Week 8. New volunteers, Night Dive and Visa. — Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Ecuador
This week, two new volunteers (Chloe and Luc) joined us. Chloe is assisting at one of the high schools and Luc joined Anders and me at the office. Luc helps me with my 2nd and 3rd classes and he is great with the kids. Besides Luc, I was lucky enough to have some more help with the classes; Marieke a former volunteer who is back from Quito for a holiday, was helping me this week with the 1st class. She taught some of the kids for 8 months last year and was surprised at the improvement of some of the kids. It is so nice to hear that we are making a difference!
Tuesday morning I took Luc for a walk to Frigate Hill. We spent some time staring at the sea from the lookout points and watched the blue-footed boobies fish. When we were passing the passenger dock at the Malecon, we noticed lots of people looking at something in the water. Apparently during the night, some vandals threw 2 motorcycles into the bay. One of the bikes belonged to Joselo, my dive instructor. This kind of behaviour is rare on this island and people were really surprised and upset. The bikes were lifted from the water and Joselo told me later that his bike was cleaned and is working again.
Tuesday evening I had my night dive, my final dive for my PADI advanced open water license. It was not my dive. Maybe I was too tired because I went on a hike and had my classes, but I didn't enjoy it. I felt very disoriented, there was a lot of current and I was struggling with my buoyancy. I was using my normal amount of lead but couldn’t stay down and when we added an addition piece, I was over weighted and needed to inflate my BCD way too much. This time I was paired with Jonathan, another dive master from my school. He took great care of me; he kept me down at the bottom and swam close to me to ensure I could use our both lights for orientation. Because he was swimming so close I must have hit him at least 50 times with my fins. I must have driven him mad… Halfway through the dive I started to get cold, I was wearing my normal suits, but that wasn’t enough this time. In the end, I had to end the dive early because I started shivering and had to get out of the water. So no more night dives for me, I am a daytime diver!
Wednesday morning Luc and me went snorkelling at La Loberia. Lately there has been a lot of wind, which is great for the windmills that are providing the island with energy and of course for the surfers. But for snorkelling and diving the wind isn’t good, it reduces visibility. Today the snorkelling was also difficult due to high waves. We did manage to see a turtle though and there were lots of fish as well, but it unfortunately it wasn’t as good as last Saturday.
Thursday morning, I prepared classes and helped Julia (one of our volunteers at the conservation project in the highlands) get some money from the bank. In the evening I briefly joined the other volunteers at Café del Mar, but as I was suffering from a cold since my night dive I didn’t stay long.
On Friday morning, I was finally starting to feel a bit better. As Luc is only here for a short time, and everybody needs to see the tortoises before they leave, we (Luc, Anders and me) went to the Galapaguera and Puerto Chino. At the Galapaguera we were shown around by one of the park rangers, which was so nice as he told us all kind of things I didn’t now yet. At one time the San Cristobal subspecies was reduced to about 300 individuals, now there are between 4000-5000 living in the wild. Great accomplishment! They managed to save the subspecies of Espanola with just 30 individuals. Wow, I am simply amazed that they managed that. The first tortoise born in this centre is named Genesis and he/she is famous on the island. Genesis is now 7 years old and ready to be released in the wild, but most people want Genesis to stay at the centre. Twice a year the adult tortoises are weighed and measured. The younger ones are checked 4 times a year. To weigh some of the adults they need a special crane as they are to heavy to lift with 2 people. The checks cause a lot of stress to them, so only rangers who know the animals well are allowed to perform them. The tortoises are fed 3 times a day and some of them are in their nineties. At the centre the tortoises are bigger than in the wild because they are fed regularly and well, while the tortoises in the wild sometimes struggle to find food especially during dry periods. The temperature at which the eggs are kept determines the sex of the tortoise. Currently they are aiming to hatch more females than males, to ensure the continuation of the species.
After the tour we went to Puerto Chino where we shared the beach with the only lobos and the pelicans again. In the evening Anders, Luc and me had diner at Mockingbird.
On Saturday, I hiked to La Loberia and I went snorkelling at Frigate hill with Anders and Luc. In the evening we watched the documentary Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in the Interpretation Centre. Home is a must see for everybody; please check it out on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet!
Sunday morning I returned to Frigate hill to snorkel in the early morning, hoping to see the barracudas again. When I arrived at the snorkelling site, the pelicans and blue boobies were fishing, so instead of snorkelling I sat done and enjoyed the show. In the afternoon Anders and me headed to La Loberia to snorkel but the sea was "angry", so we just sat and watched the waves and the lobos. Most of the lobos were sleeping as usual, but there were a couple of active ones playing in the waves. There even was a female with a new-born pup. Oh it was so small, wrinkly and cute. Two big macho lobos chasing each other across the beach disrupted our quiet mesmerizing. We had to get up from our spot and run away as they came too close. Boy they are huge and quick.
We were surprised that there was a big crowd at La Loberia this time; usually the place is almost empty on a Sunday as everybody is at Playa Mann and we were wondering what was going on. It quickly became clear, the group was preparing for a baptism. About 8 persons got baptized in the cold sea, while the other members of the church were singing and praying. Back to Mockingbird after diner for a good coffee to close the week.
The last weeks, I have been thinking that 2.5 months is not enough time to enjoy these beautiful islands. I still have so much diving to do. I want to see the other islands and join a cruise. So after talking to Frits about my feelings, I have decided to start preparation to extend my stay. Currently I am on a 90-day tourist visa (12-X) and until 2011 this visa was easily extended, however times have changed here in Ecuador. They no longer provide an extension on the 12-X visa. If you want to stay longer than 90 days, you need to apply for a 12-IX visa and this can only be done in Quito or Guayaquil. For me that would mean an extra trip of the islands to the mainland and upon returning paying the entrance fee to the park again ($110) in addition to the visa fee of $230. I am not the only volunteer here who needs to have the visa extended; Sarah and Anders are also staying for a longer period. So William started calling around and after consulting with the Guayaquil office for External Relations and Immigration, we prepared all required paperwork and had it legalized here at the island. As William is attending a meeting in Guayaquil, he offered to take the papers to the visa office and try to get our visa. Hopefully next week we know whether they will grant us our visa. So next week is either my last week teaching or the beginning of another 2 months….