3 day Horseback trip in the Andeas

Treava in Cuenca

Time has flown by so fast! So much has happened since I last wrote you. Currently we are in Cuenca, Ecuador. We rented an apartment here, and I love it.

I have a friend, Maria Del Carmen, to play with downstairs. She is so much fun! She has a WII and over 200 littlest pet shops! She doesn’t speak English, so I get to practice my Spanish a lot when I play with her. We usually play WII and monopoly. She usually wins WII because she has more practice, but I usually win monopoly because she will give me all her money for one property…and then she goes bankrupt and I land on free parking! She is very nice; you would love playing with her!

A couple days ago, we went to Banos. It is a hot spring. There was a sauna and hot pools. There were underground pools. They had yum-yum food! I ate chicken that had bacon on top of it, French fries, and salad. I miss the food in Alaska sooooooo much though!

Then the next day, we went to SigSig which is a hat town. It had the biggest hat in the world and the smallest. It was very cool. I also got to try on a metal hat…It was heavy! We also went to Chordelege, a jewelry town where I bought a ballerina necklace, a dolphin real silver necklace, and some earrings (my mom said I can get my ears pierced this summer!!!!!).

We had April fools day with my Grandma. It was yummy. We made fake food. Next we are renting a car and traveling around Ecuador. Noelle’s friend Mary is coming and I can’t wait to see her!

Treava

Vilicabamba and the Galapagos Tsunami evacuation

We went on the most beautiful journey today. We are in Vilicabamba, Ecuador, a place where many people live to be 100 plus years. The oldest person known was 125 years old. Medical investigations say they live to be so old because of the eternal spring, stable climate and water that is known to heal all that ails you. It has a mineral content that supports the body in a way that no other water can. The people here are the friendliest we have found in all of Ecuador.
The journey was by horseback up into the mountains and through tiny villages to swim in the healing waters. The entire trip was absolutely breathtaking. The mountains stand proud with a rich blue sky above. The flora and fauna was rich with agave plants, brilliant orange, pink, red and purple flowers, kiave trees that poked through my clothing, cherimoya trees, mango trees, orange trees, coffee trees and more. Even 5 ½ hours into our ride with a blistered bum I could only focus on the stunning beauty that surrounded me. Without a doubt this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Image Alaska at 75 degrees, sunshine, no mosquitoes and no threat of rain or cold, it is heaven here on earth. Out of all the places I have visited in the world this ranks among the top 2. To top it off full body massages are only $18 and are superb. I am going to look at property here in the next few days. Anybody want to go in on a place?
To back up a bit, on Saturday, February 27th I was brutally awaken by a man in Santa Cruz in the Galapagos pounding on my door. In my grogginess and limited Spanish I understood “”Yo es un bomberro, tsunami auqi in un hora. English translation: I am a fireman there will be tsunami here in one hour. When I asked how long we had he said one hour to get to higher ground. I asked where the earthquake was and he told me an 8.8 in Chile. My mind flashed to Hilo, Hawaii and the destruction of the last tsunami there caused by a Chile earthquake smaller than this. I asked how to get to higher grounds 1.5 miles away and he said run. I flew into the house and woke up everybody and ran back out to talk to my neighbors and gather more information. With luck friends of our neighbors pulled up in a Banana truck and offered us a ride, but said AHORA VAMOS. I tossed Treava in and Noelle and Vienna climbed in. My niece, Marybeth and Mia remained in the house packing. I told them now or else. They appeared. As we drove out of town we passed thousands who were running for higher ground and yet our truck ¾ empty would not stop to give anyone else a ride. This was devastating for me to be a part of. Humanity at it’s worst. I had no right to demand they stop, so I silently went along I quickly realized that we had no water or snacks. As we drove through Bellavista we took advantage of the traffic jam and grabbed the last 7 bottles of water. We then drove on the Santa Rosa as they thought Bellavista would not be high enough. As we sat waiting for news I was faced with my own humanity, would I choose to share my water, and limited food? Marybeth had called her husband Rob, who within an hour and a half had gotten back to us and said that they thought it would only be 2 meters high here. Thank God as a tsunami here would be devasting as most of the population and services are within the area of Puerta Ayora which is a valley and flat and would have been wiped out. The airport is even lower and we are 3 days by cargo boat from the mainland. We spent the next 4 hours waiting out the watch and letting the locals know all would be OK.
So what did I learn from this experience. How important and invaluable community is. To see a friend, get a hug, tell horror stories to each other, share food and drink in the state of an emergency can soothe ones soul. I remember seeing my English students that were 9 years old in Santa Rosa and they ran to me for a hug and to know what I knew. I am not sure who comforted who more. To know that you are part of a larger group that will look out for each other removes fear. I became closer to my neighbors and friends in the Galapagos during that Tsunami and the days that followed as we shared our experience of the Tsunami evacuation.
So my advice first and foremost is to get to know your neighbors. Pack an emergency kit as it would have made my life less stressful that morning. We had not prepared one while living in the Galapagos because when we first arrived I asked several people about tsunamis and was informed that in all of recorded history they had never had one. No place is ever free of disaster. Have a plan. Last but not least, a cell phone when in a third world country is invaluable as your community is not just where you live but all those whose lives you’ve touched who love and support you wherever you are.

