Habitar Galapagos

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Habitar Galapagos photographs by Javier Andrade and text by Pedro A. Cantero y Esteban Ruiz Ballesteros, is the most beautiful publication that I have seen about the Galapagos Islands.  It came across my desk at the library one day and I was immediately captivated by the intimacy of the photography and how the magic of islands is captured from an anthropological perspective.  I haven't seen a single book here that focuses so strongly on photographing the inhabitants of the islands and attempts to tell some of their story.

Most photo-essay/coffee table type books are filled with images of the wildlife here with the occasional distant image of tourists, fisherman, or park guides.  However, this book literally gets into the faces of the Galapagos inhabitants in a way that no tourist or amateur photographer would ever dare.    

The subtitle of this work is "encrucijada de Naturaleza y Cultura" which means 'the crossroads of nature and culture' and I think it is telling a very timely story about the interaction of the people who live on these islands and their connection to nature. There are so many issues at the moment with the large population growth and the demand that it is putting on the land, the people and the animals here.

Most of the work that is being done here is trying to understand the how a balance can be reached between the needs of the people and the conservation of nature on the islands. The questions abound and the answers are slow coming, however, it is through intimate representations of the Galapagos, like in this book, that the support for the work being done here can spread. As I heard the CDF scientist M. Gardener express in a Sixty Minutes episode, most people think that the point of conservation is to capture nature in a moment of time and not let it budge one way or another but it's possible to have a functioning ecosystem with the majority of its biodiversity in tack. And this can be done in the presence of permanent inhabitants and visitors.

I was inspired to write about this book for a couple reason, first it is just a beautiful book but also I cannot find a copy of this book anywhere!  I have asked in several stores over the last several weeks and no one has it.  I just happened to be talking to Godrey Merlen, who I will be posting about soon, about it and he said he was just recently at a presentation about this topic and he thinks it was by the authors of the book.  So, upon looking for this book for sale online I came across some pictures of a presentation that just occurred on the 22nd of Nov.  In these pictures was a man who was just in the library this past week and I remember thinking to myself, this man looks like someone important.  He had the most wonderfully white hair and beard to match.  In the picture online I could just make out his name on a name card and it said Pedro Cantero -- the main anthropologist that worked on the text of Habitar Galapagos.  I am so frustrated that I didn't know this before and I could have made him more welcome and actually told him how beautiful his book is.  Opportunities lost.

I will post an update if I ever find a copy.  I am going to ask at the Municipal Office where presentation occurred.  Hopefully they know.

Patecones

Patecones, pat-ay-cone-ays, are a typical South American side dish.  

They are made from plantain bananas which are not sweet like the bananas in regular Canadian supermarkets.  They are bought green and are used in this state; way before any North American common sense would tell you.  Removing the very tough peel, with some practice it's not so hard, exposes the sturdy plantain fruit.   Once cooked the fruit becomes soft and tastes sort of like a potato, so adding a little salt or some sauce helps to add some flavour.

I was shown how to make these early on in my stay here so I thought I would take on the challenge myself.  I was pretty happy with the result, aside from burning them a little they tasted really great.  We ate them with a little bit of curried chicken.  Anythings goes!

Cut plantain into thick pieces and
boil for a few minutes in 1" oil.

Take out of oil and let cool a bit
than SQUASH them.

Fry in a pan with a bit of oil
for a few minutes
and serve.

Tortugas

The word for turtle in spanish is tortuga.

The Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park manages a turtle program that raises various species of giant turtle, from various islands, until they are large enough to be released into the wild.  They do this because there are rats that predate the eggs and small turtles.  The turtles are marked with numbers that are colour coded according to the island that they come from.  The workers take the eggs from fresh nests, put them in a cooler with sand to protect them while they are transported to the "turtle sanctuary."

This way tourists are able to amble along a gravel path that leads them through the development of the turtles.  At first the small young-of-year turtles are seen, cute and as cuddly as they will ever be.  They gradually get larger along the path until you get to the massive turtles that have shells that are almost the size of a vintage Austin Mini.  The largest of the turtles at the station, which are about 550lbs, are not part of the turtle program.  They are permanent residences.

The size of these turtle is absolutely astounding.  As one stands there and watches them slumber in the midday sun it is hard to imagine how they can even lift their massive shell off of the ground.  But slowly and surely they stretch their surprisingly long limbs out, place them firmly on the ground and give the ground a slow push.  Sometimes there is even a creak and groan made by their shell and legs as they dislodge themselves from the jagged lava rocks.  All of that effort and the result is usually just a few feet of movement.  But who can blame them, it must be tiring to move 500 plus pounds.

You may have also heard of Lonesome George.  This massive turtle has been with the station since the seventies.  He is the last of his species from Pinta Island.  The GNP and CDF have made many efforts to cross breed him with other species but all efforts have failed.  Lonely George is pretty old, so who knows how much longer he will be around for.  The likely reason for his populations demise is from over use for food and trophy.  Turtles were relished by ship crews for their ability to live without food for up to a year.  Making a great emergency food source for long voyages.