Monday 27 May 2013

The Galapagos Adventure - Jatun Sacha

Hello Hello Hello

I hope that you are all well, and thought, seeing as I have a free evening here in the wonderful city of Quito, that I would allow you to indulge on the start of "My Big Adventure".

I have now been gone just over a week, which means that my Galapagos days are over, and that I have a day and a half until I start on my new adventure - my 35 day tour from Quito to La Paz.

On May 19th, I flew from Quito airport to Guayaquil, and from there to San Cristobal.


Arriving at San Cristobal Airport - I was finally there. 

After arriving at the airport I was met by a lady called Lydia, who is one of the owners of the project I am working for called Jatun Sachu. The main aim of the project is to remove invasive species of plant which have been brought to the island over a period of years, the main plant type we worked on is called Maura. (It looks a bit like a raspberry bush.) The problem with maura is that it grows up and around already existing and usually endemic trees, strangling and killing them. This has therefore led to a huge decrease in San Cristobals endemic plant species on the island, which has huge effects on the Islands wildlife. Using machetes we cut down the Maura, creating space for endemic species of plants to be planted or as in the case at Galapaguera, another area of the island I work at,  place to start growing coco, so that the island can start making its own chocolate. Over the course of the week, I made some amazing friends, and was really sad when I had to leave, but new adventures, now await.



Aside from the voluntary work, there was also opportunities to go out and explore/discover the famous Galapagos' coastal areas and famous array of animals. During my time on San Cristobal, I was lucky enought to see Giant Tortoises, snorkel with sea lions, swim with turtles and see hundreds of new types of birds, from small yellow finches, to huge pelicans and Frigit birds.


A Sea Lion Pup
A Giant Tortoise
On 23rd May, we got the opportunity to to walk to one of the coastal areas near Jatun Sacha, it was just breath taking, the sounds of the waves as it hit the black volcanic rock cliffs, was just something I never imagined I´d see outside of a David Attenborough documentary.






The last week has been better than I ever imagined, and I feel it has been a real privilege to have had the opportunity to experience what I have.

I hope to log in sometime before I go home, but if i don´t get the opportunity, have a wonderful 6 weeks, and be prepared for a lot of blogging when I return.



Maisie

ANNND..... because I took sooo many photos and not all of them will fit into the text in my blog, gaze below for some more..... I hope you like them!!!



One of Darwin's Finches

A Giant Tortoise

Me at Galapaguera with the Giant Tortoises


San Cristobal Island

Me on the Coast, on the "David Attenborough Walk"

Sea Lions taking over the small town of San Cristobal

Sea Lions love to snuggle

Kicker Rock, where I went snorkeling 

Me with the Sea Lions, on my last night on the Island. 





Thursday 16 May 2013

My Big Adventure


Hi Everyone  =D 
           
I'm sorry that my blog a day didn't really happen, but 2 out of 4 days, for me, well it’s been worse.

The time has come for me to announce the news that I am sure you have been just dying to here, so here it is!!

Tomorrow, I shall be going on a 7 week adventure, were I will be exploring the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Peru and Bolivia.

I shall start off with 10 days voluntary work on the Galapagos Islands, where I will be part of a group that helps remove non-indigenous species of plant from San Cristóbal, the biggest of the Galapagos Islands. The aim of the Biological Research Station is to conserve native highland forests by eradicating invasive plant species and to replace them with native trees and vegetation. "Everyday new exotic and invasive species are being introduced to the island, through importation of vegetables and fruit. By helping with reforestation and replacing exotic invasive plants with native species, the Galapagos can be restored to its natural state" The voluntary activities range from, reforestation, station maintenance, organic agricultural activities, and learning about biodiversity, natural history and ecology of the island.


Some of the animals I hope to see:



Sea Lion

Giant Tortoise

Iguana


After leaving the Galapagos Islands, I head back to Ecuador, for a 35 day trip through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The Tour which I am taking includes, visits to the Pachamanca ceremony in Nazca, Guided tour of Machu Picchu, 4 day Inca Trail Hike with a local guide, Amazon Jungle excursion from Quito, Colca Canyon, Lake Titicaca excursion with overnight family home stay.






The Trips which I have booked are everything that I wanted to do this year, and it hopefully will allow me to finish my gap year, on the ultimate high. 

I am hoping to try and blog some of the things that I do over the coming 7 weeks, but as you already know, my blogging skills whilst at home are rather lacking, so being away will either work miracles for this blog, or well, you'll be hearing from me after the 2nd July. 


I hope that you all have an amazing 7 weeks. 


