Ecuador Volcano

How much better than this does it get?

Saturday and Sunday

Fernandina Island (30 Nov. 2008)

We're at a point now where it's really difficult to write about what happened today because so many things have happed. I'm writing this at 6:30 pm, and we've already enough activities to fill half a week.

We started out this morning on Fernandina Island, where marine iguanas, sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, flightless cormorants, and Galapagos hawks were to be found in abundance.

One of the most awe-inspiring aspects of this trip is the way that the animals are largely indifferent to human presence. Some of the other high points were getting to watch marine iguanas eat algae, seeing a whale skeleton, and watching a Galapagos hawk eating an iguana. Geologically speaking, this was also an interesting outing. Lava flows and lava tubes and crevices were everywhere. The ground was buckled as if shattered by a wave.

 

Snorkeling at Ecuador Volcano (30 Nov. 2008)

Okay, so I was totally freaked out by the phrase "Deep Water Snorkeling." However, it was one of the best experiences of the trip.

We rode a panga along the coast to a cove out of the sight of the Santa Cruz. Turning and jumping out of the boat for my second snorkeling experience was great. I had the breathing down, the mask was good, excellent start. From there, we swam along the cliff face looking down at schools of fish and flowing locks of algae. Cutting across the channel, we rounded a corner and came face to face with a sea turtle that swam directly to us. It was less than a meter from our faces when a sea lion swam by and diverted its attention. Swimming on, we saw several more sea turtles and at least 17 Golden Rays. I saw a school of five swimming and then with the rest of the group there was a group of eleven.

Back in the panga, we boated along the coastline looking for Galapagos penguins. We saw many Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants, sea lions, marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, and fur sea lions.

Back on the ship by 5pm , I'm not sure what else we could possibly pack into today.

 

Random Observations (30 Nov. 2008)

Stendahl, in his descriptions of travelling in Venice, described a situation where a person could be so totally enticed, surrounded, and taken in to a piece of art that they could lose track of everything outside of the art. The enormity and scope and fullness of the beauty sublimely and serenely terrorizes us.

 

 Espanola Island (29 Nov. 2008)

This morning we disembarked from the boat for Espanola Island, also known as Hood Island. This was the first place we went to that was literally crawling with marine iguanas. Walking around the island, we saw nazca boobies, blue footed boobies, waved albatross, lava lizards, marine iguanas, Galapagos hawks, lava flows, sea lions, and Sally Lightfoot crabs. Tons of stuff.

One of the high points was getting to see the waved albatross. It gave us English nerds a great Rime of the Ancient Mariner moment, which led to a pre-dinner recitation of the poem.

We also got to see the albatross courtship dance. Very cool.

Scenery was fantastic. Pictures can say so much more than I ever can (so they'll be posted soon).

 

Floreana Island (29 Nov. 2008)

On Floreana Island we had a wet landing and then hiked around to see pink flamingos, some sea turtles swimming in the ocean, and a baby ray.

In this case, there are no pictures because I thought I was going to be snorkeling instead of hiking, but ended up not snorkeling.

 

The M/V Santa Cruz Day 1

Disembarkation (11-28-08)

We started the day today with a few spare minutes to run errands (mailing postcards for me), and then we had a lecture from Arturo regarding water sustainability in the Galapagos. Afterwards, we loaded up and boarded ship on the M/V Santa Cruz (M/V = motorized vessel). Needless to say, I didn't start out with sea legs. Until after lunch and a Dramamine, I was pretty queasy.

After lunch, however, was a different story. We cruised to Cerro Brujo (witch hill) and walked out on to the beach to go snorkeling. As soon as we hopped out of the raft into the water, you could immediately tell that there was no human presence on that side of the island. A few feet away were scattered the sun-bleached bones of a dead sea-lion. A few feet away an other sea lion was rotting in the sand while a finch flitted from its head to its fins. Completing the scene was a nearly decomposed blue-footed booby. This scene, maybe as much as any other, sums up the Galapagos for me. There are constant reminders that this beautiful area always has a contrary side, whether it is pollution, habitat destruction, over colonization, unsustainable tourism, etc.

On the other side of the beach I went snorkeling for the first time. When I'd thought about the trip, I'd planned on hiking at every opportunity. Now, I think I'm going to shift gears and go snorkeling at every opportunity. The water was nearly transparent with occasional clouds of sand disturbed by flippers and stingrays.