picture of an iguana egg

Iguanas lay their eggs in a hole they dig in the sand. This inexperieced mom laid it in the midstof the iguanas.

More Isabella Pictures

The tall wall of rocks is called the wall of tears. They made prisons move these rocks over miles to build a wall they knew was just to keep them busy.



The marine iguanas lay their eggs in a hole they dig in the sand. If you look closely you will see one iguana was inexperienced and layed her eggs in the middle of the iguanas. The other hole in the sand is a nest in progress.


Sea cucumbers are very plentiful here. We must have seen over 200 while snorkeling and they were big, up to 3 feet long. They fish for them and sell them to Japan.

more Isabella Pictures

The first picture is of my sisters enjoying our first air conditioning experience in the Galapagos. They got the room really cold and curled up in their blankets.

The birds are..... can you guess?????? The blue footed boobies.


The streets of Isla Isabella are all sand. It poured down rain while we were there so we had to walk in a foot of rain water sometimes

The beaches have powder sugared sand and are beutiful till you encounter a marine iguana. We got to see thousands of them on Isabella.

Pictures from Isabella island

The little sea lion pup was about one month old. We think it's mother had been killed as it was extremely thin and the guide had not seen it with it's mom for 4 days. He said that another sea lion would not adopt it and noboby was allowed to help it as the sea lion population is high and it is natural selection at work.

The horse back riding was to the top of volcano Siera Negro.

A REPORT BY TREAVA ON SEA LIONS

Sea Lions By Treava

I got to pet a sea lion last week. Did you know Galapagos Sea Lions are related to the California Sea Lion? Sea lions are a part of the seal family. The Galapagos sea lions are classified as eared seals. They have tiny ears that we can see and strong flippers. Sea Lions live in colonies. They chase away intruders.
The sea lions here are about the size of a full grown pig going to market. Males weigh up to 400 pounds and have a bump on their head. The female weighs up to 200 pounds. She has a smooth head. They live 18 to 20 years. The eat fish and sardines.
Mating season is May to January. Mating occurs in the water. The gestation period for a sea lion is 6-9 months. The female gives birth on land. Baby sea lions weigh about 15 pounds when born. Men watch the babies to keep away predators.
Sea Lions are very playful. Sea Lions favorite game is surfing big waves. They play water polo using a marine iguana. They toss the marine iguana back and forth by it´s tail. They can bend over backwards and touch their nose to their feet. They can swim 25 miles an hour and can dive up to 100 feet.
It was very fun seeing sea lions and I hope that I can see them again very soon. Supposedly I will get to swim with one when we snorkel. My sister had one swim straight at her and play with her while she was diving. The end.

