Today started off with a bus ride across Santa Cruz Island so we could catch a boat. After getting off the bus we had our short boat ride across the canal which took us back to Baltra Island which is where we are caught our flight. We got to the airport and got some lunch and then found out our flight was delayed an hour. After waiting our flight was delayed again. We ended up not taking off till around 2:00pm, when our flight was originally supposed to leave at 10:40am. Our flight was a pretty rough flight from turbulence, to our ears not popping, and when we landed it was a very abrupt landing. But we finally arrived safely back in Guayaquil. We then took a bus back to our hotel and got checked in. Because our flight was so delayed, we did not get to tour Guayaquil, so we ended up just going to dinner in town. We had dinner at a local restaurant in town called, Menestras de Negra. This was probably one of my favorite dinners so far on the trip and we also got so much food and it didn’t cost a lot.
After dinner we had a presentation by, Natalia Moreira, who discussed the impacts of shrimp farms in the mangroves of Ecuador. Mangroves are about 70% of the coast, where 30% are deforested. Mangroves provide biodiversity, capture carbon, flood avoidance, are a cradle for species, provide environmental services, and a buffer zone. Ecuador has six provinces on that pacific coast that has mangroves. The Galapagos have smaller mangrove trees, but they are the same species of red mangroves. There are 14 species of mangroves found in America and they all can be found in Ecuador. Shrimp farms occupy 27% of the mangroves in the country. Produces 60% of the shrimp that is eaten in America is from Ecuador. A local law made in 1986 protected the mangroves as well as the water. Local people on use the mangroves for two important resources; the red crab and brown shell. When catching these crabs, the locals will be catching them by hand with no gloves or anything. There is actually a way now for tourists to experience the catching of these crabs for the day. Around the world they hope to recover 30% of the mangroves. After the presentation by Natalia we had a presentation by Val and Ryan on Ecuador’s Economy including imports and exports. The economy has been built on their natural resources. They discussed the “Resource curse”, which refers to countries that have plentiful natural resources, tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development then countries with fewer natural resources. Ecuador’s leading export today is crude petroleum which gives them a revenue of 5.63 billion dollars, with bananas being the next with a revenue of 3.38 billion dollars. Ecuador imports refined petroleum, medicines, and much more. With all of Ecuador’s imports and exports they are actually in the negative and that is mostly because crude petroleum is cheaper to sell than it is to by refined petroleum. USA is the top import and exporter of Ecuador.