19 February 2010

Doug and Ferruco went to Paita today to deal with bringing the container through customs. Ferruco is a Peruvian friend of ours that Doug took with him to act as an interpreter. The moving company agent spoke no English, and they insisted that we travel with an interpreter. The container company also insisted that Doug and Ferruco dress in long pants and shoes (not tennis shoes). They were at the office at 9:00 this morning.
The container company insisted that anyone who entered wear a hard hat and a high-visibility vest. They only came up with one set, so Ferruco could not go in with Doug. They had to communicate by phone to do the translation. The customs agent then went out to the container storage yard with Doug. She watched them open the container and begin to unload it. She then left to go back to her office. Once the container was unloaded, Doug went back to get her and they began going through everything. As they unloaded the container, they grouped items by the rooms they came from. The customs agent checked boxes against the packing list. They then reloaded the container. The customs agent went back to her office to calculate the import duties, and Doug decided not to stick around. We did get that information by e-mail later in the afternoon.
Doug will need to return to Paita on Monday to pay the duty fees and the container should be delivered Monday afternoon.

I stayed here so I could take water and food out to the workers.

Out at the property the workers had finished the floor of the swimming pool and had poured the cement for the far wall. They were moving the forms forward for the next section of wall.

Other workers were pouring the floor for the laundry room. This will complete the floor for the service zone. And it is in this zone that we will store our things off the container.

After talking with the architect Wednesday, he decided to focus on two buildings; the kitchen/living room and the master bedroom. He predicts these two will be finished by the end of April. We will then be able to move our stuff out of the service zone. They will then finish that off and complete the guest bungalows.

Day 2 continued

Later in the afternoon we walked to a white sand beach near the Research Center. The sand and the black volcanic rocks made quite a contrast.


To the left of the beach, the black rocks were covered with marine iguanas and crabs.

We then returned to the town for dinner, a leisurely swim in the hotel pool, a nice shower and comfortable bed.

The Charles Darwin Research Center was established in 1960. It's four main functions are:
1. to provide scientific information
2. obtain funds from international organizations for conservation purposes.
3. help the National Park with educational programs
4. to educate Ecuadorian children.


At the research center we saw many tortoises separated by breed and island origin.

The young ones were separated from their elders. They don't reach sexual maturity until 20-30 years. The mating season is the wet season. Later on between February and May, the females begin their journey to the coast to look for a nesting spot. Egg laying lasts from June to December. The temperature of the nest while the eggs are incubating determines the sex of the offspring. Below 29 degrees centigrade, the egg produces a male; above that temperature the egg produces a female.
Some believe the oldest tortoise in the center to be 170 years old.

This picture is of "Lonesome George." He is the lone survivor of Pinta Island. A $10,000 reward was offerred to anyone who could locate a female of the same species but none were ever found. Lonesome George currently is living in his pen with two females that match closely his genetics, but so far he has not chosen to breed with them.

We saw lots of these marine iguanas on the rocks by the beach. In some areas they were thick.

Day 2 continued

After lunch, we walked through town toward the Charles Darwin Research Center. Puerto Ayora has the highest immigration rate of all the islands. In 2005, the populations was estimated at 10,000. Puerto Ayora is the touristic capital of the island and the main street has numerous shops full of all manner of souvenirs. T-shirts abounded as did tourists.

Punta Ayora is also the commercial center of the archipelago. From here cattle and coffee are exported.

"Photos" of the Master Suite

This is a view of the lower level of the master suite. This space will be my studio containing my loom, sewing center, and other fiber arts projects. The stairs go up to the upper level where the master bedroom and bathroom are. All the walls are glass.

This is a view of the master bath. The shower is on the right and the toilet is on the left. Each of these spaces has a floor to ceiling wall of glass block to allow for natural light. There is a false ceiling that extends out into the bedroom which holds the focal lights. The idea here was for two large mirrors behing the sinks which were held by a cement table. The wood floor section mimics the false ceiling. We have cabinets and closets coming from the US. These are made out of knotty alder and are gorgeous. We had them in our home in Molalla. The closets are located on either side of this space before the shower and toilet.