While I was still drifting and trying to get my mask adjusted I looked down and two sea lions swam directly below me. A few minutes later I swam through a school of fish. Later, I got to see a puffer fish from a few meters away. Just a few minutes later I got to watch a stingray settle into the sand. Never mind the countless colorful fish I couldn't begin to name. Needless to say, I'm now hooked on snorkeling. I'd planned on hiking every time there was an option of things to do, now it's going to be all about snorkeling!

 

Time to work (11-28-08)

After snorkeling, we came back to the ship and broke up into groups based on subject areas. Our goal as a group over the next few days is to design a unit that integrates environmental education into our curriculums.

In individual conversations over the past few days, several of us have talked about the tension between the simultaneous beauty and harshness of nature. We decided to call our unit the Paradox of Paradise, and it will focus on the progression of images of nature in literature through idealism with the romantics to nature's role as an impassive obstacle in modernism.

It was fun to get to collaborate with other teachers who get as excited about literature and poetry as I do. This was definitely another high point of the trip.

 

 

Awesome day.

 

Last Day in San Cristobal

School Visits (11-27-08)

Today I went to Liceo Naval in the morning to teach a short lesson. All I knew in advance was that the lesson was supposed to be on how to paint for high schoolers. After mentally preparing for the task, I took a taxi to the school ($1 to anywhere in the town I'm in… Puerto Baqerizo) with Arturo Keller, a professor from the University of California Santa Barbara who is travelling with us. Arturo worked his Spanish magic and found my class. My class of 6 and 7 year olds. Who couldn't use paint for fear of dirtying their uniforms. It was all for the best, though. We did a lesson where I had them draw a picture using colored pencils, and then I had to try to try what was in their picture in Spanish, and they had to try to say what was in the picture in English.

Overall, the lesson went well and was a huge adrenaline rush. Back home, I will DEFINITELY feel like I have something in common with students who don't speak English.

The biggest culture shock of the lesson wasn't so much that we spoke different languages, but more so it was the fact that they were 6 and 7 year olds. I have a 7 year old at home, but 1 Bailey is VERY different from a room full of 7 year olds. Even with the language barrier I could see familiar types of students… the rowdy boys, obviously, but also the kids who were keenly and intently focused on paying attention and doing a good job; the kids who needed extra attention and constant affirmation; the sweet kids who try primarily to please; the clingy kids who just want to be close to the adult.

It was a great eye-opening experience.

 

Cerro Terijetas (11-27-08)

After the school visit, I had a quick lunch (hamburguesa completa… a hamburger with a fried egg on top) and headed back to the general hotel area. We had a big chunk of free time, so I was painfully indecisive about what to do. I settled on just going for a short walk. I ended up at the beach where several other teachers were snorkeling. I didn't have snorkeling stuff, plus I had my camera and laptop in my bag, so I bummed around the beach taking pictures of sea lions until I found a trail. It was an unmarked trail, so I figured I would just follow it for a little while and then turn  back.

Once I started, though, the sights were too good to pass back. It turns out the trail was to the top of Cerro Terijetas (Frigatebird hill). On the way to the top, there was an old military cannon and several observation decks. From the observation decks, you could see out into the ocean and watch frigatebirds coasting in the air currents.

After the cannon was a statue of Charles Darwin overlooking the site where Darwin first set foot in the Galapagos. The statue overlooked a small cove that had crystal clear and blue water. From the top of the hill I could see to the bottom of the ocean. There were also several rock outcroppings/cave looking crevices as well as sea lions resting on the rocks. Simply amazing.

Another striking thing about the trail was how it was all over volcanic rock, and how on almost every step lava lizards would run away.

After an hours walk, I was back to the start of the trail. From there, it was back to Puerto Baquerizo.

