Anyone Wanna Buy a Guinea Pig?

If you are in the market for guinea pigs, rabbits, panama hats (actually made in Ecuador) or just opportunities to sneak photos of locals sporting the latest trends in indigenous wear, then the weekly town markets are the best place to hit. I visited the largest market in Otavalo on a Saturday and a local market in Sasquili on a Thursday. Since I had no plans or room to buy anything, I just watched and admired economics at work. The live animal section seemed to be the most popular and although tempted to pet some of the furry creatures, I didn't; I might have become too attached. Instead, I watched the prospective buyers squeeze the animals to check to see how much meat they had on their bones and inspect them for overall quality.


After awhile, I made my way to the local fruit and meat market conveniently located right next to each other. Again no interest to buy, but instead I gawked at how much meat can hang from one stand and yet I wasn't totally grossed out by the sight. Though, the sight of the fried pig did make me stop for a second and gag.



The rest of the time, I took photos of the local fashion. I especially liked this couple's matching hats.

June of the Jungle....

...watch out for those trees! I played Jungle June in the Cuyabeno Reserve east of Quito for four days. The same day I returned from the Galapagos, I took an overnight bus to Lago Agrio and then another bus for 3 hrs to a river and then a canoe for another 2 hrs before finally reaching the Samona Lodge. My lodge came complete with tarantulas, snakes and creepie crawlie cockaroaches in my cabin. Yuck!


My guide packed those four days with activities. One day, we caught piranhas. I caught the most at four and the second most caught was two and the rest of the group caught none. Thought I would just brag a bit here. We let them all go except the biggest one I caught, which we fried up for a tasty appetizer.


Since the river is the only means of transportation through the jungle, we spent a lot time canoeing. While canoeing at night, we spotted a large cayman and the boatman decided to throw it a big piece of raw meat using our piranha fishing pole. Well, when he threw the meat towards the cayman, the meat inadvertently hit the cayman and he lunged towards us. We all screamed, even the guys. Thankfully, the cayman went on his merry way after that. We didn't try that stunt again.

On our day and night hikes through the jungle, we saw plenty of monkeys, snakes, lizards, poisonous frogs, and even a sloth.




My guide spotted a night owl monkey in the morning and I took a photo of it through his super magnified telescope. This is the same type of monkey that I cared for at the Bolivian wildlife refuge, but of which I was never able to take a photo because I was always scared to go into his dark cage.

Nearby villages line the river with indigenous people. We visited one community and I learned how to make yucca bread with the locals. We also visited a shaman who blessed us with leaves and removed any bad spirits. He told us that he spent 30 years studying to be a shaman and for his final exam, he had to consume a very deadly hallucinogenic plant. If he did not prepare it properly, he could die, but since he survived, he became a shaman.






Every afternoon, we went swimming in the lagoon as we watched the sunset. As you can see, even I went in the water, but only because they gave me a floatie.

The Galapagos-Isabela and Santa Cruz Islands

After my 8 day cruise, I stranded myself on Isabela island, the largest but the least inhabited of the 4 islands and in my opinion, the prettiest of the 4. On my first day, I rode a horse to the top of the Sierra Negra volcanic crater, the 2nd largest crater in the world. The volcano is still active, but because the volcano is not cone shaped, when it erupts, the lava just stays within the top of the crater and much of the pressure is dissipated through holes located throughout the surface.


Later that day, I went snorkeling near Las Tintoreras, a small area with volcanic rock where white fin sharks rest. I watched penguins play and marine iguanas scatter and swam with green sea turtles.



The next day, I decided to walk to the Wall of Tears. Isabela island once served as a penal colony. Life at the penal colony killed many of the prisoners because the warden made the prisoners create this giant wall of lava rock. The hot sun and useless task hurt many mens' spirits. One day, the prisoners turned against their guards, killed them, and fled the island, but the wall still remains. I thought I could easily walk to it, but didn't realize until once I got there that I had walked 4.5 miles in flip flops. I ran out of water at the wall, and slowly made my way back another 4.5 miles to the nearest stand with juices.

In order to let my blisters rest, I relaxed in a hammock and watched the waves crash along the shores. Just what I thought island life is like.

