Believe it or not our last day on the ship and Juan wants us up even earlier.
This has definitely not been the trip for sleeping in! This morning it is up at 5:15 for a zodiac ride through a mangrove.
We switched things around this morning and went for the zodiac rode first and then back to the ship for breakfast. Once again it was a beautiful mangrove, this was one much larger than the one we were in earlier in the week. Again the water is so clear that it was very easy to see turtles, the white tip reef sharks, some rays and lots of birds.
Back to the ship and we had one hour for breakfast and finish packing.
We are back at the Island of Baltra now, this is where the tour started and where the airport is.
It was very sad to say good-bye to the crew, you see so much of them during the week. Juan came with us to the airport, Andre and I, as well as 3 other people who booked through the same agent as we did are staying on the Islands for another 2 nights but we all go to the airport together anyway. Two other people decide they would like to stay longer as well so now there are actually more people staying than there are leaving, it was very easy for them to change their flights.
We are at the airport by about 8:30 and everyone is organized we say our good-byes to those leaving and meet our next tour guide for the land portion of the trip. The 5 original people are staying in the same hotel and we are starting off the day with a tour of a farm that grows coffee beans and sugar cane.
The farm was pretty much a one man operation, he walked us through the sugar cane and explained what the different kinds of sugar cane were used for. This farmer was so cute, he was probably in his 70’s didn’t speak a word of English, and every time he said something funny to the guide he would kill himself laughing, it was so contagious, we had no idea what he was saying but you had to laugh along anyway.
After the walking tour through the sugar cane he explained the processing to turn the sugar cane into juice and showed us how the machine worked to get the juice out of the sugar cane. This is all done by hand, we sampled the juice, I liked it, Andre wasn’t so impressed.
Then we saw how he turned the coffee beans into the coffee beans that we purchase by removing the skins, drying, and roasting. All of the coffee here is organic and Andre says delicious, I passed on this sample. I did try a sample though of the sugar cane that was turned into liquor, not so delicious, very very strong, definitely not something I would buy.
After this tour we moved on to our hotel in Puerto Ayora, we had been here earlier on our ship tour, this is where the Charles Darwin Research Center is. We will be spending 2 nights here.
We started off with lunch with our tour guide at our hotel and another person who is a marine biologist at the research center also joined us for lunch.
We had no idea this was all going to happen. The marine biologist had a whole slide presentation with her to talk about the research center and the Galapagos, by this time we were exhausted and she told us we didn’t have to watch the slide show. It was so interesting to hear about her work and she really reinforced everything that Juan had taught us during the week, so it was a great refresher. Her speciality is sea cucumbers, can you imagine going through all that education and then specializing in sea cucumbers? At least she could have picked something cute to look at all the time.
She explained a little about the huge loss of sea cucumbers throughout the worlds oceans and how we still know so little about how it will impact the rest of the living things.
The Asians fish these for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities, I still think she should have picked something cuter.
Both of our guides have lived in Puerto Ayora since the early 90’s, and both are originally from the mainland of Ecuador.
We also run into Juan with his 1 year old daughter, he and his wife and daughter live in this town, and he is off the ship for 2 weeks now. He does 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off.
We arrange a meeting spot with everyone else for supper and 6 of us end up going out for supper. We laughed so much reminiscing about the week and the different characters on board, I am going to write a little summary about everyone at the end of this.
Dinner over and we are back at the hotel by about 9:30. We have arranged meeting everyone again tomorrow to venture out to find a beach to relax on for the morning, it will be nice to not have to be up at 5:30!!!
I was to find something for our 25th but nothing has really stood out yet, but we haven’t left yet! I want to find something that is made in the Galapagos, I know it is out there I just need to find it. We run into Sylvain in town who is one of the extra tag alongs, he is too tired to meet us for supper tonight because he is having a really early night as he has booked a dive trip for tomorrow.
For anyone who is thinking about diving here it is recommended that you have at least 60 dives under your belt before you come here for a dive trip.
Lunch is over and we are all in very bad need for a nap. Andre and I walk over to look at the little pool that is across the street for our hotel, I don’t think we’ll be using it. We also notice a little laundry right down the street, and I nearly jump for joy. I so need some clean shirts and Andres are nearly walking around they are so bad. We load up what we think we’ll need for the rest of the week and Andre takes it over, 1.50 per kilo, you drop it off and pick it up and it is clean and folded for you, honestly about the best 4.00 we’ve spent, it will be so nice to have clean clothes!!
