Traveling is very important because you get to know how different people live. Traveling shows you how easy or hard life can be in other countries compared to the USA. It’s fun and educational to travel. You have to be patient with others and be ready to get up and go.
There are lots of differences between cultures. Some examples of these differences are greetings, importance of time and the simplicity of life. In Chile they give a kiss on cheek for a greeting. We just give a hand shake. I think the kiss on the cheek is a friendlier way of saying “hello”. When I saw a friend in Chile she always gave us a kiss on the cheek and kept going. When Americans see their friends they just say “hi” and keep going because they are busy. Americans might think it is gross to give a kiss on the cheek because they think a kiss is a way of saying “I love you”.
The public transportation and the importance of time is a lot different in Chile than in the USA. In Chile they do not care if they are late because they believe everything will happen in time. Take the busses for example, the bus schedule says the bus will leave at 8:00 and they leave at 8:30. In the USA people would get worked up about someone being late.
The Chileans have harder work than Americans. Every day I see them chopping huge pieces of wood and then putting them on an oxen cart. All we have to do is buy some wood at the store and put it in the back of our car. Throwing laundry in the washing machine is a piece of cake compared to the Ecuadorian ladies scrubbing their clothes in the river for hours. I believe our life is easy and their life is difficult.
You always want to help a person if they are having troubles. They do not always have all the resources that Americans have. Many children only go through middle school then only some go into High school and barely any go into College. I want to help the schools and get the government to help support and care about all the schools.
It doesn’t matter how another person lives or believes as long as they feel strong and able to control their life. It doesn’t make it right or wrong the way another person lives or believes as long as it works for them and does not harm anyone else. You should always show respect of another person’s way of living.
It is very interesting the way different people live. I like bringing home memories from my travels as well as souvenirs of the way different cultures dress, like my poncho and pan pipes from Ecuador.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Indigenous Ecuador
Ecuador is a fantastic place because it has so many indigenous tribes. There are more than twenty different tribes in the three different regions of Ecuador, which are the Coast, the Highlands, and the Amazon. The different tribes did not inter-mix much because the Ecuadorian landscape is so tough; it was hard to get around. The Amazon is thick with rainforest and rivers, the Highlands have steep mountains and cold temperatures and the Coast is far away from the other areas and also has thick tropical forests and steep hills! Each tribe has its own traditions, language, and way of dressing.
The tribes of the Coast are the Awa-Kwailer, Chaci, Tsachila, Afroecuatoriano, and the Epera. The Awa-Kwailer settled in southwestern Columbia and northwestern Ecuador. The area is a thick with tropical rainforest and steep eroded hills. The Awa’s have 7,000 people total; 5,000 people in Columbia and 2,000 in Ecuador. The Spanish named the Awa-Kwailer tribe. Their language is called the Awapi. Their tribal name,” Awa-Kwailer “means “Mountain People”. They have traditional doctors that were called “curanderos”. If the curanderos could not help the injured or sick people and they died, they would have a funeral, and they believed they were “freeing” the person. They included the deceased’s food, tools, and clothing in the grave so that he or she could fulfill their duties after death. There are many more coastal people in Ecuador too.
The Chaci people live on the Coast. They originally came from the province of Imbabura in the Highlands, but they fled to the Coast in face of Inka and Spanish conquests. Their territory borders the Cayapa, Santiago, Onzole, and the Canende Rivers. There are about 600 Chaci’s living in 28 communities. The Chaci people have a similar language to the Awa-Kwailer and the Tsachila tribes. Their common name is the “Chaci”, but their traditional name is the “Cayapas”. The Chaci people traditionally base their living on hunting, gathering, and fishing. Today they are engaged in agriculture, growing coffee and cacao for both household consumption and export. They are also known for their fabrication of canoes and their traditional basket weaving.
The Tsachila are another tribe in the Coastal area. These Tsachila people are located in the forested foot of the Western Andes Mountains. They used to be called the “Colorado” because of their way of combing and coloring each other’s hair. They combed their hair with a seed called the “achiote”, which is a really big, spiny, round seed. “Tsachila” means “true people” or “true world”. The Tsachila speak Tsafiqui that is related to the Awa-Kwailer and the Chaci languages. These people had a hard life, but a very interesting culture. These people became a tourist curiosity because of their traditional red body paint. In the 1950’s the government built roads through the Tsachila’s territory and then the whites began to colonize their region. Even though they have been exposed to western civilization, they still remain isolated from the national culture and economy and they keep their traditional ways.
