1/7/2020 Today we left Hotel Ninfa and took a bus to the ferry to get to Baltra for our flight back to Guayaquil. Our flight was delayed until 2pm so most of us shopped, ate food, and did some work to pass the time. It definitely felt bittersweet leaving the beautiful Galapagos while knowing the Amazon and Andes would be experienced in the coming days. We were supposed to do a city tour and laundry but because of the delay, there was no time for this as most of our day was wasted. Instead, we checked back into the Exe Hotel Galeria and we walked the streets of Guayaquil to get food. I witnessed Greg get slapped on the arm by a random man on the street on our way back which brought both shock and humor to our final night in Guayaquil, ending the day on a funny note. That night we had two presentations. The first was a presentation on shrimp farming and its impacts on the mangroves of Ecuador by academic researcher Natalia Molina-Moreira. She began by explaining that globally, mangroves make up 70% of coasts and 30% are deforested. Eight families and 80 species exist but in Ecuador, Rhizophora, Avicennia, Bruguiera, and Sonneratia are found. Mangroves offer buffer zones, environmental services, biodiversity, carbon capture, help avoid flooding and erosion, and are a cradle for species. Ospreys now occupy the mangroves year-round as residents and the mangroves serve as important fishing areas for dolphins when the tide is high. Ecuador has 6 provinces on the coast with mangroves and the Gulf of Guayaquil is the biggest estuary on the Pacific Coast. The government makes deals with people in mangroves to allow them to live there and around 800 families do so. Licenses are required to go into mangroves to crab and fish. Around 1965, shrimp farming began resulting in the loss of mangrove ecosystems. Shrimp farms occupy 27% of mangroves and in 37 years, shrimp farming has occupied 157,000 hectares (now 16,1000 hectares) of mangroves which is equivalent to 550 million tons of CO2 storage. Shrimp farming began in 1968 in Ecuador in Santa Rose and spread rapidly, becoming the second most important export industry in Ecuadorian economy, after bananas. The 1965 Taura syndrome resulted in some farms beginning to use tilapia, an aggressive introduced species, to avoid losing money. In 1999, the white spot virus occurred and by 2001 more than 100,000 people were unemployed along with the recession caused by the transition from Sucro to US dollar, causing the greatest economic crisis at the time. Ecuador taught other countries how to begin these farms and now exports to more than 50 countries and produces 60% of shrimp for the Americas. The process of shrimp farming in labs through the collection of larvae now is better and more sustainable, with less stress on the environment. However, the destruction of mangroves, for this industry and to accommodate urban sprawl, causes biodiversity loss, water contamination, soil pH changes, and deforestation. Many laws have been implemented to protect the mangroves. A 2008 law asked farmers to aid in the forestation of mangroves around their farms and a 2011 law resulted in an $89,000 fine and 3 years of jail for cutting one hectare of mangroves. However, people now may continue cutting to make a profit if the profit is larger than the fine. In 2019, 16,000 hectares of mangroves were declared untouchable. From 2021 to 2030 the hope is to recover 30% of mangroves. Natalia is the director of a project from 2019-2021 to investigate and educate the public about mangroves. The next presentation was from Ryan and Val on Ecuador’s economy and chief exports. In 1533, Ecuador was colonized by Spain, prior to which there were many independent tribes. The majority of the colonial economy focused on agriculture as sparse population and long distances made industrial pursuits slim to none. Spanish estates with indigenous workers used food and cash crops for international trade. Mining and the textile industry was small and localized and shipbuilding was the largest industry in coastal areas. In the early 1800s, the economy faltered because of discontent with Spanish rule. Two wars of independence were fought and in 1822 full independence was achieved. The country was split between the influence of conservative Quito, largely agriculture, and the cosmopolitan and more ethnic and industrial Guayaquil. The country became prominent in international market because of cocoa, but prices shifted in 1900s. The country fell into a depression, emphasizing the consequences of reliance on a single export. The biggest shift occurred in the 60s when Texaco discovered oil in Ecuador, transitioning the economy to reliance on oil with more than half of export earnings coming from crude petroleum, followed by bananas and crustaceans. However, most of the petroleum export revenue goes back into the importation of refined oil. The natural resource curse exists in Ecuador being that it is a resource-rich third world country struggling with slow economic growth and development, often resulting in resources leading to corruption. Logging and oil extraction are the greatest contributors to environmental degradation. Ecuador wants to double the value of mining exports by 2021 by having international companies operate mines here with gold, copper, and silver being explored most. Agriculture is still prominent in Ecuador with 11% of the total area being used for farming. There are over 200 fishing ports and villages that specialize in fishing, most commonly tuna and marlin. Imports to Ecuador include refined petroleum, coal, tar, oil, cars, packaged medications, and broadcasting equipment. Despite public health care, investment in medicine production is limited and the popularity of the system has made demand for medicinal products skyrocket. There have been investments in renewable energy with a current plan budgeting $7 billion annually to meet 90% of electrical demand with hydroelectricity and solar wind farms. In the future, the country is looking to produce new hydroelectric plants. Recently, tourism has been a prominent investment area for the country and the economy has been among the most stable in Latin America.