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.