The last two coastal tribes are the Afroecutoriano and the Espera tribes. These two tribes are the least studied tribes in the Coastal area. The Afroecuatoriano tribe is located on the province of Esmeraldas and in the valley of Chota. There are approximately 500,000 people in that tribe. Their beginning in Ecuador goes back to the 1550’s when a slave ship wrecked off the coast. The Espera is one of the smallest groups in the coast. They live in the northwest area of Ecuador. There are only about 150 people living in that tribe. There are lots of other tribes in the Highlands and the Amazon areas.
The Ecudaorian Highlands tribes are Otavalo, Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Salasaco, Chumbarazo, Canar, and Saraguro. The most well known tribe is the Otavalo . They are located north of the capital of Quito in the Andean Highlands. Their village is surrounded by volcanoes. Their language is Quichua. There are 50,000 people residing in the town of Otovalo, where their famous market takes place. The famous market has the same name as the people – Otavalo. The market has an abundant amount of different kinds of handicrafts, foods and animals. There are two parts of the market, one for the tourists and one for the traditional things they make. Tourists mostly visit the food and animal section of the market. The Otovalo people have a deep tradition in weaving; it goes back to pre Inka times. The many crafts they create are: wool woven sweaters, hammocks, woven tapestries that depict scenes from the Ecuadorian countryside, purses, jewelry, and clothing. They also buy and sell chickens, pigs, vegetables, loom parts, dye, and yarns. The Otovalos pride themselves and have proven themselves to be successful, profitable and intelligent people. After many, many years they still continue making a good livelihood from crafting skills, while maintaining their ethnic identity.
The Cayambe and the Chimborazo tribes also live along the volcanoes. The Cayambe are found in the towns Pichincha, Imbura, Napo, Cayambe, Otovalo, Ibarra, Pedro Moncayo, and Chaco. There are 168 communities and 450,000 people. Most of the Highlands tribes share the Quichua language. The Chimborazo tribe has 250,000 people, of that 4,040 are purely indigenous people. They are noted for their five distinctive ways of dress: cachas, lictos, coltas, calpis, and polucates. Many of the traditional Highlands women wore colorful, puffy, knee length skirts, felt fedora hats and colorful shawls.
The Canar people live in the southern central part of Ecuador, just north of Cuenca. While most indigenous tribes thought of the Spanish conquistadors in the 1530’s as the enemy, the Canars considered the Spanish invaders as liberators, perhaps because the Canars were enslaved by the Inkas. In the 1950’s the Canar tribe started manufacturing Panama hats. Panama hats were a good economic addition to the Canar livelihood, however they lost a lot of their land to white traders wanting property in the area.
The last tribes of the Highlands, and the least amount of information available, are Cotopaxi, Saraguro and the Salasaca. The Saraguro tribe is located in the Andean Mountains near the Zamora River in the upper Amazon basin. They raise cattle. The Salasca tribe is located northwest of Ecuador. They came from Bolivia to Ecuador. There are only about 150 people in this small tribe. There was no detailed information available on the Cotopaxi tribe.
There are seven tribes in the Amazonian area: Cofan, Sionas and Secoyas, Quichuas Amazonicas, Huaorani, Shuar, Achuar, and Zapara. The Cofan tribe is located along the Sinangue, Durino, Dureno and Berjon Rivers. The Cofan tribe has 800 people. Their language is A’lngae. Their warriors use a whole different variety of weapons, such as: spears, hardwood swords, bow and arrows, and slings. The people wear different types of jewelry in their noses and ears such as feathers, flowers, and other natural materials. The tribe did a lot of trading, embarking on long and dangerous voyages down the river and tributaries to the main Amazon River. They were in search of cloth, salt and sea shell beads in exchange for stone, adzes (a kind of rock) and knives. In 1536 the Spanish arrived in their area. Until 1950 they remained isolated from western society, then four years later in 1954, the American missionaries arrived. They had a small tribe, but big history.
