Trip Pictures

In my haste, I think I forgot to post the address for the pictures---

picasaweb.google.com/andylombardo

In the future, more pictures from other teachers will be posted to

Smug Mug

Back to 5 Dec 2008

We left Santa Cruz in the morning and took a water taxi to Baltra, an island very close to Santa Cruz that houses the airport at the site of a WWII US airbase. We spent a large chunk of the day waiting around the small, open-air airport waiting for our flight. We were bumped from our original flight that had a layover in Guayaquil and instead had direct service to Quito.

It's definitely sad to see the islands go. They truly are las islas encantadas. I am very ready to go home, but it's really weird being in a city of 2 million people right now. Add that to a mild case of alititude sickness (we're above 10,000 feet), and you've got the makings of a dizzy, migrained, homesick guy sitting around the hotel. It was nice to have a few minutes to decompress, but as soon as we got to Quito we went straight to the hotel and had a few hours of meetings and then dinner. By the time it was over, I was out. Putzed around online a few minutes, chatted with Jodie online, and went to bed.

I'll be back in town Saturday night! (then home Sunday, bus duty/school/basketball party Monday, school Tuesday, then a Tech conference in Nashville Wed-Fri)

 

1 December 2008

Santa Cruz (1 Dec. 2008)

Today was the busiest and most stressful day of the trip so far. Over the past several days we've been collaborating in small groups by subject matter with four American teachers and one Galapaguenan teacher.

We came up with a solid unit idea to focus on what we termed "The Paradox of Paradise." Whereas most groups were focusing on environmental issues from the perspective of science or biology, we were viewing the glory of the islands through a literary interpretive lens. We saw the unabashed beauty of the islands, but we saw it directly juxtaposed against the dangerous side of nature, the parts of nature that lie in wait prepared to devour anything that isn't equipped or adapted to deal with it.

While it was exhilarating to have literary discussion time, preparing a unit plan and presentation to be delivered at the Colegio Nacional de Galapagos became taxing. After disembarking from the M/V Santa Cruz this morning, we boarded directly onto a bus for a 45 minute ride to the Hotel Red Booby, where we immediately began the last minute preparations for the presentation. Work on the presentations lasted until lunch at the Café Hernan a few blocks away from the hotel. The most unsettling aspect of the walk to lunch was the way that all of us still felt like we were on a ship. The ground seemed to rock and sway with the tide. According to those who have been on cruises before, the sensation supposedly goes away after about 24 hours.

From lunch, we basically went back to the hotel to regroup and walk over to Galapagos National High School. We arrived at the high school at 2pm, with presentations starting at 2:15. There were eight groups presenting, with ours being the last. Each presentation lasted between twenty five and thirty five minutes, so our presentation didn't begin until 5:40ish. Once on stage, everyone performed marvelously. Lena had a great hook for introducing our topic, John had a very witty way of describing a certain poets work ("The tourist with the third eye sees nothing"), Betsy was very enthusiastic, especially considering that the power went out during her portion of the presentation, and Zoila displayed mad translating skills and had a good perspective on our topic.

Finally, the most stressful part of the trip was finished.

Next, the students at the Colegio put on a cultural program of singing, dancing, and music. Once again, I successfully avoided taking part in the "Dancers pulling audience members up to dance" portion of the program. One of my favorite quotes from one of the music teachers at the school was "Most cultures around the world are trying to preserve their culture. In the Galapagos, we are trying to create our culture through music and art." It served as a poignant reminder to me that it would do some good to help reinvent our culture in the United States. The more I see, the more I am reminded of the fact that regional culture is practically dead. Except for pockets of preservation, even areas with rich cultural histories, like the Southeast, in particular, have bought into the idea of a homogenized culture of corporate conformity. As a middle school teacher, I get to see this in play by watching as my students over the past six years have been hooked on the life support of the prepackaged culture that they are downloading daily through television, internet, and video games. Adolescence is an important formative time, and they are the ones being most forcefully wooed. Our lives are basically one big advertisement, where our idea of culture is no longer "How can I express myself, my beliefs, my ideas, and my identity through the arts?" but rather "How can I express myself through the things I own, through the things I watch, through the things I buy?" As a tourist here, I constantly feel the danger of experiencing life through the viewfinder. I have to remind myself to put the camera down and have experiences, to see things in real life, not through my lens. It's helping to remind me that right here isn't the only place where I view the world through a lens. Maybe the greatest danger of our downloaded culture is that it has convinced us that it doesn't exist. We are sweetly serenaded by the sirens' song, enticing us, singing softly in our ears that our consumption is what brings meaning to our lives.

 

Bongo y Panga (1 Dec. 2008)

Short entry. After dinner tonight we saw possibly the rarest species so far. It's most commonly known by its scientific name--bailandus lombardous.  Hopefully, there won't be pictures posted later.

 

Tortuga Bay

Thanks for the pic, Perri!