 

The Town (11-27-08)

Coming back from Frigatebird hill, I met up with Sherri (a librarian from Utah) and Lena (a literature teacher from Balitmore) souvenir shopping. Sherri ducked into a shop, but we continued on past the end of the main strip (Avenida Darwin). This was the kind of view I've been looking for of San Cristobal. We walked down maybe 10 blocks or so through rows of small stores, markets, restaurants, and houses. We continued walking about five blocks away from the ocean and into the true residential areas of town. This is where the tension between people and the land is most evident. Garbage littered the ground by the bagful. Some houses were falling in, while others were in a serious state of disrepair with miscellaneous construction materials lying around. In this setting, you could also see luxury homes built up a hill and overlooking the surrounding areas. There were even some cases where the shaky single level homes that looked like they were ready for demolition shared a wall with multistory houses with ornate wrought iron gates and fences. There were lots of chickens, stray dogs, and a soccer game or two going on in a large compound labeled Association de Futbal.

Heading back towards the sea, there was a recycling center (possibly), a carpenter, and several other small stores.

Back by the sea on Charles Darwin Avenue some local fishermen were gutting fish and throwing out the guts, which caused quite a ruckus with the frigatebirds. We met Eduardo, John, and Renee on the peer and were almost knocked into the water by frisky frigatebirds.

 

Thanksgiving Dinner (11-27-08)

I made it back in to the hotel around 6:15, leaving me enough time to get ready for our dinner with the Galapaguenan school teachers. Our Thanksgiving meal was at 7, and we had turkey, gravy, pasta salad, and arroz con aceites. Muy sabroso. We were entertained by local dancers, and, thankfully, I wasn't pulled onto the dance floor like so many of my peers. While people were being pulled from the audience, Britta (science and art, Seattle), Michelle (science, Louisiana), and I were busy shrinking behind people and support columns, anything that would make us invisible. I was lucky to sit next to two people who claimed to be as rhythm-less as me.

After the meal, I came back downstairs to repack before we depart for the M/V Santa Cruz tomorrow morning.

Hasta manana!

 

Busy Day (26 Nov. 2008)

Galapagos Board of Education (11-26-08)
Howdy, all.
Today was the first day of the program where we’ve gone 24 hours without a flight or an upcoming flight the next morning. To make the most of it, the day was cram-packed.
After a great breakfast of eggs, ham, tofu, and toast, we walked to GAIAS again to meet with the Board of Education of the Galapagos.
In the meeting, we talked a lot about the pressures facing the Galapagos and the things they are trying to do to fix those problems. The key idea in Galapagos is tension: tension between conservation and tourism, tension between the inhabitants of the island and immigrants from mainland Ecuador, and tension between the tourists and the residents.
Galapagos, like any ecosystem, needs balance, and due to laws, policies, etc., it is harder and harder for balance to be found. The most promising news on this front is that there is beginning to be increased cooperation between the government of Ecuador, the school system, and the Charles Darwin Research Station, and UNESCO.
I am continually amazed by the things I see here. Stepping off the plane, yes, it was awesome, but it wasn’t the biological wonderland I’d been picturing in my mind. Sure, the wonders are here, but they are against a backdrop of construction, paving, poverty, and degeneration. One of my very first glimpses of the islands from the airplane was of a bulldozer razing half of a small mountain. This scares me the most because I see so many similarities between the Galapagos and the Smokies—similar tensions, similar biological diversity, similar problems. Seeing unrestricted growth, here or back home, scares me senseless. Fortunately, a lot of work is being done now in schools on the islands to create awareness of the issues and to foster ownership of the islands and stewardship for the islands. It’s my hope that when I get back, we’ll be able to do more at school to help foster those attitudes.

The Farm (11-26-08)
Stinkin’ awesome. That’s all I’ve got to say.
After leaving GAIAS this morning, we took the bus into the highlands, crossing the island. Our destination was an organic farm in the mountains. The road was muddy and steep, so, after the bus got stuck, we had to get out and walk up to the farm. It was great to get out of the bus and into the green. Whereas most of the island we’ve seen so far has been brown and dry, the farm was in the higher, wetter regions, so it was lush and inviting.
Along the side of the dirt road were planted corn, bananas, coffee, and bamboo.
Once up to the farmer’s house, we got to see and sample many different locally grown fruits---tree tomatoes, oranges, and bananas. Never has a banana tasted as good as the one I picked from the bunch today. It’s no comparison to the “reduced for quick sale” bananas back home. So far, I’ve succeeded in having locally grown bananas at every meal for the past two days! It is definitely my new favorite fruit. I also learned that the little black seeds in bananas are almost always sterile, and that the plants multiply by sending out shoots from the main plant. So, the banana orchard (?) we saw was composed of plants that all shot off of a couple of plants.
At the farm, we also got to milk a cow and taste some coffee beans fresh off the tree. Coffee is part of the same family of plants as cherries, so the fruit doesn’t taste at all like coffee.
They also roast their own coffee at the farm, and today I drank coffee that was grown, collected, sorted, dried, roasted, ground, and brewed all on the same property (a feat worthy of Sam… who’s already done it J ). We also drank water from a stalk of bamboo that is reported to be good for the health of your kidneys. Bamboo is not native to the Galapagos, but it is good on the farms because it grows quickly and can be used as building material, fencing, etc., and it can also serve as shade for the coffee trees.
The best part of the farm was the family. The husband, wife, uncle, and kids were all very gracious and exuberant and happy. They bent over backwards to make us feel comfortable and to show us the things they do.

