Menino

There are 9 soccer clubs on the Galapagos island of Isabela, home to about 2300 islanders. None are coached by Alfredo (Menino) Bolona. Instead, Menino is a “Guia Naturalista” accredited by the government of Ecuador to accompany (or chaperone) visitors to the Galapagos National Park. We spent three nights and two full days on Isabela this week, in the company of our friends Bill and Della. We stayed at the La Casa de Marita on the edge of town, a small boutique hotel run by the Peruvian proprietress Marita – who seems to own a number of various properties on the island.  Her hotel is charming, located right on the beach, and built to take advantage of the breezes that blow rather steadily in the Galapagos.

Arriving on the 2-hour bump-fest ferry ride from Santa Cruz, we were met at the dock by Menino, an eternally optimistic Ecuadorian born to an Italian father. He brought us to the hotel, briefed us on our next few days, and promised to pick us up the following morning at 8 am for a hike around the rim of the world’s largest active volcano. Last eruption: 2005.

A hard night’s sleep, a wonderful cooked-to-order breakfast on the third floor of the screened in main building overlooking a gently breaking swell, and at 7:59 we were off to the volcano. One broken radiator tank later, and a transfer to an open-air taxi, we arrived in a misty low-lying forest of greenery and mud. Off we went, slipping and sliding up the slope, Menino, me, Jennifer, Bill, and Della. Menino quickly launched into guide role, pointing out flora and the (very) occasional fauna. The caldera was shrouded in fog and cloud for most of the hike, but near the turn-around, the skies cleared enough for us to peer down the 900 foot drop and see the fields and rivulets of lava.

Once we passed the corner, the skies cleared to what can only be described as a moonscape, where millennia of lava eruptions had scorched the land into a vast wasteland of rubble and fields of lava stone. In the distance, we could see small cones – the vents from which magma would flow during an eruption.

 

Looking very closely, we spotted impossibly thin strands of glass, spun out from the cooling silica and lingering as reminders of the heat and underlying fragility of a volcanic event.

The following day, we took the marine tour – relying on what is euphemistically called “local knowledge” to make our way thru Hawaii 5-0-like breakers to enter a calm lagoon straight out of a George Lucas Star Wars movie. Here, the lave had flowed into the sea, and subsequent lava flows had carved tunnels into the older, cooled lave, creating a vast maze of rock columns and arches, flooded by the sea, and home to white-tipped sharks, sea turtles, penguins, starfish, and rays. Roberto, a local fisherman and our boat driver managed to find his (and our) way in here, having learned from several decades of lobster fishing in these areas. There they would set up a camp and hunt lobster for several days. He recalled a huge cave that was lined claw-to-fin with lobster, when they caught as many as their camp and boat would carry. Today, he noted that the lobster population is about 1/5 of its heyday. Fortunately, Menino had visited the place several years ago, and had convinced the Park authorities to open it up for tourism. Now, Roberto and a few others trusted by Menino carry 5-10 touristas to this magical place each day.

We gaped and gawked, swam and ate lunch, checked out the sea turtles from underwater, and headed back to the town’s bay, where we ended our day with a visit to “Iguana Beach,” a landscape so crammed with land iguanas that it was hard to step safely anywhere. Amidst the iguanas and blue-footed boobies, we spied a sea lion nursing its pup.

Despite not coaching soccer, Menino is the bandleader of the unofficial Isabela band, and played that night at the “Pink House,” a beachfront bar whose walls were built from lava to encourage iguanas to join in on the festivities.  I missed the festivities, having fallen ill after dinner the night before (!), but my tripmates mentioned that Menino´s song, I Love Isabela, was the highlight.

The following morning, a bright-and-early wakeup call to catch the ferry back to Santa Cruz. Menino met us at the Casa de Marita, and saw us off. He is used to getting up early and working hard; at the age of 15, he was one of Ecuador’s best soccer players, and between then and the age of 20, his club won three national championships. Menino scored goals in the 1970 World Cup qualifier competition, only to see his dream to play against Pele fall short when Peru (I believe) ended up qualifying from the group. He retired from soccer abruptly at the age of 20, just after having visited Isabela on a soccer ambassador tour. He’s never left. And he doesn’t coach any of the clubs. Instead, he’s a guia naturalista, and we were fortunate to get to know him this week.