Sea Kayaking (3 Dec. 2008)

After lunch Tom, Jennie, Britta, Pat, Perri, Christina and I took a taxi to the trailhead for Tortuga Bay. There was a stone path that lead from where the taxi left us to the two beaches at the bay. The path was basically a double track footpath paved with small paving stones through a fairly arid part of the island. Of course there were the requisite dozens of lava lizards scurrying underfoot. The footpath itself gave the impression of walking across a miniaturized Great Wall.

Once we walked the 2.5 kilometers to the beach, we walked through the waves following marine iguana tracks and watching Sally Lightfoot crabs. We stopped to have a short visit with a marine iguana who was hamming up all the attention. We left Pat and Christina at the first beach and rounded the point to the second beach and Tortuga Bay proper. The first beach was secluded—aside from us there was only one other person—and then the second had the person renting out kayaks and that was it. There's definitely a perk to having to walk a mile to get to the beach. After the walk, though, we were starting to run out of time until dinner, so we debated just walking down the beach and coming back. It was one of the best decisions of the trip to keep going. The kayak rentals were $5 per person per hour, so I got a kayak, Tom and Perri shared a double, and Jennie and Britta shared a double.

The water in the bay was calm and clear, which helped us to see all of the sea turtles. I lost count on sea turtles, as you could see a flipper or head pop above water and then you could paddle over and float alongside of it for a few minutes. We also saw a few rays and three sharks. We think they were white tipped sharks, but I'm not sure. For two of them we only saw fins, but the other swam right through our group so we could see the whole body. We also paddled in-and-out of the mangroves that bordered the bay, seeing herons and lots of colorful fish. Awesome experience.

Shopping

After we got back from kayaking there was time to get cleaned up to go shopping for a few minutes. Shopping was the first time on the trip when I've really really started to get homesick. We've been moving at such a frantic pace that usually we go from an activity to a meal to an activity to a meal to activity to bed. Shopping for two hours was time that was devoted solely to thinking about home and how everyone is doing at home. Compound that with the fact that there is no possible way I could ever find a gift sufficient enough to thank Jodie for everything she does both when I'm home and when I'm gone and you have the makings of a fairly miserable evening. From shopping we went straight to dinner at Angermeyer Point, where we had to take a water taxi to get to the restaurant. It was a swanky place with good food and good company, but by midmeal I was ready for bed. Our entire table was laid back and slumped over before the main course was over. Needless to say, there was no dancing tonight.

Recycling Center Santa Cruz

This morning, after a lecture on biodiversity, we toured the recycling center here on Santa Cruz. Funded by Toyota and the World Wildlife Fund, it was fun to go and see some of the processes. As a recycling junkie, it was really neat to walk through. I would love to find a way to take a group of students through a recycling center or waste management center back home (umm… Laura?) When you see where your trash goes it really personalizes the process and makes you think twice not just before throwing something away, but before buying it and consuming it in the first place. One of the ways I think this trip will change me the most is by getting me back on track with my personal improvement plan. Last January, I made the commitment to get in shape, eat better, recycle, etc. I did great until August. I ran and worked out five times a week, cut out all meat, recycled everything, and I felt great. Once school started this year I got so busy and out of the habit of everything that I gained back all the weight I lost and have just felt tired, stressed, and lazy. My mission now is to translate some of those healthy practices into the classroom and into my family to try to make a positive impact on others and to have a little bit of accountability. I'm totally reinvigorated to that end.

Una Noche de Bailando

As you could probably guess, I dug my own grave. Since on our schedule we had dancing listed as one of the activities during the trip, I've been sure to point out that I am NOT a dancer—that I unequivocally do not dance—not at my proms, not at my wedding, nada. So of course, the group pressure last night was to get me to dance. With that threshold crossed and all the prevailing rumors that I had been dancing, of course everyone (yes EVERYone) came out tonight with the goal of getting me to dance with me and watch me make a fool of myself. Mission accomplished! The perk for Jodie is that I may go dancing with her sometime, if of course there is the caveat that we do it on a tropical island where I don't know anyone.

Fundar

This afternoon we went up to the highlands to visit the Parajo Brujo reserve (www.fundargalapagos.org). The goal of the organization Fundar there is to have an organic farm to show locals how to adopt organic sustainable farming practices to help reduce dependence on food importation. They also aim to eradicate invasive species (the farming is one of the ways of doing that since there is a great risk of importing invasive species with food). After one of the best meals of the entire trip, we walked out to tour the farm. On the way, we saw several giant tortoises in the wild—an irreplaceable experience. We then went to pick out scalesia tree saplings to plant near the restaurant area. Scalesia is a native plant that is planted for shade and to provide animal habitat. The need to repopulate native plants comes partly from the total decimation and destruction left in the wake of the feral goats on the islands. When we planted our trees, we logged our names and the number of the tree in a logbook, and they are planning to email us with photo updates of our tree's progress.

Pictures from the Darwin Station and Fundar

Darwin Station

This morning we toured the Darwin research station. My best comparison is Tremont:Galapagos edition. The station's main purposes are research and community outreach and awareness. They also do the tortoise breeding programs (Lonesome George lives here). It was a neat tour. We got to see lots of tortoises and a few land iguanas up close. This was also the main stop for t-shirt shopping because all of the proceeds from the Darwin shop goes to fund research and conservation.