El Junco (11-26-08)
After leaving the farm, we hiked up to El Junco, a freshwater lake in the crate of a volcano. Being on islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Galapagos don’t get much rain. That makes it doubly impressive to find such a massive lake in the mountains that is filled entirely by rain and mist (called garua… it’s like a wet fog).
The pictures say more about El Junco than I ever could, so I will post them soon.

Restaurant Voluntidad de Dios (11-26-08)
I have no idea if I’ve remembered the name of the restaurant correctly, but I will keep in my tradition of describing meals. There’s just something cool about walking in to see chickens running free range all over the property, knowing, “hey, I’m going to eat some of your kinfolk in a minute.” It sounds kind of gruesome, but it sure beats the American meat system where the birds are cram packed into small spaces with their beaks cut off so they can’t peck each other. We had fried chicken, baked potato of some sort (very small, very fluffy, very sweet), and rice. The restaurant was in a beautiful setting. Probably one thing I will miss the most about the Galapagos is how all of the buildings let the outside in. Very few have completely sealed walls/ceilings. Even the school buildings don’t have gyms; they just have basketball courts with a large tin roof over them. I’ll also miss the fact that a 12 oz Pepsi in Quito is twenty cents.

Cerro Colorado Giant Tortoise Breeding Center (11-26-08)
Before leaving the highlands, we went to the Cerro Colorado breeding center for the giant tortoises. Walking around the trails we were able to see three tortoises roaming free, in addition to some baby tortoises in protected areas. There was also an abundance of tortoise scat.

AL Phone Home (11-26-08)
After trying desperately for an internet connection at the hotel since arriving, I finally bit the bullet and went to the internet café to find out how much access is. 45 cents for 10 minutes. THEN I found out how much international calls are: 30 cents per minute. Needless to say, I was on the phone before you could say “roasted guinea pig.” It was nice to get in touch and just hear everyone’s voice after so long.
After the internet café, I went to eat at La Playa. Once again in range of the sea lions, this time I opted for arroz con pollo with grilled plantains. I frequently order arroz con pollo at home, but this was a different creature altogether—and sooo good. Chicken, onions, peppers, rice, plantains, and a great sauce. Add that to a few of the papas fritas I grabbed from the appetizer plate and you’ve got a pretty solid meal.

Goodnight (11-26-08)
Even though I got a little bummed out and homesick after we got back from the tours today, things are definitely looking up. Getting to talk to Jodie and Bailey and Myers really helped boost the old morale. Gotta love international calls for only 30 centavos un minuto.

Happy Thanksgiving from Galapagos

I´m not sure when I´ll be able to post again, so here is a whole heap of uploads from the past few days...

Everglades (11-23-08)
The Everglades, simply put, was awesome. Over a million acres of wetland. Technically, the Everglades is the largest river in the world. In the wet season, Lake Okechobe overflows and sends its extra water out as a slow flow south. This slow flow creates the swamps we think of when we think of the Everglades. We break the day up into four parts—classroom time, walking the Anhinga Trail, more classroom time, and finally the slough sloggin’ wet walk.

The Anhinga trail is named after the Anhinga bird, who occupies the area quite nicely. Unfortunately, it also serves as an example of how very specialized animals can’t keep up the rapid changes caused by people and the introduction of exotic and invasive species. The anhinga, for example, is built to spear fish, throw them into the air, and then swallow them. With native fish, this works fine. With invasive fish that have come in and crowd out the natives, this doesn’t really work so well, because they are bigger than the native fish and won’t fit down the anhingha’s throat. Anyway, a nice walk and we saw several alligators and birds.