Pictures!!!!

These are pictures of the ecological playground, made from recycled things found at the dump. Notice the slide is made of concrete. It hurts your bottom if you slide down on your bottom so I always on my feet. Ever afternoon after teaching english I go to the playground with my friends. They have tubes they balance on and roll around the playground. The swings are fun too. The kids here are really fun to play with. They made an iguana out of tires.
The other pictures are of a bird stomach disection we went and watched at the Charles Darwin Center. We were dissecting the ani birds stomach to discover several things. One do they carry bird malaria and secondly, are they eating endemic baby bird (birds found only here). We discovered lots of seeds, spiders, caterpillars, and once Lilly found a baby bird. It was kinda gross, but also interesting.
I have been sick this week and really missing the comfort of my home.

A glimpse into life on the Galapagos

Lisa's view of the Galapagos. When we first arrived off the play it was sweltering hot and all I saw was lava and a few prickly pear cactii, better know as optuni catcti here. Even I was hot. To get to our new home in Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz you arrive by plane on the island of Baltra (an old USA military base durrring WWII). You then take a bus for 5 minutes to a ferry where you toss your luggage on top. Ten minutes in the ferry with glistring aqua colored water and viewing sea lions and pelicans and you wonder if you might be in paradise. Back to land to have 20 taxi guys swarm you to get your $15 for the taxi ride to Puerto Ayora a 40km ride that takes 1 and 1/2 hours on one of the few roads here. We are drenched with sweat. We ask the Taxi driver if can we sit in the back of the truck. No. As we drive along I begin to notice the brillant yellow flowers on the cactii. Soon the cactii fade into lush green as we climb in altitude to cross the high spot of the island. Ahh relief it might be 75 or 80 here. This is called the highlands where most of the food for the island is grown. Lush and tropical rain forest, well not quite rain forest.
Back down to stiffling heat and we find our new home here in Puerta Ayora. It is an extremely nice home by standards here and nice according to Vienna's standards. We are quickly warned by Emily, the director of the program Ice we are volunteering for to NEVER drink the water here and when showering to wash private parts with fresh water as something terrible is in it but she won't tell us today as she doesn't want to scare us. I for one have a very active imagination and was totally freaked out so 2 hours later when we went to teach english I begged her to tell me. She proceeds to tell me that the leach fields and aquifer (water source) have cracks which allow them to qicly become one. I am thinking great I am showering in dodo. Get me gallons of clorox. They do have paseteles de cloro for you water tank and we quickly buy some. Still the thought is gross. Emily told us none of the locals drink the water, but after having been invited into their homes I see them all drink water from the tap. We use grapefruit extract to clean fruits and vegtables and thus far none of us have been sick, just sunburnt.
Puerto Ayora is about 10,000 people. The government is trying to protect the Galapagos so no one other than a resident(a person who has lived here more than 10 years can own a car, house, motorcycle or land. That means there are 1,00 white taxis who tke you around town for $1 if you are laxy. Still many Ecuadorians come because the money is good here in Ecuadorian standards. (in a lot of ways similar to Alaska) Food though is expensive. Mangos $1, watermellon 5 to 10, a chicken 8 to ten, 5 gallons of water the cheapest $.90, lettuce $3 and so on. We buy our milk from the leche guys who come around every morning at 6:30 yelling leche, leche. It is $1.40 for 2 liters. Every other building is a store or bakery and they all sell the same things we thought at first. Two reasons behind this. Even though there is almost nill crime someone always stays in the casa (house) to protect it. Therefor, usually the woman stays home, manages the kids and runs the store. Secondly, they can buy in bulk and get a better price. We have discovered that when you see something in the store (say kikkoman soy sauce which a small bottle cost $6.48) buy instantly because it will be gone it less than 24 hours. One lady told me last night she goes to the one main supermarket (you could fit it in my livingroom and kitchen area) everyday to be able to get differnt things. Que le via bien, have agood jouney till next time. lisa and treava

Here are the two different kinds of iguanas. One is a marine iguana and the other is a land. Which do you think is which?

