Halfway There

Out of a four month journey, I have exactly two of them left. Of that, 7 more weeks out here on the islands. I haven't thought to write much here recently because not much has changed. Once you settle into a life somewhere, variability tends to all but disappear. The effect only intensifies on a small island. In this, I'll try to do a better job of showing just what this island life is like. What better more stereotypical method could I use than to outline a general day?

04:30- violently awoken by competing neighborhood roosters calling out the sunrise an inhumane hour and a half before its arrival. Attempt to go back to sleep, increasingly successful each morning.

5:45- again violently awoken by the same roosters but this time punctuated by the incessant electric powersawing of a neighbor who chooses the cooler morning hours to work on his boat. Again attempt to go back to sleep.

07:00- wake up for good, maybe take a sporadically lukewarm shower

07:20- leave for school. Roughly a 25 minute walk. As a sidenote I easily walk almost an hour and half every day. Don't know what that is in miles but my calf definition by the end of my time here could be to die for.

08:00- breakfast at school. Features generally include yogurt drinks, fruit loops, granola, bread, jam, very infrequent peanut butter, coffee, bananas, and papaya (which I don't touch). I have tried many foods here, but papaya is just about the bottom of the barrel for me. It's fleshy and has a rotten type of scent.

09:00-12:00- class. We use every bit of it. Thankfully, some of the days feature snorkeling in the second half as field work.

12:00-13:00- lunch. There are many spots around town, all ranging between 3 and 5 bucks. Lunch is always a soup of some sort, a main dish, and juice. Places generally advertise their daily offerings out front. If one sounds appealing you just walk in and say lunch (in Spanish obviously) and so it is. Since soups tend to be all just variations of oversalted broth and mystery chicken parts, and main dishes are generally fish and rice, we generally choose our almuerzo place based on their juice offering. Quick juice power rankings:

1. Maracuya (passion fruit)
2. Naranjilla (unknown Ecuadorian fruit)
3. Naranja (orange, by far the most common)
4. Mora (blackberry)
5. Guineo (banana)
6. Limón (much debate over whether this means lemon or lime, seems to mean either)
7. Mandarino (something they call mandarin. Tastes like tang, like the powder stuff)
8. Tomate de árbol (tree tomato. This is a distant 8th)

     Unranked: Papaya (papaya)

Here's where the day begins to diverge (although basically only two or three ways)

13:00-18:00- Either a) snorkel for a research project or for pleasure at Tijeretas b) relax on Playa Mann (directly out front of the university) or c) do lots of homework. 

Yes it does seem like paradise here but the courses are actually quite rigorous involving a fair amount of written work, class preparation, and independent research. These sit around and work all afternoon on the slow campus internet days are immensely painful when you can hear sea lions barking from the beach the entire time. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline.

18:00- walk home. Sometimes stop and get an empanada from Empanada Lady for a buck. We've grown to be friends and last Friday when I only had a 10 in my wallet and she didn't have change she told me that since I walk by every single day I should just give her a one on Monday. The lack of change is a real thing here, which is problematic because the ATM spits out 20's to all of us so when we go in groups to eat, figuring out payment is difficult. At this point, everyone probably owes everyone a little bit of cash so functionally we're all even. 

18:30-22:00- At some point during this window we all eat. My family is large and really casual so we don't sit down for big family dinners. Food just comes out of the kitchen plate at a time. I usually eat with my host Mom and Dad, though. Well only with the Dad when he's in port. He owns the Cruceros Humboldt which is a luxury liveaboard tour ship that heads up for weeklong ventures to Wolf and Darwin Islands. He doesn't always have to go, but he seems to make the trip every other week or so. When he's home, during this period of time in the evening he always has the TV on either watching dubbed action movies or reality singing shows. Two nights ago we watched both Peruvian and Ecuadorian The Voice. Good stuff. When he's not around I tend to go down to the office and use my computer during this time.

22:00- or thereabouts. Bedtime. 

That was a high words/picture ratio. Time to reverse that.

Casual miracle of life pup birth in the middle of class

"He thinks he's people"- Sterling Archer, Nick Funnell

Just kept walking past a beach one day and found this gorgeous cove

It had these birds

And these better known ones

I was there too

Cool tree in the highlands

El Junco crater lake in the highlands

27 what a baller

"Malcolm"

I should mention this is from the Galapaguera breeding center. They number these dudes in different colors to denote which islands they came from, and will be sent back to. Really incredible place

Big tortoises here too

From a text book. Ask the Sea Star if he thought they were "playing"

Same question, different "playmate"

Back of my Dad's liveaboard boat that he gave me a tour of while it was in port

The kitchen/dining room area

View of town from the boat

Different boat, headed to Punta Pitt, the northeast corner of the island. Leon Dormido (R) and Cerro Brujo (L)

Trailhead at Punta Pitt

View from the hike

Abandoned blue footed booby nest. Unreal that they just excrete in a circle on the ground as a nest. This was directly in the middle of the path too. No shame. Well apparently some shame because they abandoned it

A red footed booby without red feet (allegedly)

Another view from our hike

Casual Leon Dormido through a natural arch known as the cathedral

Balling out on the beach at Cerro Brujo

Sandpiper living the dream on a gorgeous powder sand beach

Mix of volcanic substrate and sand

Angling for that high five

Modeling shot

Same but doesn't really pull it off as well

Geologist father- is this pahoehoe?

This is just what we do here

View back at Cerro Brujo from the beach

Pano FTB

Sneaky baby oystercatcher in the background being adorable and stuff

Masters of the beach bum life

Oystercatcher is BACK

Up close and personal

What more can be added

Family of rays shows up at the pier on a casual Friday night. They're attracted to the zooplankton that are attracted to the light. Or something sciency like that

Chicken in our sink nbd

Chickens everywhere in the kitchen that night

Chatham Island. A little home reminder during my daily commute

Razor surgeonfish

Hammerheads if you look closely and little barracudas if you don't look closely

Burr v Hamilton

Galápagos Mullet

Turtle on a good visibility day

Naturally got a swag pic with it. Not sure why I didn't toss up the 1. Mental lapse

Another mental lapse "that can't happen"

@BluePlanet @NatGeo @DavidAttenborough

Honestly though @BluePlanet @NatGeo

Swimming through the school again

Flying 

Taking care to look for sharks

Fins to the left

Fins to the right

https://vimeo.com/143188226

There's the trailer for the vid I made for the last few weeks. Set the trailer to a topical and timeless classic. Hope you dig it.

We leave Friday afternoon for a weeklong adventure called Island Hopping. We'll be hitting Santa Cruz, Bartolome, Isabela, and Floreana during our only vacation all fall. All the cushy colleges back home have their long weekends and Thanksgivings and we just get one measly week...