Out of Miami (11-24-08)
Leaving Miami, we spent about an hour on the ground (thanks to a loose screw on our airplane… literally) and 4 hours in the air on the way to Quito. During the flight, of course, all I can think about are the reports of how Quito is known for its short runway in the mountains, and I believe I heard an article on NPR over the summer over how it had actually been closed due to the danger of the short runway. Add to this the comments of an Ecuadorean passenger on the plan who said that only the most experienced pilots are given the job of landing in Quito, as well as the fact that it was dark and raining, and you’ll understand why everyone broke out into applause upon our touchdown in Quito.

Bienvenidos a Quito (11-24-08)
Landing in Quito was muy exciting because it’s the first time I’ve left the country, much less the continent. Getting off the plane I expected to be suddenly inundated with and immersed in South American culture. It caught me off guard, then, when the first thing I saw when I came out of the gate was a huge poster for TGI Fridays… in English. It wasn’t even TGI Viernes. Continuing into the airport, there was a pretty sizable line for immigration (my first passport stamp) and then for the luggage. When we met our Ecuadorean tour guides, we were quickly handed bottles of water and told to drink to fend off altitude sickness. At (10,000 ish) feet, Quito is the second highest capital city in the world. After boarding a bus to the hotel, we took the short trip to the Sheraton in Quito. Once again, a very nice hotel. We had a late meal of chicken, seasonal veggies, blueberry mousse, and bread and butter. But wait, it wasn’t just any bread and butter, it was butter worthy of Sam… coffee flavored mantequilla. We then promptly went to bed.

Bleck (11-25-08)
The next morning I woke up hit by the altitude—slight nausea, headache, headache, and headache. I spent a few minutes to take care of email since it would be my last reliable email for a few days, and then we had a stunning breakfast. Any country that breads and fries bananas for breakfast is top notch in my book. Additionally, we had fresh squeezed fruit juices—sundia (watermelon), papaya, guava, naranja (orange). The thought of watermelon juice totally grossed me out, but it was actually really good.

Are we there yet? (11-25-08)
As soon as breakfast was over we headed for the airport, where we would sit for a longgg time after checking in. The check in process was fairly painless, especially since all of our bags had to be inspected for agricultural products, animals, etc. as part of the quarantine of the Galapagos. We flew on Aerogal (Air Galapagos) to Guayaquil, a port town that looked like a tangled knot of water from the sky—all kinds of water flowed through the area—streams, rivers, canals?, irrigation, etc. After refueling in Guayaquil, we were bound for San Cristobal.

Touching down on San Cristobal, it was a totally different airport from any I’ve experienced—it was an open-air airport. We passed through customes, got another passport stamp, and loaded up for the hotel. One of the most striking things is that the tension between conservation and use is immediately apparent. Many buildings are standing dormant, halted in various stages of construction. Garbage lies in nearly every ditch. Schools, houses, businesses look battered. At the same time, none of the areas look like the stereotypical high crime slum areas you would expect from the surroundings. This is one of the themes we’ll come back to again and again. This is also where we met our National Park tour leaders, Harry and __________. My half of the group was staying in the Miconia hotel. It is everything I would expect a hotel in the Galapagos to be. We can look out on the bay and see sea lions, crabs, frigate birds, blue footed boobies, and even a glimpse at a sea turtle.

GAIAS and the San Cristobal Tour Interpretation Center (11-25-08)
After settling in for just a few minutes, we departed for GAIAS, the Galapagos Institute of the Arts and Sciences. The goal of GAIAS is twofold—to educate outsiders and to educate islanders. The center runs exchange programs and offers a bachelors program and helps students get scholarships to mainland universities. There we listened to a presentation by Judith Denkinger, a marine biologist with the University of San Francisco, Quito. The focus of the presentation was on the unsustainability of overfishing and the interconnectedness of species in the ocean.

