Every spring Tim applies to go on a service trip with his school (he's a high school teacher at a private school) to some far flung destination. Last year it was Costa Rica, where they poured concrete in the slums and helped build a hut at a tribal village in the jungle. This year it was Ecuador and the Galapagos, where they herded and sheared sheep and alpacas in the mountains and then helped renovate an old library in the islands. This year seemed to involve quite a bit of downtime in one of the most beautiful and ecologically important places on Earth. Tim came home seriously suggesting we name our baby Darwin. I responded that I seriously thought he might still have sunstroke.
These are a small selection of my favourites of the photos he took while he was away.
Chimborazo Volcano in the Andes in Ecuador at night. It is currently inactive, but another volcano (semi) close by called Tungurahua was erupting only a couple of weeks before Tim went on this trip. Six of the world's top ten most active volcanos are in "Volcano Alley" in Ecuador.
Although some of the kids struggled with the altitude, they did quite a bit of hiking in their downtime in the mountains. They were staying at La Casa Del Condor, which is almost 13,000 ft above sea level.
Clothes drying in the community of Pulingui San Pablo.
Storm moving in or not, I love the shots Tim got of the highlands in Ecuador. The fields are all on the lower levels of the mountains. The higher elevations are left as grassland for the wild vicuna herds, a relative of the alpaca. Apparently the wild vicuna were extinct in Ecuador due to overhunting before efforts were made to reintroduce the animal with stock brought in from Peru and Chile.
Alpaca and sheep are raised in the highlands for their wool, which is used in traditional weaving. Tim brought home some amazing textiles that are made from alpaca wool. He's helping to shear a sheep here. He said it was more than a little disgusting - the animals had LOTS of ticks and you had to cut through the ticks as you were cutting the wool.
Chimborazo in the daytime. Until the Himalayas were discovered, Chimborazo was considered the highest mountain in the world. The summit is the closest point on Earth to the Sun, though, due to the equatorial bulge.
The second part of their trip was to the Galapagos Islands. While the mountains were cool, the islands hit 35 degrees Celsius most days by noon. Tim will have a great tan when (if) he finally stops peeling. Apparently they would work half days in Galapagos then spend the rest of their day at the beach. Hard life.
Crabs wandering on the rocks at the beach!
Galapagos has some of the best sunsets in the world, so the group often went hiking at sunset to take pictures and just enjoy. One evening Tim managed to get between this fellow and his cow and calf.
There were lots of lizards both on Galapagos and in Ecuador, and Tim took LOTS of photos of all of them. This one is my favourite. Because the Galapagos didn't have an apex predator until humans arrived, the animals haven't evolved to be frightened. Tim said you could get shockingly close to most of the animals.
That included the pelicans, which Tim seems to be fascinated by. There are multiple sets of photos where each picture is taken about six inches closer than the one before it.
Finally, my last (but not least) favourite. Typical Tim, in a giant tortoise shell.
Someday, maybe I'll get a chance to travel to places like this too. In the meantime, I'll certainly enjoy Tim's pictures and stories!
