As I stepped onto the bus I knew my adventure for the next two weeks was about to begin. A two and a half hour bus ride to a hotel room in NYC was the official start to my Ecuador Experience. Even though we will not fly to Guayaquil, Ecuador until January 2nd we met on New Year’s day at the hotel to ensure that no one misses the flight and to learn about our first major destination, the Galapagos!
After arriving at the hotel we feasted on Dominos pizza, all sixteen of us crowded into a very small hotel room. Once everyone had their fill we kicked off the trip with a presentation on Seismic Activity by our TA Greg. I personally have not taken a geology course since high school and appreciated Greg’s through definitions and vast knowledge about the seismic activity that defines Ecuador and the Galapagos. I learned that the country is on the border of two tectonic plates, the South American Plate and the Nazca Plate. Since Ecuador is located by a plate boundary it is very susceptible to seismic activity such as earthquakes and volcanoes. In fact, I learned that while I am abroad it is likely that I will experience the effect of activity such as an earthquake first hand. However, the typical earthquake activity will not affect structures that are fairly new and I will barely notice the effects. The Galapagos Islands would not be possible without volcanic activity and as a visitor to the area, I will have to acknowledge that risk is present but also appreciate the beauty that the land has to offer.
Madison and Lauren presented after Greg on Biodiversity in the Amazon & the Galapagos Islands. One of Ecuador’s’ most notable features is the high levels of biodiversity, it is considered a biodiverse “hotspot”. This presentation helped prepare us for our visit by providing background information on the different climate zones of the islands and the species present in the Galapagos and Amazon regions. One of the species that I found the most interesting is the Harpy Eagle. This bird is found in the Amazon rain forest and is the largest bird species! It is so large that its main prey is monkeys. In addition to learning about species through the power point, Maddi and Lauren added an interactive game similar to the game Headbands. This game involved being assigned an unknown species and then asking questions to guess which specific species one had been assigned to. I enjoyed this because it really demonstrated just how diverse the region is and how many different species reside in the small country.