Michael Niemann's blog: January 2012

Squeals of burning rubber and a little of my own terror echoed through my eardrums as my bus barreled down a one lane, switch-backing, guardrail-less mountain road into the sacred valley of the Inca’s not far from Cusco, Peru. At the time I was sure my blog would never be updated again due to my fiery death at the bottom of sheer cliff deep in the Andes mountains (excuse my hyperbole). However, Pachamama (the Inca equivalent of mother earth) must have taken pity on me (as Montezuma had already taken quite an extensive revenge on me) and I survived the bus ride. Once we got there the sacred valley really turned out to be quite incredible. The mountains towered around us in dramatic cliffs and thousand foot waterfalls falling into the lush green valley, much like Yosemite valley in the US. Our tour guide turned out to be quite a character. He taught me how to play the zampoña (panpipes) and described how he had learned English (he was very fluent) despite never having gone to school or traveled abroad. I hope to use a few of his tips.

Of course the main event in the Cusco region for us was hiking el camino inka (the inca trail). In this corner of the world there are two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season. Because this is the rainy season, this was the first four day backpacking trip I have ever brought 4 raincoats (2 gore-tex, 1 cheap plastic, and a disposable plastic poncho). Of course, it also turned out to be the first four day backpacking trip I have ever been on where I needed five; it rained all four days and the water conquered the raincoats one at a time, high tech gore-tex and disposable alike. I have never been more wet (showers and pools excluded), nor has most of my stuff. Despite the rain, the hike was an absolutely incredible experience. Breathtaking views were nearly continuous and at least half of the top 10 waterfalls I have ever seen crashed down the mountains. Flowers of every imaginable variety entertained my camera and I for all four days.
It was more than the views that took our breath away, however, as we climbed extremely steep steps for days at a time to elevations of more than 4200 meters (nearly 14,000 feet). Ultimately, my mother and I both survived and made it to Machu Picchu. Despite the extremely remote location, as far as backpacking goes, this was about as posh as it gets; we were served 4 course meals complete with a dining tent, tents were carried and set up by porters, and we were greeted each morning in our tents with coca tea. The others in our group were very friendly; they were great company helped me with my Spanish quite a bit (Thank you Evan, Alex, Thomas, Melisa, Gabriela, and Tamara). Mierdo de vaca was a favorite pre dinner card game. After the hike we celebrated with roasted guinea pig, a local delicacy.

The ultimate destination of the hike was the lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, we visited a number of Inca sites along the way. The Incas (or rather the Quechuas, only the king was the Inca, the people were the Quechuas) were very accomplished; they built huge cities out of huge, perfectly carved stones (some weighing more than a few tons) by hand and without slave labor. There were three pillars of Inca society. The first is to help others; if I am building my house today you help me and I will help you build yours tomorrow. The second is social work; when building a temple of a city everyone pitches in. The third is to pay taxes; this is where is gets interesting. They paid taxes by leaving home and doing work for a certain amount of time; either building a trail, guardhouse, etc. The Inca (the king) had farmland that was worked as part of the tax system and if someone was injured paying their taxes they would be provided with food from the Kings supply. Essentially the Inca’s were a socialist society.

The beginning

Luxury Backpacking

Dead Woman's Pass: 4200m

The group

Me at an Inca Site

Machu Picchu

Roasted guinea pig

Ultimately, the Inca civilization fell when the Spanish conquistadors ravaged their society with disease and superior weaponry destroying much of their architect (and reused many of the foundations because of their high quality). The Spanish never found Machu Picchu, in fact it wasn’t discovered until 1911 because of its remote location. Appropriately however, when the King and Queen of Spain visited Machu Picchu in the 1980’s the central rock in the main plaza was moved in order to land the helicopter and was broken in the process.

When I was in elementary school I did a report on the Galapagos tortoise: Giant reptiles reminiscent of the dinosaurs teetering on the edge of extinction. Ever since then I have wanted to come to the Galapagos Islands: the aspiring biologists equivalent of Disney world for kids or Yosemite for climbers; a Mecca of biology in action. It was in the Galapagos Islands that Charles Darwin developed and tested his theory on evolution and it’s easy to see why. The Galapagos Islands are one of (if not the) most biodiverse regions in the entire world! Birds and reptiles especially are everywhere and since until relatively recently the Galapagos Islands have been left mostly undisturbed by humans the animals are curious and fearless. 98% of the Islands are a protected national park with only 2% of the islands inhabited by humans.

My first impression of the Galapagos Islands was the fauna. Baltra Island, a military base and where the airstrip is located, was covered with cactus like something out of the southwest United States. I hadn’t expected that; I had expected green and lush landscapes. After taking a ferry to Santa Cruz Island the green and lush landscapes greeted me; first the red mangroves in the beach and then thousands of trees and plants in the higher ground with blooming flowers of every shade imaginable everywhere. Within half an hour we arrived at a dairy farm in the highlands. As we drove in we spotted giant tortoises everywhere! They were chilling out with the cows, lumbering down the road, and resting in the grass. We hiked for about an hour through the jungle-like highlands taking pictures of the first hundred tortoises that easily outweighed me by 100 pounds. I never thought I would see so many wild giant tortoises that I would not feel the need to take a picture of all of them: it was quite an experience. Later, at our visit to the Charles Darwin research center we would learn that despite seeing so many they are actually very threatened as a species. Pirates and other sailors hunted the tortoises nearly to extinction because they can survive for many months without food or water providing the pirates at sea with fresh meat when they needed it. In more recent years, however, it has been the species introduced by humans that have done the real damage. While adult tortoises don’t have much to fear because of their thick shells, the goats and dogs dig up and eat the eggs so far too few survive to adulthood. As a result many of the islands have breeding centers where they collect the eggs of wild tortoises and keep them in enclosed habitats until they are ready to be reintroduced to the wild.