Leaving GAIAS, we walked up the hill to the San Cristobal Tour Interpretation Center. This is basically a visitor’s center that was built in 1998 with the help of the Spanish government. Inside is a great visual overview of the islands’ natural, social, cultural, and political history. The goal of the center is to give local students a way to connect with the national park. Since so much of the park is focused on the enjoyment of tourists, there are many children on the islands who have never experienced the park—have never seen a dolphin, have never seen a tortoise, iguana, etc. The center, therefore, coordinates opportunities for every school kid to tour the islands every year on one of the tourists boats. They basically coordinate for the large ships to take on students whenever they have extra room on board. The idea behind this is to give the kids a greater sense of connectedness to the islands and ownership of the islands. This is something that would be great for our area. I’m always talking about how shocked I am that so many students in Sevier County have never been in the National Park.

Behind the interpretation center is a marked trail that takes about 15 minutes to walk that I’m going to have to go back to.

A few interesting notes from inside the center… in discussion with our guide, someone asked about evolution and the response of the Catholic Church to evolution being taught in the schools it in the Galapagos. The response was “the father teaches about evolution in the church.” We were kind of surprised by the response, but the attitude was fairly summed up in a later exchange, when he pointed out a picture of Darwin and said “This is Darwin, some people think he is god, but he is not,” and one of the science teachers in the group said “Darwin isn’t a god, but he helped explain how God works.” It’s this kind of world view that I think is important to bridging the gap between science and religion. It doesn’t help students to not be exposed to evolution, and I think a carte blanche rejection of natural selection is an irresponsible position to take as an educator.

On the way back from the center, we stopped at a beach where some sea lions were playing an took pictures. I’d heard about the lack of fear animals have for man here, but it was amazing to see. If you sit down on the beach, they’ll eventually walk up right next to you, lay down, roll over, etc.

From the beach, Pren and I took an (inadvertent) detour through some of the non-waterfront house and businesses. I felt like I was in a photo editorial from National Geographic. Simply beautiful.

Dinner (11-25-08)
For dinner, we went to a place called (I think) Miramar. It was a good 20 minutes before they came to take our order, another 20 before drinks came, and another 30 before the food, but it was worth the wait. We sat at a table on the balcony overlooking the bay and the sea lions on the beach. Logistically, it is worthwhile to note that a 12 ounce Coke costs about $2-3, while a liter of beer was $2. I ordered encocantado de camaron (coconut shrimp) with rice and fried plantains (something I will order at every possible meal). My whole check including drink, tip, food, etc. was $12, and this was a more upscale restaurant.


An idea for a future project…
At the InterContinental in Miami, they were working aggressively on several water management programs. To reduce the amount of water used, they only washed sheets every three days. There was a note on the pillow explaining the program, and it said that if you wanted to clean you sheets everyday anyway, you could just put the note on your bed and they’d change your sheets (they also changed every time someone checked out). This was a very low impact way they could save lots of water (and money) without interfering with the conveniences of the guests. This appeals to me because we could so easily adapt this to Sevier County. There was also a request in the bathroom to reuse towels. Again, if you wanted to opt out, all you had to do was use a towel and put it in the floor and they’d replace it.

Hola from Quito!

Hola-- I'm writing from the second highest capital city in the world. We made it in last night, and as I was getting off the plane I was expecting a moment of complete immersion in South American culture. Instead, the first thing off the plane was a huge add for TGI Fridays in English. And What restaurant is across the road from our hotel? KFC!
Anyway, things are still going great. We're getting ready to leave for the Galapagos in a few minutes. The GPS tracking is working kind of spottily, so I'm not sure how consistently it will be up, but it should give you a rough idea of where I am whenever I'm outside.
Well, I hope things are going well at school! Adios--
Andy

South Beach

Irony of ironies... Tonight I ate pasta in South Beach. Carbs galore... it's got to fit into the diet.
Additionally, there were several other 1sts...
My first ride in a taxi
My first shady taxi transaction with the meter off
My first time trying calamari
The first time I've spent $40 on a single meal (and it was so totally not a $40 meal...)