A quick nap and then we go for a walk in town. We have pretty much seen all of the tourist shops stuff so we decide to only hit the boutiques and galleries, of which there are probably 10 in town. There are some fantastic artisans in town, and really fun to look at original work.
One of the biggest problems is population growth, the Islands are growing by more than 6% a year population wise. You have to realize these islands have no sewer systems, and very little fresh water, the town we are in now has 13,000 residents, and many tourists here for day trips from the cruise ships as well as tourists that choose to stay on the Islands rather then do a cruise.
They have tackled part of the immigration problem by introducing new laws in the late 90’s, you cannot simply move here from the main land of Ecuador or anywhere else any longer, you must have been born here, have a parent that was born here, to live here permanently. You can get temporary residency if you are in a profession they need here, I would imagine a lot of the scientists are still from other places around the world.
A very interesting problem they have, and to compound the problem of course politics comes into play, and Ecuador does not have the most stable government, right from the president to the minister of environment and so many levels of government there are so many changes so frequently that it is very hard to get any laws passed.
We started off with lunch with our tour guide at our hotel and another person who is a marine biologist at the research center also joined us for lunch.
We had no idea this was all going to happen. The marine biologist had a whole slide presentation with her to talk about the research center and the Galapagos, by this time we were exhausted and she told us we didn’t have to watch the slide show. It was so interesting to hear about her work and she really reinforced everything that Juan had taught us during the week, so it was a great refresher. Her speciality is sea cucumbers, can you imagine going through all that education and then specializing in sea cucumbers? At least she could have picked something cute to look at all the time.
She explained a little about the huge loss of sea cucumbers throughout the worlds oceans and how we still know so little about how it will impact the rest of the living things.
The Asians fish these for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities, I still think she should have picked something cuter.
Both of our guides have lived in Puerto Ayora since the early 90’s, and both are originally from the mainland of Ecuador.
We also run into Juan with his 1 year old daughter, he and his wife and daughter live in this town, and he is off the ship for 2 weeks now. He does 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off.
We arrange a meeting spot with everyone else for supper and 6 of us end up going out for supper. We laughed so much reminiscing about the week and the different characters on board, I am going to write a little summary about everyone at the end of this.
Dinner over and we are back at the hotel by about 9:30. We have arranged meeting everyone again tomorrow to venture out to find a beach to relax on for the morning, it will be nice to not have to be up at 5:30!!!
I was to find something for our 25th but nothing has really stood out yet, but we haven’t left yet! I want to find something that is made in the Galapagos, I know it is out there I just need to find it. We run into Sylvain in town who is one of the extra tag alongs, he is too tired to meet us for supper tonight because he is having a really early night as he has booked a dive trip for tomorrow.
For anyone who is thinking about diving here it is recommended that you have at least 60 dives under your belt before you come here for a dive trip.
Lunch is over and we are all in very bad need for a nap. Andre and I walk over to look at the little pool that is across the street for our hotel, I don’t think we’ll be using it. We also notice a little laundry right down the street, and I nearly jump for joy. I so need some clean shirts and Andres are nearly walking around they are so bad. We load up what we think we’ll need for the rest of the week and Andre takes it over, 1.50 per kilo, you drop it off and pick it up and it is clean and folded for you, honestly about the best 4.00 we’ve spent, it will be so nice to have clean clothes!!
A quick nap and then we go for a walk in town. We have pretty much seen all of the tourist shops stuff so we decide to only hit the boutiques and galleries, of which there are probably 10 in town. There are some fantastic artisans in town, and really fun to look at original work.
One of the biggest problems is population growth, the Islands are growing by more than 6% a year population wise. You have to realize these islands have no sewer systems, and very little fresh water, the town we are in now has 13,000 residents, and many tourists here for day trips from the cruise ships as well as tourists that choose to stay on the Islands rather then do a cruise.
They have tackled part of the immigration problem by introducing new laws in the late 90’s, you cannot simply move here from the main land of Ecuador or anywhere else any longer, you must have been born here, have a parent that was born here, to live here permanently. You can get temporary residency if you are in a profession they need here, I would imagine a lot of the scientists are still from other places around the world.
A very interesting problem they have, and to compound the problem of course politics comes into play, and Ecuador does not have the most stable government, right from the president to the minister of environment and so many levels of government there are so many changes so frequently that it is very hard to get any laws passed.
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