I ate dinner at an open-air café a bit off the main street. The owners spoke no English. I was proud of myself for figuring out how to ask what was on the hamburger especial but unfortunately I didn’t understand the answer so I ordered it to find out. We are staying in hotel red booby named after the bird that is endemic to the island.

My second day in the islands we traveled to the largest of the islands, Isabella, which is mostly uninhabited by humans and about a two hour boat ride from Santa Cruz. As our boat pulled up to the dock, numerous bright red and blue crabs skittered away. On the dock three sea lions and an iguana were resting in the shade of the red mangroves. Sea lions are quite friendly and very much like dogs: they want to play all the time! (More about that later). There are 4 species of iguanas endemic to the islands (which means they live no where else in the world), three of which are land iguanas and one of which is the marine iguana; which is the only iguana in the world that gets its food in the water. The marine iguanas were everywhere!! On rocks, the dock, the beaches… I probably saw a thousand marine iguanas in the last four days. We saw blue footed boobies and Galapagos penguins, two other species endemic to the islands. We saw flamingos, white tipped sharks, sea turtles, manta rays, and many other birds. After all that we went snorkeling. We saw fish in every different color and every different size. My mom and I also found two stingrays as big as I am! I tried to get a picture of me with them but underwater photography is harder than it looks.

Blue footed Booby

Galapagos Penguins and an Iguana

A White tipped Shark

Sea Turtle!

Crab

Marine Iguana

Eagle Rays

Flamingos

Sting ray bigger than me

Sting ray bigger than me: Underwater photography is harder than it looks

The third day in the islands we hiked 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) out to Tortuga bay: a beautiful beach just like you would see in the movies. After spending the morning swimming and harassing iguanas with our cameras we took a boat tour of the bay. The highlight of the trip so far was snorkeling at La Loberia that afternoon. As soon as we got in the water the sea lions lounging on the rocks decided they wanted to play. I spent the next hour swimming with sea lions darting around me, chasing me, grabbing onto my foot, flipping over me, and coming up to me and looking me in the eyes. I’ve always thought swimming with the dolphins or the sea lions at sea world looked amazing but this was in the wild and it was certainly one of the most memorable moments in my life.

We spent the rest of the afternoon as Las Grietas (in English cracks or crevices). It was a natural swimming hole about 200 feet long and 25 feet wide; with either side lined with cliffs about 40 feet high. I jumped about 10 times before we had to leave!

Our guide: Edilberto

The next day we took another 2-hour boat ride to Floreana Island, which is almost completely uninhabited and home to more tortoises, birds, some awesome geological features. All of the islands were formed by volcanoes and are relatively new geologically speaking. Air pockets in the hardened lava collapsed to form caves, craters, and crevices all over the place. Of course we snorkeled even more and saw more awesome fish, another giant stingray, another sea turtle, and some penguins. Although Floreana is a good place to see hammerhead sharks, we unfortunately didn’t see any.

Sea lion hanging out by the pool

Red Mangroves and an Iguana

Iguana tracks

Dolphins

Another Sting Ray

Our final day in the Islands we visited a family owned coffee and sugar cane farm where they produce sugar, coffee, and moonshine for the local market. They showed us the processes and we sampled the products. It was like it was 100 years behind. They had just gotten electricity to run the machines to crush the sugar cane and all the processing was done by hand.

Other notes:

-Conservation is taken seriously in Ecuador: there are far more recycle bins than trashcans.

-Driving is definitely third world: traffic signs are just suggestions, our bus precariously passed other cars on one lane roads, roads were sometimes more rocks than gravel, we road on top of a bus for one tour (no seats, just a luggage rack), we had to stop several times for tortoises crossing the road.

-Most public bathrooms are BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper) and some are BYOTS (bring your own toilet seat).

-Most businesses are family businesses; our bus driver had his wife and kids on the bus, the coffee farm was a whole family affair, the salt mine was run by a family, most shops are run by a family with the whole family helping. Child labor laws are apparently not present.

-I made a few friends from Argentina and Switzerland on our tours. Emilio (from Argentina) stayed at the same hotel as we did and he helped me with my Spanish each night.

-Probably less than 10% of the tourists at the Galapagos Islands were from the US (at least on our tours), which is surprising since it’s such a unique and exotic location (and perfect tropical vacation destination) only 3 hours from Miami.

-It’s almost embarrassing how many Spanish speakers understand and speak English; far more than English speakers that speak Spanish. Also there doesn’t seem to be the same animosity towards foreigners that there is in some places in the US; on the contrary most locals were more than happy to help you in English or Spanish.

-If at all possible you have to come to the Galapagos Islands sometime in your life! It is absolutely amazing; exotic animals, beautiful scenery, friendly people, excellent seafood, perfect tropical beaches…

-Ecuador uses the US dollar but they also have their own bills. If you spend $10 and pay with a $20 you might get $5 US back and $5 in Ecuador’s cash.

-Locals gathered every night downtown to play soccer and volleyball; It was a lot of fun to watch.