My mom almost peed her pants yesterday when she was tide pooling and stepped witin a foot of one and it hissed at her. Then on another day Noelle and I were in the water swimming. From shore my mom saw one swimming directly at us. She said she couldn't decide between warning us or watching for a good laugh. She choose the later and is still laughing when she thinks about it. It swam to within 2 feet of us. Noelle saw it first and started flapping her arms. I couldn't figure out why she was acting like she wanted to fly. Then I saw it and let out a piercing scream. Noelle and I stood there hugging each other and frozen. The igauna turned and swam away. My mom dropped to the ground and rolled with laughter. Some great protective mom. Oh the one on the sand is the Marine iguana.

pelicans and iguanas

Pelicans are very common here. Often Makes me think of nemo. They divebomb the ocean for fish from 20 feet up. it is very impressive to watch. They also perch in trees and the fish market waiting for a free meal. can you find the iguana in the picture?

Snorkeling

Hi everybody, Thanks for posting back to me. I really like getting messages from you. If you haven't it is really easy so try it. Today I went snorkeling in Academy bay. At our first site We saw turtles mating and marine iguanas swimming. At our second site we saw a huge, about 400, school of burrito grunt fish swimming. They have a bright yellow tail so it was really cool. We saw lots of other fish too. There were sea lions on the shore. My sisters were diving and they got to swim with the sea lions. At first I was really scared as the ocean is big and the water is deep. I used a wet suit which helped to keep me a little warmer and float too. Once I started seeing fish it was fun. Mom and I learned a lesson though, we need to take bovine when the rest are diving as once we get out and sit in the boat we get sea sick.
I am sad as the little kids next door moved last night. They moved to a place smaller than my living room for their whole house. We will go visit but it is not the same as being able to walk outside and play with them. It was also really helping me learn spanish faster.
Miss you all. Treava

pelicans, lonesome george and more

This bottom photo is of the famous lonesome George. He is the last Turtle of his kind. They are trying to breed him with hybrid turtles from Pinta Island but to date it hasn't worked. He is much bigger than me. We saw him at the Darwin research center.

Food is interesting and expensive here. so far we like fish best and so do the seals and pelicans as you can tell. They hang out at the peir the fisherman come into every night. The seals fur is very smooth.

These really made my sisters jump about 3 feet and scream like babies when they scurried across the path. I think the little ones are called lava lizzards and the big one is a land iguana. There are also geckos scurrying everywhere you walk and you want to be careful to not step on thier tails as they will pull off.

So far I have seen Prickly pear catcus which are in bloom right now with a beautiful yellow flower and I think saguro. Did you know when the pricly pear gets really big the lower part starts to look like wood and bark on a tree. check it out it the photo

This is a sea lion. They are everywhere. They say I will get to swim with them one day.

can you stand on your head and look at this bird upside down

We are in the galapagos and it is hot. Today we went snorkeling and my whole family is as red as tomatoes. Teaching english is really fun because there are kids my age and we play lots of games and I am their favorite teacher they tell me. Afterwards we get to go play at the ecological playground that has a cement slide that is steep and fast! I will get a picture next week. Here are pictures of our beach trip.

Photos of previous posts were Treava with fellow Alaskan Dale Oerlich and a volcano seen from our Hostel in world-famous market city, Otavalo, Ecuador.

Otavalo Volcano

The pictures are of a real telephone booth. one of the kids I played with and me trying on a mask at the Otavalo market.

Hi everyone, we are in Quito right now. I went paddle boating today. Tomarrow we fly to the galapagos. I've gotten to practice spanish a lot on the plane down and on the bus rides. I teach all the kids chicle chickle and they teach me about whatever we are passing by. They have an interesting new years tradition here. The make adummy out of sawdust and mask and set it in fire. for good luck you jump over it. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES.