Galapagos - Las Grietas y Garrapatero

The salt marsh and the bar enroute Las Grietas.

On Friday afternoon I headed to "Las Grietas", by first crossing to the bay with the $.60 water taxi, and then walking past the mangroves over volcanic rock to a deep grotto of rock. The deep clear water had an occasional large snapper swimming through it, which would vanish once someone jumped from the 40-80ft rock ledges into the water below. I met up again with a tour guide called Darwin, who is a great guy - we played soccer at Tortuga Bay together last weekend. On the way back I started talking to two other people, Shaun and Alejandra, who were also strangers, and we ended up having impromptu adventures. These started by having a caipirinha at the bar and then being invited by the bar owner into his house - an expat with a crazy sense of humor. His humble abode had the most impressive view of the moonrise over the water and we danced with family for a few hours and tried homebrewed vodka, before he ferried us back to town in his own skiff.


Pre-jump adrenaline.

After a night of dancing in the town's one and only club, Bongo's, Shaun and I decided to go camping at Garrapatero. Shaun was an investment banker on Wallstreet just 6 months ago, but he "capitalized" on the real estate downturn and became a happy go-lucky vagabond cruising South America. Everyone told him it was impossible to get a cargo ship to the Galapagos these days - but after 1 weeks of pleading he managed to get a spot above the banana crates, where ants bit his lip. He said it was pretty aweful, second only to spending 2 weeks in the Bolivian jungle with a native guide having a "real Amazon experience" - eating worms, having no mosquito nets, hunting with a bow and arrow. I was proud of Shaun.




Playa de Garrapatero and surroundings.

Playa de Garrapatero was a scenic beach 30 minutes by taxi from the town. It was full of people on tour when we arrived but they all left. We were an absolute hit with the big crowd of Ecuadorian schoolteachers who were here on a work vacation - they wanted to take pictures with us and our tent, at least 20 times. We were sad that the flamingos weren't around in the lagoon area; but we had an excellent time regardless.


A crowd of Ecuadorian schoolteachers overtook our campsite.

Galapagos - working with CI

I set up my office in the outside patio - nice and cool with the breeze.

I am assisting the people at the Conservation International (CI) office in Galapagos with two projects. The first is a research vessel, actually a "barge" called Tiburon Martillo (hammerhead shark in spanish) which will be posted in the Wolf and Darwin Islands, a remote part of the Galapagos archipelago.

These islands are just big rocks in the middle of the ocean, but there's a lot going on: they are a major breeding ground for hammerhead and whale sharks, and have some of the last remaining coral in the Galapagos, after 90% of it was wiped out by the last few El Nino events. More tour operators are coming to the area as the SCUBA diving is world-class, and some consider it the best in the world in terms of watching megafauna. The islands are also a haven for fishing - legal and illegal. The mafia-like illegal shark fin industry supplying the Asian market has exploded in the Pacific and there are even boats coming from Costa Rica to exploit the sharks, which in turn is destroying the ecosystem, which depends on sharks for top-down control.


The fisherman's wharf in the Puerto Ayora waterfront, where they sell fillets of "pescado blanco" for $2/lb.

The "Tiburon Martillo" barge will stay in this isolated area, with a crew of 7 or 8, to conduct scientific research, monitor, and enforce regulations. Its a major endeavor, logistically and financially, and my role is to figure out how to better integrate the private sector (tourism and fishing) with this project.

The second project CI is doing here is the "Zero Anchors" initiative, which is trying to set up mooring balls along all the anchorages that are heavily visited by tourism boats. After you see the size of the boats at Puerto Ayora it is easy to understand why this is so important - 50 foot boats are dwarfed by several mini-cruise ships and mega-yachts that take tourists around to each of the islands every week. Their anchor and chain can clear 100 feet of whatever is on the seafloor, and more when the seas are rough. There are literally scrubbing clean the very habitat that the tourists are coming to see - hence the hope that they'll be able to use (and pay for) these mooring balls, instead of their anchoring equipment.

I'm excited about what I'll be doing, particularly since it's quite open ended - and I'm hoping that I can get on some of those boats...



View of the Puerto Ayora pier and anchorage from the top floor of the supermarket, Proinsular.

Mexico and Ecuador

In May this year, I received an Ambassadorial Scholarship from Rotary International to study and work in Central America during 2009-2010. Two Rotary Clubs sponsored my application: Santa Barbara Sunrise and Goleta Evening. What follows is my letter to them about my trip to Mexico and the first part of my trip to Ecuador.

Hi Gary, Harold, and Rotary friends,

I hope you're doing well this summer, and that the ash hasn't been too bad. I hope that the fires in Santa Barbara will soon be under control, if they aren't already.

