Sharks, boobies, and freedom fighters

Today´s excursion started at 8am, an incredible luxury! I still woke up at 6am though, having gotten used to that over the last few days... Oh well, at least I had time to pack properly and enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel (novelty of the day: green banana tortilla - didn´t make my favorites list).

We went to Seymour Island, which was only an hour by boat. The main attraction were the various birds on the island, notably blue-footed boobies and frigate birds. We also caught glimpses of several Galapagos sharks on the way; they seemed very interested in our boat, but unlike the Jaws films, real sharks are fortunately unable to sink boats or eat helicopters. Also, for the first time ever, I saw a marine iguana actually swimming - usually the lazy buggers are simply lying on some warm rocks, enjoying the sunshine. We also spotted a couple of yellow land iguanas (the more common marine iguanas are dark gray in color and smaller in size), usually pretty shy of people. And, as we approached Seymour, saw a bunch of young sea lion cubs on the rocks - totally adorable! We were warned to keep our distance, as the parents can get aggressive if they think their kiddies are being threatened.

The birds were kind of nice (especially the memorable scene of a frigate bird mommy feeding her chick by having the kid stick its beak down her throat!), but on the whole today didn´t really compare with yesterday´s experience with the penguins. Clearly I´m starting to get de-sensitized to all the amazing animal life around ("Oh, look, another sea lion - yawn!")

However, I got to chatting to a gentleman in our tour group, in his late 60s or early 70s, with a truly fascinating life story. These days he teaches medicine at a university in Mexico, but he is originally from Guatemala, and went through some hard times during the civil war 1960-1996. When the war broke out, he was working as a doctor and had became a well-respected figure in the local community. He had spoken out against 50%+ of the government´s budget going to military spending, pushing for more spending on education and healthcare instead, he got blacklisted by the right-wing military leadership, backed by the US government, and as a suspected "ideological leader" spent several spells in jail. He was then banished, and sought political asylum in Mexico. He tried returning to Guatemala on a few occasions, but found out about threats against his life and had to return to Mexico again. At some point his brother went missing, and while he wanted to return to find him, his mother basically told him to stay away for fear of losing both her sons. They still haven´t found his brother to this day, but assume he is in one of the many unmarked graves in Guatemala. In last year´s election, he ran for Vice President with the main guerilla party, but failed to secure the party´s nomination, as his ideas of increased co-operation with the US were viewed as too controversial due to the CIA´s involvement with the brutal military regime. His take was that the world has changed, but the party failed to see that the US of today is very different to the US of the cold war. We asked if he´d consider running again later, but he seemed content to focus on leading a Latin America -wide network of medical research instead. Anyway, a truly fascinating life story, which got me thinking of how petty some of the problems the Finnish society is grappling with seem by comparison - at least our government hasn´t kidnapped, tortured or massacred our own citizens in a while (unless you count our ex-foreign minister bringing Johanna Tukiainen into the headlines as torture).

Another character that really impressed me today was one of the tour guides. We had basically been two groups travelling on the same boat so far; one German-speaking, and one "all other languages" group. I was in the latter group, lead by our entertaining but occasionally confusing Spanglish-speaking guide, Daniel. I had only heard the other guide, Humberto, speak German over the last two days, so I was really astonished when he suddenly started talking to us in perfect Oxford English. It turned out his parents (100% Ecuadorian) had worked with Brits on some oil-drilling operation in Western Ecuador when he was little, so he ended up going to a British expat school, where everything was taught in Queen´s English. He picked up his German much later, when he lived in Hamburg in his early 30s. It´s so easy to assume the guides are "just" locals looking to make a bit of extra money by escorting tourists around and talking about wildlife, but some of these guys have pretty international backgrounds!

After getting back to Puerto Ayora, I decided I needed some real meat (having had fish for every lunch AND dinner for the last 3 days) and took my Italian tour guide´s recommendation: Garrapata supposedly served the best steaks in town. The restaurant was great, with an open front to the street but enough shelter from the street´s noise and dust. White-chalked walls and candle-holding lanterns provided a nice traditional Spanish vibe, with folksy music in the background. And the steak was delicious! I noticed with some amusement, however, that when they brought the plate, I was initially shocked at "how small" the portion was. Don´t get me wrong, I was perfectly well fed after I´d finished the plate, but having lived in the US for two years now, my perception of what is a normal portion size has been warped :-)

Entertainment over dinner was provided by a local girl, maybe 4 years old, who got my attention by pulling on my shirt to begin with. In Finland, that would probably have gotten her parents to tell her off ("Mustn´t disturb strangers, you naughty child!"), but here they simply laughed and encouraged her to follow up by giving me a kiss (she didn´t). Her parents and their group of friends also got her to do a little dance show ("Baila! Baila!") to the background music, which she expertly did. And here we´re wondering how South Americans end up as extroverted as they are...

Some kind of a concert seems to be starting right outside the internet cafe, so I´ll quit rambling for tonight and go check out the performers. Can´t make it too late a night, though, as I´m expected to turn up at the dive center at 7am again tomorrow. What´s with this country and these early mornings?