The Far Side

A post from Erick Dowell

Montones de Arena

We’re in our final class (chuta). This means these are the last 3 weeks in paradise and the last learning experience on the enchanted isles is quickly passing us by. The class is Human Ecology and Maritime Communities (eww) it’s a very social science class for a very natural science me. But I have to admit for the amount of times I check out and go to facebook world or more often do a crucigrama or a sporcle quiz, I have been enjoying a lot of it. We’ve been talking a lot of philosophies and how it effects how we relate to our environment, especially the sea. There is obviously a focus on the Galapagos, and our professor (a pretty important person in Ecuador and a genius) is getting us to do an artisanal fishing trip to see the real effects of this activity and decide whether it’s a better alternative to fishing. He also just announced he’s going to get the Governor of the Galapagos to come to speak to us (yeh, he’s legit).

As always in the Ecuador though, unexpected things always pop up (recuerda SOPRESA!?). One of our previous professors, Judith, returned to continue her research and her work on the epidemic that is affecting the Sea Lion populations here on San Cristobal. She also asked us if we wanted to assist in a entire island census over the weekend. It involved being boated to remote beaches to stay overnight and count sea lions on the “dark side of the island” as my friend, David, said. All that were going (a group of GAIAS students and a group of local students) gathered late one night to learn all the regulations and the general plan for the next day. We each got assigned to different areas and all of us hoped for the coolest locations (BTW: Cerro Brujo & Punta Pitt are the coolest for your future reference). The people who helped here in the port with the sea lions got placed (rightfully so) in the coolest spots. I was lucky enough to get assigned to Montones de Arena (yeh, I didn’t really have any idea either). We then got randomly assigned partners. They assigned me with Junior, a local student, who likes sideways-cocked, flat-billed baseball cap and New York emblazoned shirts (match made in heaven). 

The next day all of us going skipped class bought food and pondered on the adventures we were about to have. We arrived at the old pier on the side of town with all our tents and bags ready to be boated off, even Rico (the ice cream cart driver) came to say, “chao” to us. After traveling along the east side of the island we passed Puerto Chino and a waterfall that drops dramatically to the sea. We soon reached “Mounds of Sand” and Junior and I were the first to be dropped off at our remote site. You could immediately see that we were in the middle of nowhere. One direction showed the endless Pacific and the other a desert landscaped topped with dead volcanoes. Behind the rocky shores were huge dunes of sand covered with you normal beachy brush. If you ignored the volcanic rocks and the cerulean blue waters it looks like a Carolina beach back home. Junior and I fought the wind to set up camp, rested, and went on an epic search to find our sea lions. After about 2 hours of trekking on a dramatically changing shoreline (the softest, untouched sands I’ve ever felt, basalt that looked like pillows, and fields grass waving into the distance) we found no lobos. DONDE ESTAN??? Our whole reason for being (there at least) was gone. We found some lobo bones and skat at the furthest beaches. We also found bastante marine iguanas. So we returned to camp saying that we would come here in the morning just to see if any sea lions showed up from the sea. During our down time I found out that Junior was super talkative and we covered ever possible topic I think, from marriage to American culture (due to lacking in a few key vocabulary words he might now think the US is just like American Pie, whoops), but eventually ocean breezes and shooting stars plying through the Milky Way put us both to sleep.

El Amanecer

                We awoke a las 4 and hiked to our spot. Cero lobos………………UN LOBO!!!!!............no mas lobos……..DOS LOBOS!! In the twilight as dawn approached, every rock looked like a lobo sleeping or doing their morning yoga routine, but in the end we spotted 2, a measly two indicating that the colony must have moved or died out. We walked back along an already made path strewn with horse dung, dog tracks, and a row of goat skulls (to be quite honest this made me fear for nightly visitors). We paused to watch one of the most beautiful sunrises that I’ve ever seen. 

    It wasn’t that bright, incoming rain(?) clouds hung low so it just blazed the color of a red hot poker in between a jeweled Pacific and cotton candy sky. It seems that the boat that was supposed to pick us up was late in retuning, so our little excursion lasted till 3ish in the afternoon leaving me with a gnarly sunburn and the beach a whole lot cleaner since we passed our time listening to Junior’s Ecuajams and picking up the mucha basura. Eventually though we spotted Jorge (a park ranger/veterinarian/ I have no idea) tearing towards us on the zodiac. What a great adventure!

               

  After reviewing our times apart and sleeping a lot a group of us went diving at Punta Pitt (the northernmost part of San Cristobal Island). It is supposed to be more tropical because of the Panamic current and there are also supposed to be WHALE SHARKS!! We had an hour and a half boat ride passing the iconic Leon Dormido and Cerro Brujo. 

Yours Truly

Moorish Idol

     We were soon there jumping into some wonderfully warm water. Scott (probably one of the best dive partners ever-the other is David) was my partner this time and we kept a sharp look out for whale sharks, but not soo much that we missed the Moorish Idol that nonchalantly cruised by. Gil, from Finding Nemo, that’s who it was and that was one of my favorite diving moments, having Scott and I jointly freaking out after seeing this beautiful character. After we calmed we had fallen behind the group, but this gave us the opportunity to have a Dave Master point out the field of garden eels, an eagle ray, and various tropical trigger fish. Scott tried to show me some bite marks on coral, but I guess I missed the memo on bitten coral hand signal cause I was super confused. Scott had I think his second best experience underwater (after seeing hammerheads) we he got surrounded by his favorite fish, the bullseye puffer. 

Scott and his aquatic love

A Galapagos Puffer and some Tortugas later we were back on the surface. We passed our surface time with a quick snorkel around the rock where we could see more Idols, trigger fish, a school of mullet, and I saw a bacalao (this one is a grouper not a cod and is endangered probs cause they taste so darn good). If we got bored with that we could easily just turn upside down a watch the red-footed boobies fly above our heads. Our next dive was at the ol’ Leon Dormido. I’m not bored o it yet but it’s cool that I am now familiar with the underwater topography of a certain place. This time though the currents were crazy and just spent my time trying to stay at depth (gauge was broke). It all turned out alright and we got to warm up to some jumping mantas in the distance and a quick relaxing stop at Puerto Grande. 

Cerro Brujo

Galapagos Puffer

 We’re all both dreading and preparing for the end here, and I’m no different. Now I only have a fishing trip, a 10 page paper, and a final between me and the completion of the semester (only 10 days). It’s about 12 till I’m back in the states and with casi demasiado good memories and my only CD of Christmas music (This Warm December by Jack Johnson and friends-thanks Marissa!) I might just make it there.

Adios to Puerto Grande