As already mentioned, the Galapagos were really really ridiculously beautiful. To entirely understate it. I am forced to use the past tense in that highly eloquent statement because, unfortunately, we flew back to Quito this morning. I am writing now from the relative comfort of our lovely Hostal Posada del Maples (which, as it turns out, does refer to the multitude of maple trees outside). My Spanish has improved, if marginally, but it was virtually nonexistent before this trip, so I´m pretty happy with my progress. It helps that one of our guides is Ecuadorian (perhaps the only native in the area with blonde hair and blue eyes - as he says, "the mystery of genetics") and one of my fellow students is Puerto Rican, so we have much encouragement to practice our speaking skills. To give you some gauge of my ability, the owner of the Hotel Castro, where we stayed in Puerto Ayura, Santa Cruz, had a young baby daughter, max two or three years old. I had exactly zero clue what she was talking about. She was pretty good at gesturing to or petting the relevant topic of conversation (often me), but the language was beyond me.
Anyway, I´m (thankfully) less of a basket case than I´d expected - I miss home terribly, and the day we spent shoveling and sorting garbage made me want to cry, but overall I think I´m holding up pretty well. My roommate Megan is "counting the days until she gets to go home," Michi talks constantly about how inadequate the beaches at home will be, without sea lions decorating them, and you can tell everyone else is a little homesick, but the stuff we´re doing is really quite incredible. I spent five days living on a BOAT, for crying out loud! It took me the full first day in Puerto Ayura to lose the sensation of constant wobbling and swaying. Tomorrow morning we leave for the Amazon Rainforest - that in and of itself sort of makes by brain short out. Apparently our activities will include dining on guinea pig and fishing for piranhas (did I spell that right?), as well as the requisite community service working at a school. I´m actually quite excited for everything, except the vague possibility of falling out of a boat, and the obvious abundance of bugs we´ll be living with.
I bought a ridiculous amount of gifts, though only for the ´rents and my g-parentals, and I´m having serious trouble keeping my clothing clean. We finally got to do laundry...the day we worked at the recycling center. So our delightfully ripe-smelling work clothes didn´t get washed. The clothes from cleaning tortoise pens did, though, which is certainly a good thing - my pants were drenched in poo by the time I was done. It was definitely up there with the coolest things I´ve ever done - EVERYTHING we did revolved around skirting miniature piles of adorably shy tortoises. We even got to work with the tiny, less-than-a-year-old palm-fillers! Wonderful. Daddy - I tried to steal you a baby...I´ll show you what I got when I get home. Customs was much less investigative on the way out, but the penkeeper did notice my efforts. I think the constant cooing might have had something to do with how obvious I seemed.
In any case, I´m having a grand 0ld adventure, and I definitely know I want to educate myself properly so I never have to work at a recycling center (didn´t even have to wait for the Japanese farms, Dad!), so the trip is valuable in more ways than one. We had an interesting discussion the day after the trash sorting about "what community service is," which partially culminated in the group realization (facilitated by meeeeeeeeee) that the community service we would be partaking in while on this trip would have overall small significance, and would thus be more about self-growth and education. We all know the guys at the recycling center would have done our work in much less time, honestly!
Love and kisses, for all I miss,
Signing off,
Egg
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Enchanted Islands!
Oh wow. These past four days have been full of surprises. I sort of didn´t believe Dan when he said that, as cheesy as it sounds, the Galapagos are truly "magical," as if they were not of this Earth, but boy is he right. I´ve swum with sea lions, turtles, and sting rays, watched baby sea lions suckle their mothers and fluffy baby blue footed boobies squack for food. I´ve seen rainbows fly from blowholes, male tortoises fight over water, and beaches overrun with crabs and sea lions alike, many covered in invasive flies gradually consumed by curious mockingbirds. I´ve snorkeled, swum, jumped off the top of a boat, eaten bananas off the tree, and some of the most delicious food I never expected. Many of you may be disappointed that only very few pictures of my time in the Galapagos will be forthcoming, at least from my camera, as I have been so enjoying the beautiful sights that I don´t want to muddy them by way of inadequate pictures. Don´t worry - many of my friends have snapped lovely pictures, and plenty of me, that I´ll be making use of.
I know this is an uncharacteristically short post for me, and I promise I´ll continue adding, but I need to go explore San Cristobal now :) .
Much love,
Signing off,
Egg
I know this is an uncharacteristically short post for me, and I promise I´ll continue adding, but I need to go explore San Cristobal now :) .
Much love,
Signing off,
Egg
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Well.
So...I was in a boat.
then...
...well...
I wasn´t.
It was about that fast, too.
