$1500+ lighter

Apparently I needed to learn a lesson. on the bus yesterday from Cuenca to Loja (two towns in Southern Ecuador) I had all my valuables stolen out of my bag. I dont even want to add up the value... really the shame is that I was carrying all that stuff for the project I was going to do in Peru. I will still be going to the village and will do the work, but will not be able to create the documentation i hoped to... no video and no documents.
But all things considered I am in very good spirits and relieved that at least my bags are much lighter now... the rest of the journey will be easier in that regard.
I now feel, after 9 years of serious journeying, that I am a real traveler. I have had one of those expereinces that you have to had on the road at one time or in one way or another. I HAVE GRADUATED. I still think I wish I hadn't but it is too late now for that kind of thinking. it is gone and it was my fault for long enough i was not vigalant. i was not paying attention. and i know better. i knew my life was in that bag... and i wasn't paying attention. and now i have nothing left worth taking. nothing more to loose... so i doesn't matter if i have learned my lesson or not... isnt life just ironic like that. but i have been able to laugh about it all. and only had a fraction of a second where I really felt violated, helpless and angry. so even that feels like a victory. Is it ridiculous to feel this way? Do i care? Do I have a choice?

so my life and my bags are at least $1500 lighter.

THE GALAPAGOS

“La Cucaracha”

I look like this but maybe should try looking more...

..... LIKE THIS

After less than a week on this island I am greeted by name in the street, asked out by waiters before they take my order and bought breakfast by a man passing by on a bicycle.
I have owed ten dollars to a man down at the harbor, who goes by the name of “La Cucaracha” (The Cockroach) for three days. It seems like something that you shouldn’t do… the beginning of a bad gangster film. And not for a lack of trying: I have looked for him for two of the three mornings in question, but the first was Sunday and if anyone works, which I am not sure about cause the town was deserted; He didn’t seem to. He is always about. I see him even when I don’t want to, but it seemed the more I needed to find him, the less likely it was. When I was not looking for him he appeared. Last night while I was again attempting to deflect flirtatious glances from my waiter, I spotted ‘La Cucaracha’ at the Bar. I thought he saw me and made a friendly gesture, but knew I only had enough money for the meal I was eating. I didn’t want him to think I was trying to avoid him or short him… but I really couldn’t pay. Fortunately, he had not seen me and I was off the hook for the moment if I could finish dinner and get out of there before he spotted me… which proved to be difficult because the waiter wanted to prolong my stay there as much as possible. He was very attentive, which is not the ordinary service in this particular place… I often get my own menu… would go into the kitchen and make it myself if I thought they would let me… cause the few times I have been here I have been virtually ignored. However, not last night for when I had finished my meal, he was right there. He offered me a coffee, drink or desert which seemed pretty standard until I realized it would be on the house, un regalo, a gift to keep me around for a while. I really was hoping to get an ice cream, so if he wanted to get it for me for free I wasn’t going to deny him. But I desired to get out as soon as possible to avoid the notice of The Cockroach and because honestly the waiter was creeping-me-out. But the allure of ice cream prevailed. I sat with my chocolate/vanilla twist in anticipation and bliss. I did manage to slip out without incident.
When I finally found ‘Cucaracha’ this morning, I wasn’t looking for him. But I did have the money and was ready with my explanation for the delay… and he equally said… “oh, great you have my $20.” I had to take a moment to correct him. And all was smooth. I have been invited for lobster, but am working on declining. I honestly am not a great fan, and although it seems like a great invitation I am preferring my own company to constantly being flirted with, deflecting enticing glances from unattractive men and wearing my prickly exterior. Even when I let my hand be kissed or remain polite for the preliminary formalities of flirtation, I would much rather not. These days it is rarely amusing. I am tired of always having my defenses up, but with every advance I am less interested and less trusting. Maybe just less amused.
I have to admit free food is great and discounted tours of the Galapagos Islands is welcome. I have enjoyed some of the second-hand perks of this culture. And there are moments when I welcome a handsome smile. I don’t have a prepared rant about the waiter from the night before last… because he was handsome and not overbearing. He flirted with his eyes and no more… and I have to admit I might have participated a bit so he had encouragement. But he was not a pest. There are far more that can’t say the same.
So what is my problem? I don’t know. In China I didn’t exist, I felt NO ONE SAW ME… they stared at me but never saw me let a lone flirted with me. In the U.S. I don’t know what to do with myself and here everyone sees me and wants to date me… or something to that effect.
What do I want and where am I willing to go to get it?

THE GALAPAGOS part 2

Galapagos III

The various shades of a remote island paradise.

It seems that each island has several climactic zones. Near the ocean is a dry desolate region gray and brown. As you move up the island to the old volcanic remains the landscape dramatically changes and becomes more lush, distinctly greener with fields, agriculture, pastures and trees.

Mating season in the Galapagos

It must be mating season in the Galapagos. In four days I have witnessed more sex than I can accurately measure and in various locations all over the four islands I have visited: in the sand, amongst the volcanic rocks, in the ocean, and even on the walls that line the harbor. Crabs, Turtles, and Iguanas have been copulating with furry and persistence as if life depended on it… and it does. Like the intruder that I am I have managed to capture moments of these acts with awe and inspiration.

The story of the first inhabited island of the Galapagos. (Isla Floreana)

Before a German family arrived in 1929 fleeing economic and other pressures in Germany… the only people who had been on the island were whalers, pirates and turtle hunters. They left little trace beyond an inscription of the year 1886 near the only fresh water on the island that comes directly out of the rock near its peak. The wife of the German family arrived 5 months pregnant and thus birthed the first colonist or native of the Galapagos in 1930. He still lives here on a neighboring island.
They dug their home out of the soft rock on the top of a great hill near the only spring. This spring is still the sole source of water for the entire island on now 120 people. The original homestead was extended by digging another room adjacent to the principle one.

Cows still roam the island providing milk and meat. They meander between the dugout walls of former structures, chew grass along a path that was trod for nearly 100 years and drink from the spring. On a dryer, yet forested region of the island there is a turtle preserve as well where giant land tortoises eat, sleep and contemplate existence as they know it for well over a century. Although the native turtle species of this island is extinct except for the famous Galapagos island mascot, Lonesome George, the island is being repopulated with species from other islands.