The Sionas and the Secoyas are located in the northeastern Amazon area and are near the Cofans. There are around 1,000 people between the two tribes. Their language is similar to the Tucanas language. Sionas and Secoyas were originally two separate groups that had similar cultures and similar language. In the beginning of the 20th century, the two tribes merged together. By the 1970’s they were all one ethnic group. But in the 1980’s their territory was devastated by oil exploration. Soon after that in November of 1995 they sued Texaco for more than one billion dollars for environmental abuses and for dumping more than 3,000 gallons of oil a day into their lagoons. After that they became two separate groups again.
Quichuas Amazonicas is a very large tribe. They live in the province of Pastaza. That tribe speaks Quichua. There are 70,000 people. The Quichuas Amazonicas are divided into two subgroups of 30,000 and 40,000 people each. Today there is the Napo Quichuas Runa that live on the Upper Napo River and the other subgroup is the Canelos Quichuas. The Quichua language was the trade language before the Spanish conquest and is still used today. The Quichuas were introduced into Amazonian region from the Andean Mountains in the 17th century by Catholic missionaries.
The Huaorani territory extends from the Napo River into the north to the Curaray River located in the south. Most of the Huaorani people live in the communities of Tona, Empari, Payuno, Cononaco, and Yasuni. The remainder of the people are located in the basins of the Cononaco and Shiripuno Rivers. There are approximately 13,000 individuals in the tribe. The people use to be known as the “Pejorative” people, it means “warring savages”. Now they are sometimes called the “Achuas Quichua”, the word means “savages”. The Huaorani tribe is unfortunately well known for spearing five North American Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries in 1956. Among all of Ecuador’s indigenous groups, this group remains the most isolated from western civilization.
The Shuar people are located in the southeastern part of Ecuador between the Pastaza and Maranon Rivers. They are east of the present city of Cuenca along the contested border with Peru. Their region is a rocky 25,000 square miles along the lower eastern slopes of the Andes. In that whole area there is 40,000 people. In Shuar language, “shuar” means “people”. They are the second largest and most studied Amazonian group. Many of the people outside their tribe have used the term “jibaro” or “jivaro” for their name. Jibaro and jivaro have no meaning to the Shuar tribe. The Shuar people rejected both names because it’s a term foreign to their culture and has a historic negative association with savages and head hunting.
The tribe related to the Shuar is the Achuar tribe. The Shuar and the Achuar tribes did share the same area, customs and spoke similar languages. They live along the Corrientes, Pastaza, and the Maranon Rivers. Their territory has the most wealthy oil reserves. Along with the oil reserves, their homeland contains some of the highest biodiversity on earth. The Achuar use to live in the Amazon rainforests of northern Peru. The Achuar speak Achuar. There are 11,000 people and 77 ancestral communities. They remained isolated from civilization until the 1970’s when oil exploration started in their territory. An Achuar had to be born in the rainforest to be considered part of the Achuar tribe. They believe that when someone dies, the person’s lungs turn into butterflies and their shadow becomes a deer, their heart becomes a bird and their soul becomes an owl.
The last group in Ecuador is the Zapara tribe. The tribe started forming 500 years ago. In their own language their name means “person of the forest”. There are 200,000 people in 39 different groups. They are often called Zaparos, which refers to a type of basket. There is the least amount of recorded information on this tribe.
Ecuador is full of many tribes with rich cultural and mythical histories. These people live simple and hard lives, but are obviously successful as they have survived for many centuries.
The tribes of the Coast are the Awa-Kwailer, Chaci, Tsachila, Afroecuatoriano, and the Epera. The Awa-Kwailer settled in southwestern Columbia and northwestern Ecuador. The area is a thick with tropical rainforest and steep eroded hills. The Awa’s have 7,000 people total; 5,000 people in Columbia and 2,000 in Ecuador. The Spanish named the Awa-Kwailer tribe. Their language is called the Awapi. Their tribal name,” Awa-Kwailer “means “Mountain People”. They have traditional doctors that were called “curanderos”. If the curanderos could not help the injured or sick people and they died, they would have a funeral, and they believed they were “freeing” the person. They included the deceased’s food, tools, and clothing in the grave so that he or she could fulfill their duties after death. There are many more coastal people in Ecuador too.