But I´ll get to that. I think first I should briefly finish up our day yesterday, since it was a lovely experience, to be sure. Like I had mentioned, it was predominantly focused on group bonding and city touring, so it seems appropriate that the most memorable points of the day occurred while doing those two things. Our most ambitious and ahhh...cozy activity was called the "Human Knot." I´m sure at least some of you have tried this, but it involves shaking the hand of two people across a circle from you, not letting go, and then attempting to resolve the blob into a new circle, of sorts. Being the clever and well-bonded teammates that we were, we managed to create the most complex, unsolvable Human Knot any one of us had encountered - that´s right, Dad, an impossible puzzle. Turned out we´d somehow formed two interlocking circles that didn´t seem to intersect, but it took us about an hour and more than a few tumbles down the hill to figure that out.
My favorite part of the city tour, aside from the fascinating colonial history our brilliant guide, Gloria, flooded us with, came nearer the end. Part way through the tour, we stopped at one of the first religious retreats in South America - the Church of San Francisco, located, unsurprisingly, in San Francisco square. Now, I´m pretty sure that was the name, but don´t quote me on that, since most names were given in Spanish, and with a particularly thick Spanish accent, so I can´t be positive. I´ve just been mentally referring to it as the "gold cathedral," since absolutely everthing inside the main hall was covered in gold leaf. Exquisite paintings of prophets and their prophesies lined the pews, and huge depictions of heaven and hell lying on each side of the entrance. Everything in there absolutely shone. Huge skylights allowed what little light there was that late in the day to be magnified by the gold detail, and the whole church felt...pure.
The second cathedral we hit was known only as the basillica, and was constructed in a less Spanish, more gothic style, which, according to Gloria, meant it was far less popular than the gaudy beauty of the first church. For me, the style only increased its appeal. My personal Everest reared its head when we neared the top of the conventional towers. By crossing a rickety wooden bridge balanced precariously on stone framework, eerily similar to an image from Indiana Jones, we were given the chance to climb up a steep, narrow metal ladder to a balcony on the top of one of the basillica´s spires. Truly, I thought this a feat in and of itself, until Dan asked if anyone "wanted to go higher." Pardon? Higher? Unfortunately, knowing myself well enough to understand that I would regret it forever if I didn´t take the chance when it came, I steeled myself and followed my groupmates up a second and third set of metal ladders. I believe with every fiber of my being that I climbed Quito´s Diamond Head. 127 steps seems small compared to however many we climbed with 9300+ feet of altitude stealing our breath away. And truly, what a magnificent view. I think I saw the world that day.
Now then. Having recounted how lovely the architectural relics of Quito, Ecuador, felt, especially when placed next to their antique stone counterparts, less beautiful but no less impressive, I´m sure you all are dying to know what gave me the limp in my left leg that makes the three flights of stairs to my room achingly slow.
We were told last night that today, we´d be white water rafting. Having only seen pictures, I was fairly excited, but less than enthused about the rumored 3 hour drive to the river. Turned out the drive was easily one of the best parts. We were exposed to parts of Ecuador, both inhabited and not, that took my breath away. From rickety shacks constructed with only the workd "shelter" in mind, to fog-shrouded valleys lined by mountains sewed into patchwork by arboreal seams, I felt like I´d stepped into a world from a tropical vacation brochure. The views at once made it harder and easier to believe I had actually come to this far away dreamland.
HOLY GEEZ! Okay, it looks like I have 3 minutes to finish this, as well as our group blog post, so MORE LATER.
I fell off the boat in the rapids, almost drowned (or so it felt), and was gallantly rescued by our fantastic tour guides. However, I ended up with some strange scratches on my calf and a huge bruise/muscle cramp in my left thigh, which has been bugging me since. I also drank approximately enough water to last the rest of the week, assuming it was at least marginally safe. Sorry, more details later! It makes a great story - I see a movie deal forthcoming.
I still feel like a tourist, but I get the impression that feeling will fade a little when the manual labor sets in.
Good night, and goodbye, for at least a couple of days - tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for our boat in the GALAPAGOS!
Signing off,
Egg
then...
...well...
I wasn´t.
It was about that fast, too.
But I´ll get to that. I think first I should briefly finish up our day yesterday, since it was a lovely experience, to be sure. Like I had mentioned, it was predominantly focused on group bonding and city touring, so it seems appropriate that the most memorable points of the day occurred while doing those two things. Our most ambitious and ahhh...cozy activity was called the "Human Knot." I´m sure at least some of you have tried this, but it involves shaking the hand of two people across a circle from you, not letting go, and then attempting to resolve the blob into a new circle, of sorts. Being the clever and well-bonded teammates that we were, we managed to create the most complex, unsolvable Human Knot any one of us had encountered - that´s right, Dad, an impossible puzzle. Turned out we´d somehow formed two interlocking circles that didn´t seem to intersect, but it took us about an hour and more than a few tumbles down the hill to figure that out.
