats, goats, plants, etc.) that have been brought to the islands via humans (intentionally when they set up communities on the islands or unintentionally when they ship in materials) that disrupt the balance of the native species.

The day was perfect and I didn´t want it to end, but alas – responsibilities do exist even in paradise.  We had to go home and do laundry so it would dry in time for work the next morning.  On the walk back, I only counted 45 lizards on my side of the path.

Heading to the Galapagos Islands

May 31, 2009 (Sunday)

For the past two weeks or so, I have been busy finishing up my Master´s degree in Statistics at UMass Amherst, packing up my life to put into storage and saying farewell to everyone (sometimes multiple times).  It´s a little hard to believe I have been in Amherst for seven years (and on the East Coast for nine years) already.  The first seven years flew by quickly, but the last two during grad school have been very slow.

I´m really glad my older sister Erin came out to visit me for Commencement (little sister Meaghan is in Italy with her rugby team and my parents are babysitting my niece Hattie).  Erin is able to blend easier into my hectic schedule of packing and farewells.

Although I´ve been packing what seems like forever, the stuff never seems to end and I´m not able to finish in time to run into Boston for dinner with Melissa Gonzalez-Brenes as planned.  Instead, I´m staying up all night to finish packing the remaining items – plus packing for my summer travels.

June 1, 2009 (Monday)

Instead of finding a ¨real¨ job after graduating, I am on my way to the Galapagos Islands to help my friend Cesar Viterei Mejia collect data for his PhD dissertation research.  We will be interviewing tourists at the airport as they wait for their flight back to the mainland.

Pete St. Marie is willing to drive me to Logan Airport in the early morning hours after my attempt to finish all the packing yesterday afternoon failed (thank you, thank you, thank you).

I catch my flight to Miami and have a four hour layover (better than risking a 45 minute layover) so I call as many people as I can to pass the time.  Next stop – Quito, Ecuador.  It´s interesting that I seem to travel when there is some disease that everyone is concerned about spreading – this time it´s the swine flu.  The employees at the airport greet us with masks, gloves and a devise to measure your body temperature.

The guy I was sitting next two on the flight was retracing the steps of his travels from 30+ years earlier.  His comment about the aerial view of Quito is that there´s a lot more cars now.  I don´t know about before, but there do seem to be a lot now – especially trying to get out of the airport where Cesar picked me up.

The project staff (Cesar, Gabriela and I) had dinner together at La Boca del Lobo to meet each other.  It was a funky place where they used glass to add on a ¨patio¨ area – with heat lamps since it is in the Andes mountains.  (It still gets cool at night even though it is near the equator.)

Since I´ve been up for two days, I´m falling asleep at dinner.  It´s time to go back to Cesar´s friend´s house where I will be sleeping tonight.  I don´t remember her name, but she works with the Peace Corp office here doing training for new arrivals.

June 2, 2009 (Tuesday)

Up and at it early to catch the flight to the Galapagos Islands.  Luckily with five people traveling together (Cesar and his family, Gaby and me), we don´t have to pay extra luggage weight for everyone´s stuff.  After a stop in Guayaquil, we continue to Baltra Airport.

During WWII, Baltra Airport was an US military base so they could watch the traffic through the Panama Canal.  Now, it´s one of two airports within the Galapagos Islands.

Being the dry season, the grass is dry.  The trees are still green, but I wonder if they will stay that way during the summer.  This is also the ¨cooler¨ season since the waters surrounding the islands is coming from the south – were it is now winter in the southern hemisphere.  In all of my travels, I have finally made it south of the equator (although barely).  The ¨cooler¨ season means low 80´s instead of high 80´s.

Getting from the airport to our house is a journey in itself – we start with a short bus ride to the coast, where we take a short ferry ride (with all the luggage thrown on top of the ferry) across to Santa Cruz island, then load all the bags into the back of a taxi (all taxis here are white pickups) for a long ride to the main city of Puerto Ayora on the other side of the island.  All in all, it takes about an hour.

The house that Gaby and I are sharing is on the edge of town and a few blocks off the main road.  I really like that it comes with a hammock on the front porch and a bicycle for me to use (Gaby brought her own).  It´s located in a walled section that´s shared with two other houses (including the landlord´s), plus what appears to be a boat building or boat repair shop next to us.

After picking our rooms and unpacking a little bit, Gaby and I ride our bikes into town to explore.  We head towards the Charles Darwin research station and stop at the beach.  It reminds me of the rocky shores of Maine with boats in the harbor – except here, the water is much warmer and the black lava rocks are full of black crabs, even a few black marine laguanas are hidden among the rocks.

June 3, 2009 (Wednesday)

Since we are working at the airport, we need to have special access passes.  Gaby and I get up early and walk to the bus terminal (about 15 minutes from our house) to start the journey back to the airport to meet with the Director, turn in the original copies of our paperwork and pick up our passes.  Since the buses and ferries run according to when the flights come and go, what is really a half-hour errand takes four and half hours to get back home.