I've been having an amazing time so far during my trip. First, I spent two weeks in Mexico, in the vicinity of Zihuatanejo (just north of Acalpuco, in the southern part of the mainland) doing research for my graduate thesis. The other 4 people in my group were also there, and we did several site visits to Playa Viva, which is the eco-resort that we are using as our case study. Our group is looking at examples of socially responsible investment in property, with a focus in the tourism industry in Mexico, and this could turn out to be a good role model for "green development".

Our first tour of the Playa Viva site was carried out impromptu by someone we met on the road: Canadian expat Bob, who has spent 30 years in the area and makes Aztec stone sculptures. The site is a mix of estuaries, palm trees, native vegetation, and sand dunes - it's really beautiful and full of animals - 85% of the land will remain preserved according to Playa Viva's plans. Canadian Bob took us to the turtle sanctuary, which Playa Viva helps support, and we watched newborn turtles scurry into the ocean. In days to come we also met with the architect, the permaculture specialist, and other community members.

Besides the turtle sanctuary, Playa Viva assists the community agriculture program in the area, which promotes organic farming practices; as well as the recycling program in the local township. The resort will be built with natural materials and will have on-site solar energy generation. Most impressively, they have an extensive restoration project to bring back the native vegetation and restore one of the lagoons which previous palm plantations had filled. In all, the development could actually improve the biodiversity of the region, and will hopefully bring positive benefits to the local community. We are now conducting background research on the project, which will be discussed in greater detail in our master's thesis. Although every development has impacts, and none can be perfect, it's still exciting to see that people are becoming increasingly conscientious about environmental and social issues these days.

Besides working on our project, we also spent plenty time of at the beach - the days were warm with a nice amount of cloud cover, and regular thunderstorms would cool down the temperature. Every other night there were lightning storms which we watched in the distance or hunkered down as they went over us. Even so, we often used fans or A/C to stay cool at night. During the days, we drove north to different surfspots, where we'd rent boards and get waves; or we'd drive south into Zihuatanejo itself (about 30 minutes) to get a bite to eat. Often, we just stayed at home and enjoying the ocean right in front, since we were fortunate to be in a beautiful house on the beach - courtesy of the family of one of our team members.

Crossing the channel from Baltra to Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos

After my two weeks finished, I had a full day of travel to arrive in Guayaquil, the second largest city in Ecuador, which lies on the southern part of the coast. Although it seemed fairly peaceful, a number of people advised me to be careful in Guayaquil - the folks from the organization I will be interning with organized a homestay with a family. It was quite nice, their son showed me around the town and we had some good Ecuadorian meals - plantains, beans, roast beef, etc. I spent two night there, and then got the morning flight to the Galapagos islands.

At my school (Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, at UCSB), all the master's students need to complete a summer internship. I was lucky enough (and worked hard for it!) to find an internship in the Galapagos with Conservation International, an organization whose mission is to support biodiversity of flora and fauna around the world. My work will likely be in the financing and communication documents to support a research vessel based in the Wolf and Darwin Islands, a remote part of the archipelago that is a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.

The fishing port at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island

I arrived on Saturday, and the plane landed on the small island of Baltra; we then took a shuttle to a ferry, in order to cross the channel and arrive in the island of Santa Cruz; at which stage we took a taxi (they are all white pickup trucks here) which took me to the main town of Puerto Ayora, and finally to my accommodations at the Charles Darwin Foundation, where I am being housed. It is located in the outskirts of town, right on the water's edge, with lush vegetation all around. Walking around, one must be careful not to step on the ubiquitous marine iguanas; this is especially challenging as they like to flounder on the black lava rocks by the beach, and camouflage perfectly so that it looks as if "the rock starts moving".

Marine Iguana that likes to hang around near the "comedor".

At night in the waxing moon I walked about the property and watched the giant tortoises asleep - they're like big mounds. On Sunday my new Ecuadorian friends, who are volunteering at the Foundation, took me to the long sandy beach west of town, which also has a nice clear lagoon. The weather has been cloudy, this being the season for such conditions, but it makes things cool and comfortable even though we're right under the line of the Equator. The folks from Conservation International lent me a bicycle and I've been exploring the town, which is larger than I expected, but small enough that we often need to wait one week for "special supplies" like copies of my office keys.

I'll be here for a month and a half, after which I'll travel around the islands and the Ecuadorian mainland; and finally return to California around the 16th of September. I'll send other updates in the weeks to come.

Have a great summer and we'll talk soon!
Best,

Kristian

Nighttime on the waterfront of Puerto Ayora, Galapagos.