Gibson’s World

Machu Picchu is a really old Incan City (about 550 years old).  It was built in 1450 and abandoned 100 years later.  Nobody is really sure why it was abandoned.  One theory is that the empire was collapsing from diseases, so the Incas all wanted to be at the capital of the empire, Cuzco.

One of the most important questions about Machu Picchu is, “How was it built?”  The Incas built Machu Picchu by putting huge boulders on rollers and rolling them to the building site.  Once the stones were where the Incas wanted them to be, the Incas would carve and sand the stones into the required shapes.  Unlike most modern buildings, the stones used by the Incas were not all the same shape.  Some were pillowed, some round, and one stone even has 33 corners!  The reason that the Incas made some stones have lots of corners was so that the walls would hold up better to earthquakes or tremors.  For this reason and the fact that the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, it is in the best condition of any Incan ruin.

Machu Picchu is one of the most important Incan cities because lots of royal people lived here.  About 1,000 people lived at Machu Picchu, but even all of its garden terraces could not support everyone’s food requirements, so some food had to be delivered from outside to support them all.

After Machu Picchu was abandoned in 1550, it was forgotten and not discovered by the outside world again until July of 1911 when Hiram Bingham, led by a peasant boy, found Machu Picchu.  The peasant boy was from a local village that had already found Machu Picchu and used some of its terraces but had not told anybody outside of their village.

Today, Machu Picchu is a famous tourist attraction where more than 4,000 people a day come and explore the ruins.  Even some animals have made themselves at home in Machu Picchu, including many birds, lizards, vizcachas, and llamas (Machu Picchu lawnmowers).  When we visited Machu Picchu, we saw many of these animals and had a really good time.

Benjamin is a guide we met at Sacha Lodge in the Amazon who went on all of the hikes with us and spotted many amazing things, including the Dwarf Iguana, lots of frogs, birds, and insects.  While I was in the Amazon, I interviewed him and learned a lot of things.

Benjamin lives in a town called Tena (40,000 people), about eight hours from the Sacha Lodge where he guides.  He has been guiding for six years now (2008) and his family tradition is to share with people their knowledge about plants, animals, and the Amazonian jungle.  On the hikes, he showed us lots of medicines from the jungle which he uses all the time.

Since he has been guiding for six years, he has experienced a lot.  He has never gotten lost in the forest, but has gotten stung by a scorpion.  The most amazing animal he has seen is a Spectacled Bear in the Andes Mountains, but his favorite to see is the Paka (a type of rodent).

The worst group he ever had was a really rude French group who complained about everything.  One of the most surprising things I learned was that all of the hikes were easy because he was used to walking for days with his father (a shaman) in the jungle.  He also said that he could survive in a jungle with only a pocket knife.  This is what I learned about Benjamin and I think that it would be really fun to guide in the Amazon.

In my opinion, Lava Lizards are one of the most interesting reptiles in the Galapagos. They are interesting to me because they have evolved differently on one island from the next and because they can be so different from each other.  In this blog, I’ve included lots of pictures of lava lizards, including this Espanola Lava Lizard on the left.

There are eight species of lava lizards (the Galapagos, Expanola, Floreana, Marchena, Pinta, Pinzon, and San Cristobal), only two of which we saw. The difference in them between islands is amazing even though they are actually so close on a map. For example, the lava lizard on Fernandina (an island with lots of black lava) are much darker than those on Santa Cruz (an island with almost no black lava). Even though both are the same species, they have evolved differently and someday might be different species.

Lava Lizards are relatively small lizards with long, tapering tails, very long toes, and have variable markings. Some have stripes, spots, speckles, or nothing at all. A few have stripes, spots, and speckles! Their size can also vary from a couple of inches to a foot. Males are usually from 2-3 times heavier than the females, though.

Another interesting thing about them is their behavior. Unlike most lizards, lava lizards are diurnal or active during the day. They are also highly territorial and challenge both male and female intruders by doing push-ups with their front legs which is really cool to watch. I always wonder whether they ever get tired.

Even though most lizards are shy and hard to find, lava lizards in the Galapagos are everywhere and occur on almost every main island but Genovesa. They are usually found near or on rocks and boulders sunning themselves. They are so common that on some hikes, we couldn’t go for more than five minutes without seeing more than one. I was surprised that their predators (hawks, snakes, herons, centipeds, and mockingbirds) weren’t balloons from indulgement because there were so many lizards to be eaten.

It was amazing seeing so many lizards in the Galapagos (more in one day than I had ever seen in my life) and I enjoyed seeing not just the lava lizards, but also the land iguanas, marine iguanas, the turtles and tortoises, the birds, the marine life, and much more. The one animal we didn’t find was a snake, but I hope someday that I can come back to the Galapagos and next time maybe see some snakes, hybrid iguanas, Santa Fe land iguanas, some other birds, and a bunch more that we didn’t see. Although we didn’t see everything, it was by far the best place for wildlife I’ve been in my life.

Steve Ambroe is the videographer for The Islander.  The Islander is the boat that we are on while we are exploring the Galapagos.  The passengers on our boat go on hikes on a different island everyday.  Steve always comes with us and videos us with the animals that we see.    Since I thought he has an interesting job, I decided to interview him and this is what I found out.

Steve has been interested in taking videos since high school when his dad got a video camera.  Steve first started with videotaping sports and moved on to other things.  Although he has never videoed underwater, he would like to.  The most amazing thing he ever videoed was an orca killing a minke whale, in a location where there aren’t very many orcas.  I wish I could have seen that! 

Surprisingly, Steve’s favorite thing to video is birds because they are the most challenging.  Steve has been to lots of amazing places taking videos for cruise ships,  including Brazil, Portugal, the Galapagos, Alaska, the Arctic, and Antarctica.  South Georgia Island in Antarctica is his favorite place to video, because of he likes videoing the colorful and loud King Penguins there. 

After he has videoed the the week’s wildlife, he sells the DVD’s for $50 to all the guests on the boat.  The reason it’s expensive is that it takes a lot of time to edit the video every night (about two hours).  We bought three DVD’s so that we can remember our trip to the Galapagos, and we’ll send two of them to other people.

This is what I learned while interviewing Steve and I learned a lot about what it is like to be a videographer on a boat.