Maisie




























Monday 13 May 2013

Welcome to the year 893 AD

I'm back!!!

So, carrying on from yesterdays blog, where I told of the great adventures the Eastbourne Ancestors team had, as we crossed the border into unknown lands outside the Town Hall. I shall carry on with our journey and tell of our new quest, the time we where we got the opportunity to mix with the public and express and promote our morbid obsessions with the dead and the skeletons we look afters history and relationship with Eastbourne.

But alas, we could not take on such a great and important task as this on our own, so we called in the help, of Regia Anglorum. Over the bank holiday weekend, many a Viking died at the hands of the Eastbourne Anglo Saxons and Eastbourne lived to see another day relatively unscathed by the Viking invasions. 







Regia Anglorum, were amazing, they allowed both the public and us (the Eastbourne ancestors) to get a feel on how these people would have lived, and survived. It was also great, because, they got to see the original versions of some of the things that they recreate for their outfits, and therefore also helped us, to work out what some of the unknown items may have been used for. 



Hayley, our leader of the Eastbourne Ancestors, also got the opportunity to be the 'living' corpse for a re-creation of a viking ship burial. 


The Dead Warrior would have been provided with all that they needed in the afterlife: A sword to protect her, A helmet,  food and drinking vessels.



Our stall was a great success, and Stanley the skeleton looked rather dashing, as he dressed in period costume, as Gloria, the Anglo-Saxon. The Eastbourne Ancestors, where able to show a lot of the local residents grave goods that were discovered at the site during 1997/98

 

















So the Eastbourne Ancestors Project has continued to expand, what will we get up to next?? 

If you would like to know more about Regia Anglorum, then you can follow the link below to their website, and see where they will be invading next:



Until Tomorrow,

Maisie

Oh and, how could I resist...









Sunday 12 May 2013

Crossing the Border


Hello Blog Followers,

I hope that you have all recovered from the devastating blow that was My Chemical Romance Splitting up, and are now ready to take on new adventures and continue living life to the full.

The last month has been super busy, as the time is nearly here for that all anticipated super exciting news which I am soon to break to the interweb. But, aside from that, life has also been busy, as 'we' the Eastbourne Ancestors have taken our love of all things morbid to a new level, we have removed ourselves from the safety of Eastbourne Town Hall, and have now taken two voyages out into the world of the living and braving the sunshine.

The First was a day trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace on Thursday 18th April: AKA X-ray Day.

Hayley, Paula and I took the opportunity to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace, and make a day of it as Hayley had already booked to use the x-ray facilities there. We took a selection of bones to x-ray:




Our Eastbourne Ancestors arrive at Fishbourne Roman Palace Museum....


A Female Mandible: we x-rayed this to see if she had her 3rd molars hidden in her jaw (to help age her) as the 3rd molars are not visible.



After being shown how the x-ray machine worked, by expert Rob. Paula and I, left Hayley to continue discovering more about the bones through x-ray, and headed straight (after the much needed trip to the cafe!) to the palace and museum. The Museum, at Fishbourne, gave us loads of ideas, of what was possible for the future of Eastbourne Ancestors and the palace made for an enjoyable and interesting day out.


Hayley and I, at Fishbourne Roman Palace.
After the success, which was Fishbourne, Hayley organised another trip to the Museum of London AKA The Great Adventure.

On Thursday 9th May, 8 fearless volunteers, and 1 very brave Hayley, set out on a journey of self discovery. On a journey which took us several hours (about 2) we successfully navigated 1 train and 2 tube trips without any incidents and all 9 of us arrived at our final destination safe and sound.

The museum of London is one of my favourite museums and I have been their several times before, the last time was for the Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men <-- See my previous blog post 'Who really owns your body?" for more information on this subject. Since I lasted visited the Museum, a lot of the exhibitions have changed, and the museum, after working closely with a groups of school children, created a comparison item in many of the display cases, for example in a case which contained Roman clips and brooches, which would have once, held clothing together, there was also a modern ladies dress with a 'statement zip' which holds the dress together. They were trying to show that although times have changed, a lot of the items on display have a close modern counterpart.

So, two amazing days out, with surprisingly no loss of life, or missing persons. I would like to end this blog by saying a massive thank you to Hayley for organising these two great days out. Everybody who went had a fantastic time.

I would also like to say thank you to Paula Borthwick, for letting me us her photos.





















If you would like to find out more about the places we visited, check out the links below:


Tune in tomorrow for more exciting stuff, I will be blogging now every day until Thursday 16th May, when I will finally reveal my big news.


Maisie