Travel blog

Galapagos blackberry

Galapagos Islands: Invasive blackberry is almost ubiquitous

Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), EFE. – Although no one knows how or when the blackberry arrived on the Galapagos Islands it has spread widely and poses a threat the flora as well as fauna, and seems to be here to stay.

Galapagos Science Center

Galapagos Science Center continues to be a leading center for animal health research

Carolina’s Galapagos Science Center (GSC), recently opened its doors to a small number of students and researchers returning to its state-of the-art facility on San Cristobal in Galapagos. Greg Lewbart was the first to arrive. He is an adjunct professor at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a professor of aqua animal medicine at North Carolina State University.

Plastic on Galapagos Beaches

Plastic on Galapagos beaches predicted by floating sensors

Stefanie Yapma and Erik van Sebille, physicists, are creating an app to tell park rangers in the Galapagos Islands about where they can pick up plastic each day as part of their Galapagos Plass Free project. To create a model for the complex ocean currents around the archipelago, the researchers used drifters (or “floating sensors”). 

Guayusa | Ecuador amazon

Ecuador’s Amazon Guayusa! The Superfood that offers  Cleaner, Healthier Caffeine

Guayusa is a sacred leaf that was grown in the jungle by the indigenous Kichwa. It is used in ceremonial rituals. This is a clean, healthy alternative to your daily coffee.

AMUPAKIN amazon ecuador

Amazon Rainforest Midwives Move The World

A small community in Ecuador’s Amazon called Archidona is home to a group of indigenous Kichwa midwives who fight for their traditional medicinal practices and remain faithful to them despite discrimination, misogyny, and a lack of financial support.

Papallacta

Pre-Columbian farmers had presided over supposedly pristine South American forests

Perpetual clouds cover the canopy of a tropical forest that seems pristine on the Quijo Valley in northern Ecuador. The beauty of the cloud forest conceals a tragic, violent past. New sediment analysis of the Valley’s Lake Huila has revealed centuries of indigenous agriculture, which was destroyed by fire and warfare in 1588.

Galapagos marine wildlife

Scientists create a genetic catalog of Galapagos species

A team of Ecuadorian scientists and researchers is working hard to determine the genetic history of the Galapagos Islands. They are comparing the “barcodes of life”, which represent the species found in the archipelago, with the global gene bank to find new species.

Jasmine Tookes

Jasmine Tookes’ wedding was a Victoria’s Secret Model reunion in Quito

Jasmine Tookes’ marriage was a Victoria’s Secret Angels reunion! The supermodel, who is now 30, married Snapchat’s Juan David Borrero (31), in Ecuador on September 4th — Victoria’s Secret models Lais Reiro, Shanina Shaik and Kelsey Merritt were also in the bridal party.

Vacunacion-ecuador

Why Ecuador is vaccinating its population more quickly than the rest of world

The government is expecting to inoculate 9,000,000 people, or half of the country’s population, in just 100 days. This surge in vaccinations will allow the government to reach this goal in just 100 days.