My favorite part of the city tour, aside from the fascinating colonial history our brilliant guide, Gloria, flooded us with, came nearer the end. Part way through the tour, we stopped at one of the first religious retreats in South America - the Church of San Francisco, located, unsurprisingly, in San Francisco square. Now, I´m pretty sure that was the name, but don´t quote me on that, since most names were given in Spanish, and with a particularly thick Spanish accent, so I can´t be positive. I´ve just been mentally referring to it as the "gold cathedral," since absolutely everthing inside the main hall was covered in gold leaf. Exquisite paintings of prophets and their prophesies lined the pews, and huge depictions of heaven and hell lying on each side of the entrance. Everything in there absolutely shone. Huge skylights allowed what little light there was that late in the day to be magnified by the gold detail, and the whole church felt...pure.
The second cathedral we hit was known only as the basillica, and was constructed in a less Spanish, more gothic style, which, according to Gloria, meant it was far less popular than the gaudy beauty of the first church. For me, the style only increased its appeal. My personal Everest reared its head when we neared the top of the conventional towers. By crossing a rickety wooden bridge balanced precariously on stone framework, eerily similar to an image from Indiana Jones, we were given the chance to climb up a steep, narrow metal ladder to a balcony on the top of one of the basillica´s spires. Truly, I thought this a feat in and of itself, until Dan asked if anyone "wanted to go higher." Pardon? Higher? Unfortunately, knowing myself well enough to understand that I would regret it forever if I didn´t take the chance when it came, I steeled myself and followed my groupmates up a second and third set of metal ladders. I believe with every fiber of my being that I climbed Quito´s Diamond Head. 127 steps seems small compared to however many we climbed with 9300+ feet of altitude stealing our breath away. And truly, what a magnificent view. I think I saw the world that day.
Now then. Having recounted how lovely the architectural relics of Quito, Ecuador, felt, especially when placed next to their antique stone counterparts, less beautiful but no less impressive, I´m sure you all are dying to know what gave me the limp in my left leg that makes the three flights of stairs to my room achingly slow.
We were told last night that today, we´d be white water rafting. Having only seen pictures, I was fairly excited, but less than enthused about the rumored 3 hour drive to the river. Turned out the drive was easily one of the best parts. We were exposed to parts of Ecuador, both inhabited and not, that took my breath away. From rickety shacks constructed with only the workd "shelter" in mind, to fog-shrouded valleys lined by mountains sewed into patchwork by arboreal seams, I felt like I´d stepped into a world from a tropical vacation brochure. The views at once made it harder and easier to believe I had actually come to this far away dreamland.
HOLY GEEZ! Okay, it looks like I have 3 minutes to finish this, as well as our group blog post, so MORE LATER.
I fell off the boat in the rapids, almost drowned (or so it felt), and was gallantly rescued by our fantastic tour guides. However, I ended up with some strange scratches on my calf and a huge bruise/muscle cramp in my left thigh, which has been bugging me since. I also drank approximately enough water to last the rest of the week, assuming it was at least marginally safe. Sorry, more details later! It makes a great story - I see a movie deal forthcoming.
I still feel like a tourist, but I get the impression that feeling will fade a little when the manual labor sets in.
Good night, and goodbye, for at least a couple of days - tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for our boat in the GALAPAGOS!
Signing off,
Egg
Friday, June 19, 2009
And so it begins...
It all began with the most uncomfortably fidgety redeye I´ve yet been on, for both me and the two people I was sitting by. Somehow managing to squeeze enough sleep out of my Seattle-to-Dallas leg to not fall asleep during my two-hour layover, I ended up in Miami four hours before my scheduled takeoff. After about an hour of random snacking and unsatisfying lounging on wobbly airport bench-chairs, I somehow accidentally walked by a group of people with a strangely familiar "AQ" symbol on their shirts...none of them were in the same shirts, and they all seemed vaguely uncomfortable with each other, so I was pretty sure I´d found my group, confirmed when an extremely peppy redhead introduced herself as Kelly, the first of our three staff members. I was in.
I slept extremely well on the Miami-to-Ecuador flight, so I can´t tell you much about that, but customs was definitely more interesting anyways. After an hour in the immigration line, during which Megan constantly repeated how scary looking the officials were, all of whom were wearing sterile surgery masks (presumably to ward off swine flu), and most of whom were wearing strangely eerie blue, sheet-like gowns and hats, and Eddie tryed to convince me that his hand cooler was filled with Cuban Growth Hormone, insurance against him being short for the rest of his life. I still don´t know if I believe him.