This is a view from the master bedroom. The round space is for a jacuzzi bath. The stairs go down to the studio. The roofline extends out over the studio and the walls are glass for a fabulous view of the ocean.

This is a view into the upper level, which is the master bedroom and behind the master bath. The only change we made here was to extend the wall behind the bed up to the false ceiling so it would accomodate a tapestry.

When we arrived at the property this morning, they were pouring the second section of the pool. Also the engineer was on sight and had the workers add another section of rebar at the far end of the pool since it was not sitting on firm ground.












The plumber was here today to put in some of the fittings for the pool.
The white round piece will eventually accomodate a light and the small tubes he is attaching to the rebar will be for the circulation of the water.

The crew was down to 9 this week. Some of the workers returned to Chiclayo as they couldn't take the heat. So, even short handed, the work continued.
There were two workers bringin down the cement in wheelbarrows while others were keeping the mixer supplied with water, sand and gravel. Other workers were working on building the forms for the walls of the pool.









The maid's quarters floor was finished yesterday. It now has a smooth finish of concrete.






We spent a good portion of the day with the architect. There were a few changes that he wanted to make. First, solar panels will now be mounted on each building to supply that building with electricity. We put together a list of all electrical needs for each building so the solar needs could be calculated. Secondly, the cistern will be split into two tanks.
Also the wall in the master bedroom will be raised higher to accomodate a tapestry above the bed.
Koki also sent us four "photos" of what the master bedroom might look like. The changes we made are the higher wall behind the bed and there will a cabinet and countertop where the sinks are. His original idea was to have two large mirrors behing the sink and to put the sinks in a concrete form as shown in the pictures. Move on to the next post to see the pictures.

Day 2 of Galapogos trip

After a very nice night in a cool hotel room, we were up by 7 for breakfast. Our transport to the airport came at 7:30. Once at the airport, we checked in and found out our flight was delayed until 10:30.
The Galapagos Islands are made up of 19 islands and 42 isles or surfacing rocks. The archipeligo stretches over 174 miles from east to west. The equator passes right through the crater of Wolf volcano in the north of Isabela Island. Even though the equator passes through the islands, the climate is considered sub-tropical because of the ocean currents surrounding the islands.


We arrived on Baltra Island after a short one hour flight. Before the flight landed, all the carry-on luggage in the overhead bin was fumigated. Once we deplaned, we were directed across a path of artificial turf soaked with some kind of insecticide and disinfectant. Our luggage was unloaded, laid out in lines and fumigated before we could pick it up. We passed through customs and immigration where we had to pay a $100 entrance fee for each of us. We were also issued an ID card with our names, passport number and dates for entry and exit.

We then took a bus to the "canal." The canal is a small channel separating Baltra from the island of Santa Cruz Island. The bus took us to the landing on the Baltra side. We then loaded onto the ferry which took us across to Santa Cruz for $.80. On the Santa Cruz side we hired a taxi for transport to Puerto Ayora a 45 minute drive. All of the taxis in Santa Cruz were Chevrolet crew cab pick-ups. Puerto Ayora is the main tourist center of the island.

This pelican was preening itself along side of the ferry.

The landscape changed dramatically during our drive. Baltra is barren, arid desert with few scrubby bushes. As we approached the center of the island the landscape became very lush and fertile. It felt like a rain forest except there were no large trees. Since the islands are all volcanic, the layer of soil on top is very shallow. We passed farms with banana, mango, papaya and other tropical fruit trees. Homesteads had cows, goats, and horses as well.



When we reached Puerto Ayora, we checked into the hotel and met George and his family
for lunch. The hotel was nice. Towels folded cleverly and two pools to refresh in. It also had an air conditioner, which was nice as the temperature was near 100 with humidity.











This tortoise shell was in the lobby of the hotel. Amazingly huge.