The Chaci people live on the Coast. They originally came from the province of Imbabura in the Highlands, but they fled to the Coast in face of Inka and Spanish conquests. Their territory borders the Cayapa, Santiago, Onzole, and the Canende Rivers. There are about 600 Chaci’s living in 28 communities. The Chaci people have a similar language to the Awa-Kwailer and the Tsachila tribes. Their common name is the “Chaci”, but their traditional name is the “Cayapas”. The Chaci people traditionally base their living on hunting, gathering, and fishing. Today they are engaged in agriculture, growing coffee and cacao for both household consumption and export. They are also known for their fabrication of canoes and their traditional basket weaving.
The Tsachila are another tribe in the Coastal area. These Tsachila people are located in the forested foot of the Western Andes Mountains. They used to be called the “Colorado” because of their way of combing and coloring each other’s hair. They combed their hair with a seed called the “achiote”, which is a really big, spiny, round seed. “Tsachila” means “true people” or “true world”. The Tsachila speak Tsafiqui that is related to the Awa-Kwailer and the Chaci languages. These people had a hard life, but a very interesting culture. These people became a tourist curiosity because of their traditional red body paint. In the 1950’s the government built roads through the Tsachila’s territory and then the whites began to colonize their region. Even though they have been exposed to western civilization, they still remain isolated from the national culture and economy and they keep their traditional ways.
The last two coastal tribes are the Afroecutoriano and the Espera tribes. These two tribes are the least studied tribes in the Coastal area. The Afroecuatoriano tribe is located on the province of Esmeraldas and in the valley of Chota. There are approximately 500,000 people in that tribe. Their beginning in Ecuador goes back to the 1550’s when a slave ship wrecked off the coast. The Espera is one of the smallest groups in the coast. They live in the northwest area of Ecuador. There are only about 150 people living in that tribe. There are lots of other tribes in the Highlands and the Amazon areas.
The Ecudaorian Highlands tribes are Otavalo, Cayambe, Cotopaxi, Salasaco, Chumbarazo, Canar, and Saraguro. The most well known tribe is the Otavalo . They are located north of the capital of Quito in the Andean Highlands. Their village is surrounded by volcanoes. Their language is Quichua. There are 50,000 people residing in the town of Otovalo, where their famous market takes place. The famous market has the same name as the people – Otavalo. The market has an abundant amount of different kinds of handicrafts, foods and animals. There are two parts of the market, one for the tourists and one for the traditional things they make. Tourists mostly visit the food and animal section of the market. The Otovalo people have a deep tradition in weaving; it goes back to pre Inka times. The many crafts they create are: wool woven sweaters, hammocks, woven tapestries that depict scenes from the Ecuadorian countryside, purses, jewelry, and clothing. They also buy and sell chickens, pigs, vegetables, loom parts, dye, and yarns. The Otovalos pride themselves and have proven themselves to be successful, profitable and intelligent people. After many, many years they still continue making a good livelihood from crafting skills, while maintaining their ethnic identity.
The Cayambe and the Chimborazo tribes also live along the volcanoes. The Cayambe are found in the towns Pichincha, Imbura, Napo, Cayambe, Otovalo, Ibarra, Pedro Moncayo, and Chaco. There are 168 communities and 450,000 people. Most of the Highlands tribes share the Quichua language. The Chimborazo tribe has 250,000 people, of that 4,040 are purely indigenous people. They are noted for their five distinctive ways of dress: cachas, lictos, coltas, calpis, and polucates. Many of the traditional Highlands women wore colorful, puffy, knee length skirts, felt fedora hats and colorful shawls.
The Canar people live in the southern central part of Ecuador, just north of Cuenca. While most indigenous tribes thought of the Spanish conquistadors in the 1530’s as the enemy, the Canars considered the Spanish invaders as liberators, perhaps because the Canars were enslaved by the Inkas. In the 1950’s the Canar tribe started manufacturing Panama hats. Panama hats were a good economic addition to the Canar livelihood, however they lost a lot of their land to white traders wanting property in the area.
The last tribes of the Highlands, and the least amount of information available, are Cotopaxi, Saraguro and the Salasaca. The Saraguro tribe is located in the Andean Mountains near the Zamora River in the upper Amazon basin. They raise cattle. The Salasca tribe is located northwest of Ecuador. They came from Bolivia to Ecuador. There are only about 150 people in this small tribe. There was no detailed information available on the Cotopaxi tribe.