Unfortunately, though eleven of our twelve group members made it through customs with no more trouble than understanding the heavy accents of the immigration and customs officials through their masks, Cheryl (Shinyu), our resident Chinese national, was held up before the baggage pickup for lack of a visa or visa waiver stamp. Megan, a Canadian national, and Michi (short for Michelle), a Puerto Rican national, were fine to enter without prior embassy contact, it appeared that Cheryl was going to be sent back to the U.S. before our trip had even begun.
After about an hour and a half of waiting, we found out that the immigration officials were going to keep Cheryl overnight to try and contact someone of some relevant importance to find out something critical to something else. Or something like that. We ended up heading to the hotel without her, with the meagre promise that our leaders would be able to go back to the airport to stay with her, even if for only a short time, and an uncomfortable communal feeling of loss, of not having really met Cheryl before we lost her, as well as well-expressed feelings of sympathy and fear.
This morning we received the delightful news that Cheryl would, in fact be able to join us, after an exhausting amount of extra travel. She would fly back to Miami, obtain a visa waiver stamp from the local Ecuadorian consulate, and fly back to Ecuador, getting in at about 9:30 tonight. I´m sure I´m not the only person who felt extremely relieved at these news - I no longer had to feel guilty about having a good time.
Getting back to me, and my loverly gap year of loverlyness (I love you, Daddy!), most of today was spent with sort of typical group bonding activities and a fair amount of overarching touristyness. After a light breakfast at our fantastic hostel, we took a bus (our own, way cool) up to the top of a hill where a huge greenhouse overlooked most of Quito. From this amazing vantage point, we could see everything from the only active volcano in Ecuador (slightly obscured by fog, but whose last eruption occurred only ten years ago) to the massive statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a mountain which I couldn´t pronounce even if I were taking Spanish (why the heck does everyone talk so fast?).
Crap, okay, I´m running out of time. We have to go back to the hostel. Hmmm, group bonding on a hill, yummy Ecuadorian lunch, neato city tour, and here to the internet cafe. More later, I promise!
Signing out for now, gotta go eat pizza and engage in more group bonding!
Adios,
Egg
I slept extremely well on the Miami-to-Ecuador flight, so I can´t tell you much about that, but customs was definitely more interesting anyways. After an hour in the immigration line, during which Megan constantly repeated how scary looking the officials were, all of whom were wearing sterile surgery masks (presumably to ward off swine flu), and most of whom were wearing strangely eerie blue, sheet-like gowns and hats, and Eddie tryed to convince me that his hand cooler was filled with Cuban Growth Hormone, insurance against him being short for the rest of his life. I still don´t know if I believe him.
Unfortunately, though eleven of our twelve group members made it through customs with no more trouble than understanding the heavy accents of the immigration and customs officials through their masks, Cheryl (Shinyu), our resident Chinese national, was held up before the baggage pickup for lack of a visa or visa waiver stamp. Megan, a Canadian national, and Michi (short for Michelle), a Puerto Rican national, were fine to enter without prior embassy contact, it appeared that Cheryl was going to be sent back to the U.S. before our trip had even begun.
After about an hour and a half of waiting, we found out that the immigration officials were going to keep Cheryl overnight to try and contact someone of some relevant importance to find out something critical to something else. Or something like that. We ended up heading to the hotel without her, with the meagre promise that our leaders would be able to go back to the airport to stay with her, even if for only a short time, and an uncomfortable communal feeling of loss, of not having really met Cheryl before we lost her, as well as well-expressed feelings of sympathy and fear.
This morning we received the delightful news that Cheryl would, in fact be able to join us, after an exhausting amount of extra travel. She would fly back to Miami, obtain a visa waiver stamp from the local Ecuadorian consulate, and fly back to Ecuador, getting in at about 9:30 tonight. I´m sure I´m not the only person who felt extremely relieved at these news - I no longer had to feel guilty about having a good time.
Getting back to me, and my loverly gap year of loverlyness (I love you, Daddy!), most of today was spent with sort of typical group bonding activities and a fair amount of overarching touristyness. After a light breakfast at our fantastic hostel, we took a bus (our own, way cool) up to the top of a hill where a huge greenhouse overlooked most of Quito. From this amazing vantage point, we could see everything from the only active volcano in Ecuador (slightly obscured by fog, but whose last eruption occurred only ten years ago) to the massive statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a mountain which I couldn´t pronounce even if I were taking Spanish (why the heck does everyone talk so fast?).
Crap, okay, I´m running out of time. We have to go back to the hostel. Hmmm, group bonding on a hill, yummy Ecuadorian lunch, neato city tour, and here to the internet cafe. More later, I promise!
Signing out for now, gotta go eat pizza and engage in more group bonding!
Adios,
Egg
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