In The End

Through my travels, and as your tour guide, I've witnessed how greatly and differently humanity can, has, will, and maybe even should shape the world around it. We've  visited the undisturbed and thriving Galapagos environment, and the un-industrialized Cuban countryside. Our travels have included the Consumer-oriented developed city of Tokyo, and a Pakistani city that will soon join its ranks.

                 

All areas have & will done certain things, and these choices have and will caused consequences to their ecosystems. Humans must live in harmony with their world, but it is tough to figure out the best way to do so. I've given you the facts; it is time for you to choose a perspective.

Islamabad, Pakistan

To be here is, honestly, just a slightly out of body experience. Like Tokyo, it’s an absolutely bustling city, but in a far different way. I often feel surround by this swelling of people through the cities, and most seem to want something from me. Even so, I simply pick my way from place to place, feeling relatively alone as a foreigner. It seems most don’t pick Islamabad as their tourist destination. 

I can see why. Despite many pleasant interactions with local workers throughout the city, and even though I’ve been trying to stay among the most nature-filled destinations, it certainly still feels like a very industrial city. Everything moves so quickly, and the world beneath can get left behind. I’ve also been trying to stay out of the more 1^st-world areas, because they represent a fairly small minority of the populous.

            Islamabad is located on a convergent collision fault line, which has had a significant effect in recent years (2005 – 7.6 earthquake on the Richter scale). This collision of plates has also forced the land upwards slightly, as Islamabad is part of the same ridge/plateau as the Himalayas, albeit not as high. 

In a typical day, I would walk through the city streets, attempt to find food light enough for my weak American stomach, and, most importantly, document natural scenes such as these. In this developing city, little attention is often paid to environmental concerns, and it shows in these photos. Tragic, but true.

Japan, Continued

            For now, in solidarity with the many victims, I helped people where I could to piece their lives together, in a weeklong excursion outside of the capital city. My typical day began with the process of waking up, and beginning to distribute supplies to quake refugees. It was a painstakingly slow process, but well worth it, as I knew that what I was doing was invaluable to the many who needed help. Without much of a related skill set, I simply only worked at basic chores, but the fact that so many other people were so much worse off kept the task from becoming tedious. The days kind of blurred together, but in a good way.

            Hearing many of the victims' stories was a rather mind-blowing reminder of how quickly everyday life can fall out from beneath you. One family had just had a baby, and he was spending his first few months in poor conditions, away from home. He was constantly crying, but at least he had family with him. Many other kids at the site weren't so lucky. There was only so much that I and other volunteers could do.

Cuba

            Southern Cuba was bound to be my next destination. It has been, with the rest of the country, ruled by a communist dictatorship for more than 50 years. Despite its natural beauty, its foreign policy has largely kept the influences of “Western” industrialization out. This lack of development has helped Cuba to be fairly heavily inhabited, yet largely preserved. Unfortunately, this also has made my route into the country (US citizens are not meant to enter Cuba) very circuitous. For legal reasons, I must not disclose it here.

            Once in the country, I had a great time. Even though it’s on a transform fault, there have luckily been rather few, and un-menacing earthquakes as of late. This kind of fault can cause earthquakes as the plates slide along each other, but the most recent quake was only a 5.6.

I had a very peaceful adventure, in which I just hiked & biked from one small town to another, living a brief life in the countryside, and feeling like humanity was truly at peace with nature.

             In a typical day, for example, I would eat a quaint little meal at the local inn, then pack a small bag for a day trip to some waterfall or nearby beach. Setting out a leisurely pace, I would soon get horribly lost, end up in some random meadow, and get chased around by a cow until I climbed a low-branched tree and ate my picnic there. 

After a brief nap, I would puzzle over my map until someone came along, who would give me directions. Once back at the hotel, I’d just go on a brief jog by the river, then go to bed.

                        Did you notice anything? For one trip, I used no GPS, cell phone, or laptop. I ate no packaged food, and didn’t ride a single bus, car, or train. Most shockingly, I was fine without them, because it was a different world out there. Maybe a better one.

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo was bound to be my next destination, as it is certainly a major worldwide benchmark for consumerism. Tokyo is a heavily industrialized city, as you can clearly see, but besides its good fortune, Tokyo’s very high consumption rates have reverberations throughout the world.

 

Many products purchased for mere pennies in Tokyo were pain-stakingly smelted in some factory like those in Islamabad, by some worker working in poor conditions, who doesn’t have more than a few possessions to his/her name. Also, every neon sign lit, wooden mansion built, car driven, and laptop created have a Co2 output in several places of their production and transportation. These are the kind of things that can easily be forgotten, since they don’t yet seem to impact the consumer, but in the long run it affects us all.

At the moment, though, Japan has more tragic issues to deal with.

You see, the country is situated on a convergent subduction fault, and as the ocean plate slid under the continental plate, there was a considerable (9.0 Richter!) earthquake, which combined with an ensuing tsunami to create massive damages. Many lives were lost, homes were wrecked, and it was just an awful thing for everyone involved. The country will pull together and move on, but it was a scary reminder of the unforgiving nature of the Earth beneath.

Galapagos Islands, Continued

Through a typical day on the islands, I would wake up from a fairly tourist-friendly, local hotel, and either explore through the allowed areas of my island, or take a short boating trip to a nearby one. Through my weaving journey, I enjoyed some lovely local cuisine (though it was hard to find among all the tourist traps), met some truly knowledgeable and friendly guides, and generally just had a relaxing tour.

            In the final portion of my tour, I went on an underwater tour of the coral reefs speckled throughout the islands. In a whole other, beautiful and undisturbed world down there, I saw a few sharks, sea turtles, a squid, a rainbow of stunning fish, and the precious coral that held together the ecosystem. All over the world, coral has been threatened lately by pollution and ocean acidity, both mainly caused by human actions (fossil fuel burning). It’s the one peril that the Galapagos may be unable to avoid. For now, I enjoyed the view.

            Overall, I had an amazing journey into a separate world; one largely untouched by human civilization. Although it was a wonderful trip, it left me slightly wistful for how different things could be if we hadn’t wreaked so much havoc over many other environments. Still, there’s always hope for societal improvement in the future.

Galapagos Islands

These majestic islands were formed millions of years ago, because of a divergent fault. Not  earthquake activity, however, has occurred more recently, and volcanic activity is just a slow oozing buildup of a few northern islands. As the spread apart, magma shot up to take its place. As this magma slowly cooled, it formed islands, and the process repeated. Other geographical factors have also coincided to help it be such a unique destination. Due to its great isolation from any other land, as you can see on the map, it has a one-of-a-kind ecosystem, with many species calling it their only home (also known as species endemic to the Galapagos). 

Its distance also stopped much human intervention, until relatively recent years (Charles Darwin, anyone?). Anyways, humanity saw its unique value, and it’s now a model of how a lack of human intervention can preserve important biodiversity and beauty for generations to come. 


After flying into lat=0.455278, lon=90.265274 I began my sightseeing tour. The islands’ government does, after all, allow for a certain amount of visits, in a few small areas of the islands. Even here, I can see the amazingly innocent and friendly species that have not been hardened by years of poaching, hunting, and pollution. 





Their calmness and trust is allowing me to take some amazing shots from just a inches away of the flora and fauna. Some of the endemics I was fortunate enough to encounter include the grand Galapagos Tortoise, unique birds such as the Blue-footed Booby and Darwin’s Finch, many other birds, seals, iguanas, and even more.