There are seven tribes in the Amazonian area: Cofan, Sionas and Secoyas, Quichuas Amazonicas, Huaorani, Shuar, Achuar, and Zapara. The Cofan tribe is located along the Sinangue, Durino, Dureno and Berjon Rivers. The Cofan tribe has 800 people. Their language is A’lngae. Their warriors use a whole different variety of weapons, such as: spears, hardwood swords, bow and arrows, and slings. The people wear different types of jewelry in their noses and ears such as feathers, flowers, and other natural materials. The tribe did a lot of trading, embarking on long and dangerous voyages down the river and tributaries to the main Amazon River. They were in search of cloth, salt and sea shell beads in exchange for stone, adzes (a kind of rock) and knives. In 1536 the Spanish arrived in their area. Until 1950 they remained isolated from western society, then four years later in 1954, the American missionaries arrived. They had a small tribe, but big history.
The Sionas and the Secoyas are located in the northeastern Amazon area and are near the Cofans. There are around 1,000 people between the two tribes. Their language is similar to the Tucanas language. Sionas and Secoyas were originally two separate groups that had similar cultures and similar language. In the beginning of the 20th century, the two tribes merged together. By the 1970’s they were all one ethnic group. But in the 1980’s their territory was devastated by oil exploration. Soon after that in November of 1995 they sued Texaco for more than one billion dollars for environmental abuses and for dumping more than 3,000 gallons of oil a day into their lagoons. After that they became two separate groups again.
Quichuas Amazonicas is a very large tribe. They live in the province of Pastaza. That tribe speaks Quichua. There are 70,000 people. The Quichuas Amazonicas are divided into two subgroups of 30,000 and 40,000 people each. Today there is the Napo Quichuas Runa that live on the Upper Napo River and the other subgroup is the Canelos Quichuas. The Quichua language was the trade language before the Spanish conquest and is still used today. The Quichuas were introduced into Amazonian region from the Andean Mountains in the 17th century by Catholic missionaries.
The Huaorani territory extends from the Napo River into the north to the Curaray River located in the south. Most of the Huaorani people live in the communities of Tona, Empari, Payuno, Cononaco, and Yasuni. The remainder of the people are located in the basins of the Cononaco and Shiripuno Rivers. There are approximately 13,000 individuals in the tribe. The people use to be known as the “Pejorative” people, it means “warring savages”. Now they are sometimes called the “Achuas Quichua”, the word means “savages”. The Huaorani tribe is unfortunately well known for spearing five North American Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries in 1956. Among all of Ecuador’s indigenous groups, this group remains the most isolated from western civilization.
The Shuar people are located in the southeastern part of Ecuador between the Pastaza and Maranon Rivers. They are east of the present city of Cuenca along the contested border with Peru. Their region is a rocky 25,000 square miles along the lower eastern slopes of the Andes. In that whole area there is 40,000 people. In Shuar language, “shuar” means “people”. They are the second largest and most studied Amazonian group. Many of the people outside their tribe have used the term “jibaro” or “jivaro” for their name. Jibaro and jivaro have no meaning to the Shuar tribe. The Shuar people rejected both names because it’s a term foreign to their culture and has a historic negative association with savages and head hunting.
The tribe related to the Shuar is the Achuar tribe. The Shuar and the Achuar tribes did share the same area, customs and spoke similar languages. They live along the Corrientes, Pastaza, and the Maranon Rivers. Their territory has the most wealthy oil reserves. Along with the oil reserves, their homeland contains some of the highest biodiversity on earth. The Achuar use to live in the Amazon rainforests of northern Peru. The Achuar speak Achuar. There are 11,000 people and 77 ancestral communities. They remained isolated from civilization until the 1970’s when oil exploration started in their territory. An Achuar had to be born in the rainforest to be considered part of the Achuar tribe. They believe that when someone dies, the person’s lungs turn into butterflies and their shadow becomes a deer, their heart becomes a bird and their soul becomes an owl.
The last group in Ecuador is the Zapara tribe. The tribe started forming 500 years ago. In their own language their name means “person of the forest”. There are 200,000 people in 39 different groups. They are often called Zaparos, which refers to a type of basket. There is the least amount of recorded information on this tribe.