Things are going well so far--I'm anxiously looking forward to leaving the country tomorrow! By tomorrow night, the smell of deep fried guinea pig should be wafting my way :)

Treehugger.com Article

Check out this article by Bloggin' Brian, our embedded journalist for the trip.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/teaching-example-road-galapagos-toyota.php

Pictures from the 'Glades

Unfortunately, there are no pictures from walking through the swamp. I was afraid of getting the camera wet/getting eaten by an alligator. We walked about a half mile out into the water to a Cypress Dome. Amazing. I'll try to get pics from the people with waterproof cameras to post soon. Here are the pictures of the kind of area we walked into before we went in.
http://picasaweb.google.com/andylombardo/Everglades#

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Wesley A. Lombardo
www.andylombardo.com
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www.misterlombardo.com

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Tree hugger--

Here's a neat factoid--especially for Mrs. Leonard--
We have a journalist traveling with us for the trip... a blogger for treehugger.com. As of right now I haven't found anything about the trip on their site, but it should be forthcoming. Kind of cool for a tree huggin' dirt worshiper like me :)

Also, one unexpected idea I may be able to bring back to school comes from the hotel here. This hotel does a lot of easy, low impact water conservation that I could easily see Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg hotels adopting, and it would cost them NO money.

InterContinental

Here are the swank digs I was talkin' about... http://www.icmiamihotel.com/

Day 1: Knoxville to Charlotte to Miami

Finally en route, double prop airplane—a Dash 8-300 (that's for Jeff, since he's the only one who would know what that means, me included) heading east over the Smokies towards Charlotte. Take off was at 10am sharp, after sitting on the runway for about 5 minutes of resonant vibrations from the plane's propellers. Take off was a perfect example of what Burroughs described as "naked lunch"—that moment when all artifice is stripped away, when appearance and decorum vanish and all that is left is the proverbial moment of truth. As the frequency of the propellers increases, as the tarmac races past the window, every muscle tenses and doesn't release until the frequency and vibration even out a few thousand feet later. I don't know how anyone--pilot, traveler, businessman—could ever be lulled into routine on ascent.  The flight is sparsely occupied, so I have a row to myself. My seat is directly next to the propellers, so as I type there's a barely discernable strobe effect on my hands, and the blades slice the light coming through my window.

 

In the air, this is the first time I've ever seen the Smokies from above. There's been a dusting of snow that outlines and accentuates the ridges. You can see the powder contrasting the narrow backbone of the mountains against the brown of earth and trees and leaves below.  It's exciting from the air being able to recognize landforms and water bodies I've only seen from a base layer perspective. For me, this trip is going to be a lot about perspective. I tried to sneak a picture through the window, but it just doesn't do any justice.

 

 

The flight to Charlotte is only 45 minutes. We've only been in the air 29 minutes and they're already giving us information on what to do when we disembark.

 

From Charlotte to Miami, I met up with two other people from the program, Jim and John. We packed onto the plane like the proverbial can of sardines. Thankfully, the flight was only and hour and a half, otherwise I still wouldn't be able to bend my elbows.

 

From the airport, the chauffeur picked us up and drove us through downtown Miami to our hotel, the Miami InterContinental, probably the swankest place I've ever stayed in.

 

After a few orientation-type activities, we settled into our rooms and then went to eat at the in-house restaurant, Indigo, where I ate fish for the first time in 25 years. Supper was an awesome rice blend (arroz moros con… it escapes me), Mahi (awesome), salsa chicken, carmelized plantains (no, it is EVEN BETTER than it sounds), bread, salad, etc.

 

Following the meal, a group of us went out to walk down the Bayside, a touristy Boardwalk at the Beach kind of development that was maybe two blocks from the hotel. I need to go back tomorrow to take pictures of Lombardi's Conga Bar, Lombardi's Ristorante, and Lombardi's Oyster Bar. We bypassed the mini-Lombardi village and opted instead for the first place we came to with half price drinks, wicker furniture, and a view of the water.  All in all, a great start to the trip.

Where in the World is Mr. Lombardo?

Track me via gps starting November 22--
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JXynarAdhs9Whlr5C9eE6NaBqJWzRzSJ

The M/V Santa Cruz--

This will be our floating home away form home for 3 days during the trip--
http://www.galapagos-inc.com/shipdetails/santacruz/index.html

Toyota Teacher Program Wiki

Check out the wiki for the Toyota International Teacher's Program-
http://toyota4education.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.HomePage

Impact Plan (How I plan to use the trip for the forces of good....)