After several days on Isabela, I made my way back to Santa Cruz to dive. I checked out Tortuga Bay, a gorgeous white sand beach and dove the next day. To my luck, I saw Galapagos sharks and hammer head sharks known for their eyes that sit on a bulge on the side of their heads. This was my first dive since certification and since I was so nervous, the dive master held my hand the whole time. I felt safe next to him and thankfully, didn't panic.

On my last day, I met a local throwing a party at his castle like house. He invited me to his party and so I brought along a couple of the women who went diving with me so I wouldn't be going alone. He told me about his vision to create Galapagos music with the local animals, which I found interesting as well as his vision for his castle house. I really enjoyed my time meeting his friends and learning a little more about the Galapagos culture.

The Galapagos-Lonesome George

In 1971, environmentalists saved the last remaining species of the tortoise found on Pinta Island and appropriately named him Lonesome George. Environmentalists made desperate calls to action to find him a mate and provided him with 2 female tortoises similar, although not exact, in species. Maybe they should have used match.com instead. For 36 years he cohabitated with female tortoises but did not produce any eggs up until last year. However, the eggs did not fertilize and some believe that George may be sterile. Sadly, when he dies, so will his species. He is a reminder of the destructive effect of man and introduced goats onto the islands. On a positive note for the Galapagos, his status as the single bachelor has turned into a worldwide marketing tool for the Galapagos.

To protect the giant tortoises on the islands from the goats, the park rangers created tortoise breeding centers that I visited on Santa Cruz and Isabella Islands. They took many of the tortoises located in the craters of the islands on Isabella, each a unique species, and on other islands and transferred them to these breeding centers to help spur the growth. These centers have been a success. One species almost became extinct when rangers could only find 2 female tortoises of one species left. International calls lead to a male tortoise of the same species at a zoo in San Diego. He was shipped over and immediately started breeding with the 2 females. The rangers named him Super Diego because he has successfully produced over 800 off spring as a result. Below is his photo. Many of the tortoises are reintroduced to their islands once they are big enough to fend off the introduced species on the islands.

Although not as cool as finding giant tortoises in the natural wilderness, I did make some photo opps with the tortoises there.

On Isabella island, I met some of the volunteers who cared for the tortoises. Since I arrived at the tortoise center with the volunteers, I had a chance to watch the tortoises eat and fight over food. The smaller ones crawl all over each other to get to the food. And the babies sometime flip over on their back and wiggle their feet in the air until one of the volunteers can turn them right side up.


I also videotaped them mating. The male chases the female around until he is able to mount her. Then he does his business while grunting the whole time. The female tries to escape but because the male is so much bigger, she is unable to. You can watch some of the process in the video below.

The Galapagos-Santiago and Bartholomew Islands

After viewing so much wildlife, we took a break to visit Santiago Island to admire the change in scenery. The island surface is made up of lava rock predominantly of the pahoehoe type, which is flat and easy to walk on. The surface contains either circular imprints of the lava or straight flowing. The other type, the a'a', is named as such because it hurts to walk on the rough and spiky lava rock and one might yell "aye aye" when walking on top. At least that's what my guide told me. The rock is made of smaller rocks bunched up to form jagged spikes. Both types are found on the ground and throughout the island one can see where the lava flow stopped and met the earth. I only walked on the pahoehoe and tried to blend in with the lava rock like the marine iguanas, but my sarong gave me away.



After our hike around, we snorkeled around the island and I ran into four Galapagos penguins swimming about. Galapagos penguins are the only penguins to exist in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Random trivia. They are the smallest type of penguins too. On land they seem rather clumsy, but in the water, they expertly dove and swam about. When not swimming, they sit on top of the water like ducks. I actually thought they were ducks. Although hard to tell from this photo, the penguins are on the water right in front of me.

In the afternoon, we sailed to Bartholomew island best known for it's pointed Pinnacle Rock that makes for a lovely photo opp at the top of the island.


We snorkeled at this location as well which has the a small group of about 14 penguins that live around the rock. For better pictures, we took the panga boat over there. I pointed the boat in the right direction and off we motored. We watched the sea gull scold two penguins for getting in her way while the other penguins played around and dried off on the rocks.