Day 5: Galápagos We woke up, ate breakfast and began our next adventure! We took a 45 minute bus ride to visit one of the largest volcanoes in the world, Sierra Negra. We hiked to the first lookout, where we saw the lava rock covered caldera. While viewing this beautiful site, the group had a discussion about the volcano. It is a shield volcano that is 10.4 km wide. Out of all the volcanoes in the world, Sierra Negra is one of the largest volcanoes. It is one of the most active volcanoes in Ecuador, the last eruption taking place in June of 2018.
Sierra Negra
We began to hike back to the buses and continued back to the hotel. Once returned, we had a little downtime and a small group of us walked to a local bakery to enjoy some yummy pastries. After downtime, we continued on with the a bike ride to visit the Wall of Tears. The start of the bike ride was very easy and relaxing, we rode along the flat and sandy beautiful coast. We shortly arrived at a visitor center, where we thought our hike to the wall were to begin but we were very wrong. We still had another five kilometers bike ride of difficult up and down hill trails. It was no longer easy and relaxing. A small group of us agreed that it was truly the Bike Ride of Tears. We may have struggled but after 45 minutes, we finally made it to the Wall of Tears!
The bike ride of tears
Prisoners of Guayaquil were forced to build the wall for no real reason but to primarily to keep them busy. The prisoners were forced to carry heavy lava rocks on their backs or by hand for five kilometers. Many of the prisoners were imprisoned and punished for minor crimes such as theft or political offenses. The creation of the wall began in 1946 and ended in 1959. Over those thirteen years, hundreds of prisoners died from heat and exhaustion. Many people in the group continued on the hike up the mountain but five of us decided to bike back to a look out we passed previously and wait for the rest of the group to finish their long hike. We had a beautiful view of the coast, the wall and the mountains. Once everyone returned, we continued our bike ride back to the hotel, ate dinner and prepared for our next presentation.
The Wall of Tears
Taylor Patterson and Evan Yunker gave a presentation about Chevron (Texaco) and Ecuador. Prior to the trip, the group read several articles and watched a few videos about the issues between Chevron oil company and Ecuador. Chevron was given permission in the 1960s, per signing a contract, that allowed oil to be extracted from Ecuador given that they follow the proper protocol. Unfortunately, Chevron violated said protocols which caused severe environmental degradation and illness within indigenous tribes. Thousands of acres throughout the Ecuadorian Andes and the Amazon were greatly effected. The biggest impacts inflicted on the environment was freshwater pollution. Indigenous tribes rely on the freshwater bodies for cooking, drinking, cleaning, and bathing. About 30,000 Amazonian and Ecuadorian residents sued Chevron for polluting their freshwater with oil. In 1993, an Ecuadorian group of people known as the Affected Ones also sued Chevron. The people ordered the oil company to pay a $8.6 billion fine. After the court order, the plaintiffs announced they would even reduce the fine in half if Chevron were to apologize within a day. Chevron refused. They further announced they would not pay the fine due to there not being a significant amount of environmental damages. In 2011, Ecuador found Chevron liable for all damages and sued for a payment of 18 billion dollars for clean up and compensation. Unfortunately, Chevron continued to refuse to pay up. To this day, Ecuador is still fighting against Chevron and Chevron still refuses to acknowledge the harm they have caused.
Reference: Sebastián, M.S., A.K.Hurtig. 2004. Oil exploitation in the Amazon basin of Ecuador: a public health emergency. Public Health. 15(3).