Ecuador is full of many tribes with rich cultural and mythical histories. These people live simple and hard lives, but are obviously successful as they have survived for many centuries.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
The First Rivers Riden In Ecuador By The Cranes
We finally rode 3 rivers on the 25th, 26th, and the 27th. My mom and I were all alone on our first rafting day. We meet up with Mat Terry. He was from Colorado too. We we ask for a really calm water. He gave us 2 class water and he said he would come with us. When we got to the put in it seemed like 4 class water. We were going in a ducky on this river. We did not have the camera to take pictures but it was a really beautifull scene.The water was really warm. There are no breaks through out the river. There were huge boleders we got stuck on. My mom keeped hitting me in the head with her paddle so it was hard to paddle. That river took arond 2 hours. We made plan for the 26th the next day. On the 26th we did some harder stuff. It was 4 class rapids. Everyone went on this rafting trip. We were in duckies again. We had Mats worker guide us. He was a really nice guy. The waves were around 6 feet tall. When I was with my dad around the 5th rapid we flipped. We flipped because we went into a hole side ways. That was my first time flipping. We were right in the middle of the longest rapid. The waves were tall and hard when you hit them. The water was cold on that river. I panicked but no one thought i did. We flipped the boat around and got back in. We were on the way to lunch right after that. We ate and played some games. We got back in and I went with mom this time.WE hit a couple of holes side ways but did not flip. The third day rafting Mat was going to show my dad some work on the river. It was a really shallow river. It seemed that you could walk the whole thing. The only ones to go on this river trip was Mat, Dad, and I. We left around 4 and got in around 8. I walked most of the river.When we took out we took out at our hotel that we were staying in.We went right into town. There were 2 rivers that intersected in the town and we had to row a littel up one of the rivers to get to the hotel. The hotel was right next to the river. We invited Mat to dinner for a good bye. Those were the funest rivers i have been on ever since i was born.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
My Thank You letter in spanish
I wrote a letter in spanish. The spanish school was great! I got all these words from my teacher, Juana. This letter is to my host familey, Elena, and Eugenio. They are the most sweetest familey.
Queridos Elena y Eugenio
Ustedes son una familia dulce yo los conocido y deseo agradecerles por su gradiosa estadia. Mi cuarto fue muy confortable. Ustedes son tan generosos por permitirme ir al centro y no regre sar a casa por el almuerzo a veces. Yo estoy planeando hacer aunque no exactas tipos de sopa cuando regrese a casa porque son tan buenas. Nosotros nos sentimos confortables cuando su familia venga. Yo me siento como en casa. Parece que no nosotros podemos hacer cualquier cosa que nosotros deseamos y tu no te molestas porque son una la mas bonita familia que yo he conocido. La ciudad es hermosa y con una grandiosa vista. Yo siempre los recordare. Yo siempre les dire a mis amigos sobre ustedes porque ustedes son tan dulces, amables, tranquilos y divertidos. Yo solo quiero decirles adios y gracias les extrañare.
Con Amor,
Emma
Queridos Elena y Eugenio
Ustedes son una familia dulce yo los conocido y deseo agradecerles por su gradiosa estadia. Mi cuarto fue muy confortable. Ustedes son tan generosos por permitirme ir al centro y no regre sar a casa por el almuerzo a veces. Yo estoy planeando hacer aunque no exactas tipos de sopa cuando regrese a casa porque son tan buenas. Nosotros nos sentimos confortables cuando su familia venga. Yo me siento como en casa. Parece que no nosotros podemos hacer cualquier cosa que nosotros deseamos y tu no te molestas porque son una la mas bonita familia que yo he conocido. La ciudad es hermosa y con una grandiosa vista. Yo siempre los recordare. Yo siempre les dire a mis amigos sobre ustedes porque ustedes son tan dulces, amables, tranquilos y divertidos. Yo solo quiero decirles adios y gracias les extrañare.
Con Amor,
Emma
Monday, January 12, 2009
My Trip To The Galapagos
Will the Galápagos Islands be the same in the next 50 to 100 years? There are many reasons the Galapagos Islands are so special. My experience there and what I learned made me realize what a fragile place it is and it needs protection.
