Today we woke up early and ate breakfast downstairs at our hotel. We then got on the bus to head to Sierra Negra volcano which was 45 minutes away. When we got to the first look out we stopped and talked about the volcano. Sierra Negra is a shield volcano and is the second biggest in the world. Jonathan explained how eruptions are dependent on how much pressure builds up underneath. This volcano last erupted in 2005. We walked up 4,000 feet above sea level. After our discussion we walked back to the bus.
We got back to our hotel and we still had some downtime before lunch. A few of us went out to get a quick snack at the pastry shop that Greg raved about. After lunch Lauren, Cass, and I stayed behind at the hotel to read 2 articles about the water of the Galapagos. The first article I read was the Freshwater the reality of a Critical Resource. The Galapagos pays for water just like the US. The abundance of water varies from El Nino to La Nina years. The islands that have residents like Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, and Isabela have a lot of issues with contamination in the water systems. Floreana has a complete lack of water due to depleted springs (d'Ozouville, 2007). The next article that I read was the Waste Management Blueprint for the Galapagos Islands. The document began providing a brief history on the islands and its population growth. They also talked about the growth of tourism and the problems associated with it like we learned in Haley's presentation. Then the authors explained the waste generation/management on the islands. The islands with the most residents Santa Cruz and Baltra have about 10 tons a day. Isabela and San Cristobal islands have open sky dump sites and no scrap management system they get dumped at the dumpsite. I find it very sad that this beautiful island is sort of a toxic waste island. I can’t believe that there are no sanitary landfills on the islands you would think that they would since so many people visit. The blueprint states that by 2020 integrated waste management and recycling systems will be implemented. The goals of the blueprint are to have an overall waste minimization (WWF and Toyota, 2010).
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