IMPACT PLAN:

      In this section please describe your plans for sharing the Toyota International Teacher Program with your students, school, and community. Excellent plans will be feasible, innovative, and linked to Toyota objectives. Plans should also address why travel to the program country is necessary.
     I feel that the most important way I can make an impact on my school and on my community is by creating a greater awareness of the impact of an unsustainable materials economy, the true price of the things we own, and the fact that saving money doesn't always mean living better. After creating awareness, the next progression of my impact will be to help students make plans for how to be more responsible stewards to the earth.
     For the first phase of this impact, it will be necessary to show students their role in the global environmental community. Most often, when talking about conservation, my students are exasperated and feel helpless, asking "What can I do that will really make a difference?" The first step in making a difference is education, showing that everyone plays a role in the materials economy of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. As a highly sought-after demographic, my students primarily fill the roles of consumers and disposers. They grasp that money is one of the most important things in our culture, and they need an illustration that their money and their buying power has an influence on all of the other parts of the economy, that their money and their voice and their choices shape the system we are all embedded in.
     To implement this plan to educate, I plan to introduce students to the idea of a materials economy by coordinating a cross-curricular program that will begin with students watching the Annie Leonard video "The Story of Stuff," a video that gives a brief overview of the materials economy as an unsustainable paradigm upon which western culture is based. To synthesize the information in the video, the curriculum would involve Language Arts classes and computer/technology classes working together to sponsor a "YouTube"-style film-festival with prizes awarded to videos that meet certain criteria, including but not limited to: a focus on extraction, production, distribution, consumption, or disposal; tracing the life cycle of a specific product through the stages of the materials economy; exploring the impacts of this system on our own community; or proposing ideas for how to shift from a linear economy to a closed-loop economy.
     If possible and feasible, I would like to coordinate with science teachers to arrange a field trip to our local waste management service to learn about how our community deals with disposal. Currently, all of the waste in Sevier county is composted or placed in the landfill, but incineration is being considered for the future.
    It is my hope that through these education efforts the students will begin to take ownership of their role in the system. As it stands now, "saving the earth" is an abstract concept with no concrete connection to their lives. Once informed, I would like
to guide students into taking ownership in a way that they see fit, whether by starting a recycling program, reducing our school's carbon footprint, leading community outreach, orchestrating community recycling or clean-up events, or anything else they
may conceive that I can help with.
     To fulfill these plans, I believe that travel to the Galapagos is a necessary component for me to be able to implement the education plan. Our community has many similarities to the Galapagos. We are both small communities in ecologically
diverse areas that draw many tourists. To that end, visiting and speaking with naturalists, advocates, farmers, local citizens, and educators would help to give me ideas for ways I can connect our rural East Tennessee experiences to the experiences
of the Galapagos. It would also serve as a standard to use as an example of how programs can be successful at increasing sustainability. Additionally, it creates a global connection, emphasizing how the actions of 800 students in Sevierville,
Tennessee, can have either an adverse or positive effect on people, animals, ecosystems, and communities thousands of miles away. Additionally, it would also be beneficial because the Galapagos are experiencing some of the same difficulties we
experience in our community. Once a rural area, tourism has caused the population of Sevier County to increase drastically over the past several decades, similar to the Galapagos, which has seen a 2000% increase in population in the past 50 years. Like
the Galapagos, we also experience environmental problems due to habitat encroachment and destruction, as ecosystems are disturbed, disrupted, and displaced. Like the Galapagos, there are also threats to native species from exotic
species of plants, animals, and insects. In short, both areas have to contend with the difficulties of maintaining diversity in the face of external factors, and I believe this experience in common would be a beneficial part of the program for myself, my
school, and other program participants.

Countdown Galapagos (9-25-08)

Strange how the smallest things can make a difference. I've already been packing, reading, researching, et cetera, but nothing has made the trip seem as real yet as receiving my official Toyota International Teachers' Program Luggage Tag in the mail today. Of course, it helps that I also received my flight information... I'll be leaving McGhee Tyson at 9:41 AM on Saturday, November 22 bound for Miami by way of Charlotte. Orientation will be in Miami the evening of the 22nd, with a day in the Everglades on the 23rd. We'll leave the US for Quito, Ecuador on the 24th (ETA: 7:40pm) and will leave Quito for San Cristobal Island the next morning to tour the Charles Darwin Interpretation Center.