I did not know what to expect in the Galapagos, but there were many things I loved and learned there. Of all the things I loved, it was the animals that really impressed me. From the moment I walked off the bus I saw a sea lion on a bench! The reason they were on a bench was because either they were males that lost a fight or they were pups that lost their moms. One of the sea lions I saw had a huge lump on his head, which is how you tell a male from a female. Bull sea lions can weigh 250 kilograms and they are very territorial. My uncle got too close to the bull and he barked and then the pup barked too. The pup sounded like a lamb. There were not any harems there. Harems are groups of female sea lions. The moms of pups find their pup by the bark and smell. The sea lions had no fear of us and I could get within three feet of them. Sea lions are cute and interesting.
The first place we went was South Plaza. Our guide told us to watch our step. I forgot and almost stepped on a Marine Iguana. They are so well camouflaged that they look like the lava they are standing on and like a small Kimono Dragon. She told me to always watch my step. The two different kinds of iguanas are marine or land. The males were very colorful, showing reds, yellows, and oranges.
We snorkeled almost every day from our boat the Reina Silvia. On my third snorkel I saw a sea turtle! It had a diamond shaped shell. Many fish eat the bacteria off its shell. It´s a treat for the turtle and the fish. Speaking of fish, one of my favourite fish is the Yellow-tailed Damsel fish. He kept an algae garden for himself. He was funny because he would not let anything on his garden, not even a hermit crab. He grabbed whatever was on his garden and put it on someone else´s garden. He does not let anyone even pass over it. They are so great!
Birds were one of biggest parts of the wildlife on the Galapagos Islands. Our guide told us a very hilarious poem.
“A funny bird is the Pelican,
His beak can hold more than his belly can,
He´ll hold in his beak enough for a week,
And I don´t know how the hell he can.”
The first time I saw a Galapagos flycatcher it was right as I came out from hiking through a lava tube. It was a cute fuzzy bird that had a yellow head and a grey body, and it was as big as my middle finger. A little bit bigger bird was the American oystercatcher which was as big as my fingers to my elbow, and had greyer feathers and bright orange legs. The Galapagos Hawk was funny and pretty with gold and black feathers. The hawk was cocking his head, and it made him look like he was wondering. We were walking through the valley and he just kept following us which was funny. My favourite bird was the Albatros. The wing span for the Albatros is almost seven feet. They do a mating dance where they rock back and forth. When the babies are 6 months old they are as big as the adults. When they are ready to take off they jump off the cliff. They stay out at sea their whole lives, and they only go to the island of Espaniola to mate.
How did I learn all that? I learned it from my guide, Tanya. She explained about the Albatros really well. They are rarely seen so she was really keen on talking about them. She showed us the tiniest things that I would never have seen without her help. The lava lizards are the tiniest and hardest things to find. The lava lizards are the size of my finger and very well camouflaged. Tanya had a good sense of humor. When my uncle tripped on purpose in front of people, she cracked up. She was one of the best guides I have ever known.
At Post Office Bay there was an unusual mailbox. Imagine that! The mailbox was started by whalers in 1793. It´s just a barrel on a post that has a door with a latch. There were bags full of letters for people all over the world. The rule with the mailbox is that if you take one, you have to hand deliver the letter to the person it was addressed to. I looked at some. I did not find any for Colorado, but my dad did. The letter was for someone in Pinecliff, Colorado. We have a journey in front of us!
Charles Darwin was a scientist that journeyed to the Galapagos Islands on a boat called the Beagle in the 1830’s. He was the first scientist to explore the Galapagos and collect samples of the animals there. He started the theory of evolution through the samples he collected. The different kinds of finches proved that they all started with one finch. The specialness of the animals and the story they tell about evolution makes the Galapagos famous around the world.
The Galapagos Islands are the only place where certain kinds of animals live and they are not afraid of humans. Sea turtles live almost everywhere around the world, but Giant Land Tortoises only live in the Highlands on certain islands in the Galapagos. The rare Albatros are very important because there are only 17,000 of these birds, and they only land on Espanoila Island to mate and nest. These extraordinary animals should be able to continue living in their natural habitats.
My visit to the Galapagos made me realize what a delicate place this is. The people need to work together to help the animals. The Galapagos Islands need to be protected.
