LiveGreenNOW

By Traci L. Claussen

At the  Mitad del Mundo, the park guide invited us to demonstrate what gravity was like on the equator. We each took our turn trying to stand an egg on a nail, walking the equator line in a DUI-type test, muscle strength, and watched the water empty straight down versus clock-or-counter-clockwise.  The guide also gave us a tour of the indigenous cultures that inhabit Ecuador.  In particular, she enjoyed showing us their shrunken head from one of the tribes in the Amazon.  It was about 150 years old.  Make a fist with your hand — that would be the size of your shrunken head.
 
After two nights home-stay at our lovely host, Maria´s, house, eight volunteers were dispersed to their select projects.  The flight from Quito to Galapagos included a stop over in Ecuador´s largest city, Guayaquil.  The view from the plane as we landed in this city was not unlike New Orleans, in that a muddy river bed twisted and turned its way through and down to the ocean.  What was different and apparent from the air is that the current runs north. 
 
As the plane loaded up with passengers bound for the Galapagos, an elderly couple took their seats next to me.  They were part of a group from England-Wales by the name of SAGA.  I asked him if it was an acronym for anything, and he said, “Well, most recently is stands for Sex And Games (for the) Aging.”  Ah, yes, let the evolution begin.
 
Our pilot had a bit of a time landing the plane on first approach; el viento was gusting and caused him to pull back up and circle around for a second, successful, attempt to which you have got to love the Brits for applauding any difficult landing.  And we had all arrived.
 

Galapagos Islands

The Jatun Sacha volunteer guide picked the three newbies up at the airport and set off for the Reserve. She showed us to our sleeping bunks and gave a quick tour of the projects that are currently underway: the nursery for repopulating trees, the reproduction to grow their own fruit and vegetables, the coffee production, various community work around the site, and opportunities to create your own personal project based on what you believe you can do for the site.  One volunteer built a new picnic table and benches for the dining hall because they lost one to the new living quarters.  Another volunteer created a hula hoop for recreation time.
 
As my luck would have it, our first full day (Thursday) of work would include an afternoon of futbol (soccer), playing cards, and then packing a small bag for a four day sailing tour over the Galapagos Islands of Floreana, Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San Cristobal.  My first weekend will be exploring with about 12 other volunteers.  We will be going on various nature walks, one of which is to get up close to the Blue Footed Booby, as well as snorkeling with the sharks and sea lions. 
 
Look for more blogs from the Galapagos this week as the Internet cafe´s permit it.
 
Send us your eco-travel adventure to travel@livegreenorleans.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 12:03 am and is filed under Eco Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.