In the afternoon, Cesar comes over so we can go over what the purpose of each question on the survey is and practice giving them to each other.  There are two versions of the survey – one that focuses on protection against invasive species and the other about people´s willingness to pay a higher entrance fee into the Galapagos National Park.  Right now – Ecuadorians pay $6, other South Americans pay $50 and all other visitors pay $100.  (Thanks Grandma – your gift was spent to pay this entrance fee.  I´m sure you´re more than happy to help support the wildlife here.)

In the evening, we head to the port where the water taxis take people to the boats in the harbor and businesses across the way.  There´s constant traffic to and fro.  At the end of the pier, they have strong lights that light up the top few feet of water so you can see what´s swimming around – we see some sting rays and a glimpse of a couple small sharks — as well as a few pelicans flying around.

June 4, 2009 (Thursday)

A day off!  While we are waiting for Cesar to finish preparing the interview materials, I actually have a day off (well, almost – I had to go to the internet cafe for a couple hours to do the online training to get certified in working with human subjects as part of our research).  The last time I had a day off was back in January before the semester started – of course I ¨took¨ days off during the semester, but there was always plenty of homework that I should have been doing instead so they really don´t count.

So to celebrate the freedom – I read a book for FUN that I happened to pick up at the Miami airport.  And ended up reading the entire thing in one day – I do have a second book to read, but I´ll need to figure out where I can exchange books here so I can have reading material for the rest of my stay.

I spend the evening riding around town.  I stop to watch what appears to be a volleyball tournament and look for more animals swimming around the pier.

June 5, 2009 (Friday)

We catch the 7am bus for the airport for our first day of trial interviews.  Cesar and his advisors want to test the two versions to see which one will give better results for their research model.  The first person I interview traveled around the islands on her friend´s private boat – that has to be some kind of life.

Since flights to and from the mainland only happen in the morning, we have between three to four hours a day to interview people.  The goal is for each interviewer to complete seven surveys each day.

Mumbai

December 29, 2008

I took my long journey from Minneapolis to Mumbai.  After some mechanical delays in Minneapolis, I got to Newark in time to sit and wait for the flight to Mumbai (sometimes purposely booking a 3 hour layover does work in your favor).  While waiting in Newark, I was fully aware that I was soon boarding a plane for Mumbai – but yet it didn’t seem real at all.

All in all (to get from house to house), I traveled about 24+ hours – but it didn’t seem so long.  Of course it helped that  was reading the travel guide about India, and then on the 15 hour Continental flight from Newark to Mumbai I could pick whatever movie and/or tv show I wanted to watch.

December 30, 2008

I arrived at the Mumbai airport and managed to get through all the various steps – immigration, baggage claim, customs, etc fairly quickly – it helps that the airport wasn’t packed (although our flight was full) and the guards would wave me through the checkpoints.  Outside, Samantha’s and Apoorva’s smiling faces (friends from UMass) were waiting for me.

After figuring out how the pre-paid taxi system worked, we headed “home” – to Goregoan in North Mumbai.

Since I arrived around 10pm,  today really didn’t seem to exist.  (Which will screw me up later when I’m trying to figure out what day it is.)

December 31, 2008

Samantha and I had to joys of trying to find a cell phone office so I could buy a SIM card to use while in India.  After handing over a passport size photo, photocopies of my passport and visa, filling out multiple pages of documents and signing in how knows how many spots – the SIM card will supposedly be active in a hour (Samantha quickly said that means “tomorrow”).

While the driver took us around town to do our errands, we saw an elephant walking down the street.  It was a bit of a surprise – especially since elephants  are now banned in Mumbai.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve by joining some of expat friends that Samantha has made in town for a quiet evening of hanging out and playing Taboo – it was great meeting you Carol, Matt, Brandon, Nessa, Helena and Tom from the England, USA, Australia and Czech Republic.

It was a quiet evening until people starting shooting fireworks in the street just outside their apartment.  There was one guy who was so drunk – it was surprising he didn’t get injured each time he lit a rocket.

On the road again

I’m finally able to take a break from graduate school and leave Amherst for more than a couple days at a time.  In fact, I get five whole weeks off (so glad I don’t have to take any more comprehensive exams)!

After a last minute scramble to proctor and grade the Stats 111 finals (due to snowstorms and school cancellations), I headed towards the airport to spend xmas with my family in Minnesota.

However, the snowstorms weren’t done with me.  My flight from Hartford CT to Newark NJ was delayed several hours – which made me miss my connecting flight, leaving me stuck at the Newark airport.  It wasn’t so bad – I spent the night hanging out with the Canadians (Kevin, Ann & Chris) who were stranded due to weather as well.  (I just wish I didn’t wake up freezing cold after sleeping on the floor.)

Luckily, I was able to get a seat on the standby 7am flight to Minneapolis – instead of having to wait the entire day for the guaranteed seat on the 8pm flight.  I didn’t make it in time for my sister’s Solstice bonfire party – but I made it home.

Now that xmas is over and I still have another month before classes start again – I’m heading to India for 3 weeks.  The plan is to visit a few friends in Mumbai and travel around a bit.  We’ll see what happens.