I did not know what to expect in the Galapagos, but there were many things I loved and learned there. Of all the things I loved, it was the animals that really impressed me. From the moment I walked off the bus I saw a sea lion on a bench! The reason they were on a bench was because either they were males that lost a fight or they were pups that lost their moms. One of the sea lions I saw had a huge lump on his head, which is how you tell a male from a female. Bull sea lions can weigh 250 kilograms and they are very territorial. My uncle got too close to the bull and he barked and then the pup barked too. The pup sounded like a lamb. There were not any harems there. Harems are groups of female sea lions. The moms of pups find their pup by the bark and smell. The sea lions had no fear of us and I could get within three feet of them. Sea lions are cute and interesting.
The first place we went was South Plaza. Our guide told us to watch our step. I forgot and almost stepped on a Marine Iguana. They are so well camouflaged that they look like the lava they are standing on and like a small Kimono Dragon. She told me to always watch my step. The two different kinds of iguanas are marine or land. The males were very colorful, showing reds, yellows, and oranges.
We snorkeled almost every day from our boat the Reina Silvia. On my third snorkel I saw a sea turtle! It had a diamond shaped shell. Many fish eat the bacteria off its shell. It´s a treat for the turtle and the fish. Speaking of fish, one of my favourite fish is the Yellow-tailed Damsel fish. He kept an algae garden for himself. He was funny because he would not let anything on his garden, not even a hermit crab. He grabbed whatever was on his garden and put it on someone else´s garden. He does not let anyone even pass over it. They are so great!
Birds were one of biggest parts of the wildlife on the Galapagos Islands. Our guide told us a very hilarious poem.
“A funny bird is the Pelican,
His beak can hold more than his belly can,
He´ll hold in his beak enough for a week,
And I don´t know how the hell he can.”
The first time I saw a Galapagos flycatcher it was right as I came out from hiking through a lava tube. It was a cute fuzzy bird that had a yellow head and a grey body, and it was as big as my middle finger. A little bit bigger bird was the American oystercatcher which was as big as my fingers to my elbow, and had greyer feathers and bright orange legs. The Galapagos Hawk was funny and pretty with gold and black feathers. The hawk was cocking his head, and it made him look like he was wondering. We were walking through the valley and he just kept following us which was funny. My favourite bird was the Albatros. The wing span for the Albatros is almost seven feet. They do a mating dance where they rock back and forth. When the babies are 6 months old they are as big as the adults. When they are ready to take off they jump off the cliff. They stay out at sea their whole lives, and they only go to the island of Espaniola to mate.
How did I learn all that? I learned it from my guide, Tanya. She explained about the Albatros really well. They are rarely seen so she was really keen on talking about them. She showed us the tiniest things that I would never have seen without her help. The lava lizards are the tiniest and hardest things to find. The lava lizards are the size of my finger and very well camouflaged. Tanya had a good sense of humor. When my uncle tripped on purpose in front of people, she cracked up. She was one of the best guides I have ever known.
At Post Office Bay there was an unusual mailbox. Imagine that! The mailbox was started by whalers in 1793. It´s just a barrel on a post that has a door with a latch. There were bags full of letters for people all over the world. The rule with the mailbox is that if you take one, you have to hand deliver the letter to the person it was addressed to. I looked at some. I did not find any for Colorado, but my dad did. The letter was for someone in Pinecliff, Colorado. We have a journey in front of us!
Charles Darwin was a scientist that journeyed to the Galapagos Islands on a boat called the Beagle in the 1830’s. He was the first scientist to explore the Galapagos and collect samples of the animals there. He started the theory of evolution through the samples he collected. The different kinds of finches proved that they all started with one finch. The specialness of the animals and the story they tell about evolution makes the Galapagos famous around the world.
The Galapagos Islands are the only place where certain kinds of animals live and they are not afraid of humans. Sea turtles live almost everywhere around the world, but Giant Land Tortoises only live in the Highlands on certain islands in the Galapagos. The rare Albatros are very important because there are only 17,000 of these birds, and they only land on Espanoila Island to mate and nest. These extraordinary animals should be able to continue living in their natural habitats.
My visit to the Galapagos made me realize what a delicate place this is. The people need to work together to help the animals. The Galapagos Islands need to be protected.
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