For those of you who don’t know, I’m leading an adventure and service learning trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos this summer!

Hard to believe I’ve been here for a week already. I met my students in the Miami airport and we all flew down to Quito together to meet my cohorts/co-leaders, Dan and Roberto. Only one major slip up (which actually resulted in something of a comedy of errors): one of our students from China did not get the proper stamp to get past customs and was forced to fly back to the US (where she is in high school.) Luckily she was able to get the stamp the very next day and fly down to Quito to join us!

We spent the first day wandering around Old Town and the Mariscal (which is the touristy section of the city that is, oddly enough, also one of the most crime ridden areas of the city, so we had to keep an eye out for our students and ourselves!)

Day two was White Water Rafting Day! The kids (and the leaders) had a blast on the trip down the Rio Toachi and the Rio Blanco. We hit some almost-class-4 rapids (the water was a little low so they weren’t as intense as they can get) and also got to jump off of a cliff about 20 feet high into the water! I ended up with some bruises and a mild sunburn, which I didn’t discover until later that night; battle scars of a fun day.

The past five days we’ve been in the Galapagos on a boat tour aboard the Amigo. It’s been everything I could have imagined and more. The landscape is eerily arid and ranges from desert-like to Ireland-esque. When we landed in Baltra I was reminded of New Mexico - the landscape is dotted with cactuses and plants that are reminiscent of sage-brush.

The highlight of the Galapagos has most definitely been the animals. We all learned about the giant tortises, marine iguanas, and blue-footed boobies in elementary school, what they don’t tell you is the animals here don’t have any learned/evolved fear behavior, and they will happily go about their business with a dozen tourists less than 10 feet away snapping photos of them. A few of the amazing things I saw/encountered:

• Snorkeling with Sea Lions, Sea Turtles, and Sting Rays (we also saw one White Tipped Reef Shark). The Sea Lions are incredibly playful (especially the pups, which are plentiful this time of year). If you stay still they’ll come right up to you! I had a dance off with a pup of about 4 months old, and had a young adult swim within inches of my face mask before diving gracefully beneath my body.
• Babies everywhere! We saw month-old Sea Lions nursing their mothers, Frigitbirds still in the nest, and Blue Footed Boobies (who mate for life and care for their young together) protecting their awkward looking fuzzy white infants.
• Giant Tortoises engaged in seemingly homosexual behavior. (At the Darwin Research center there is a habitat reserved specifically for mature male turtles; we saw one climb on top of the huge shell of another seemingly appearing to copulate. Several moments later they had a Tortoise fight (which involves raising their necks to see who is taller and nipping at each other with their beaks) so it may have just been part of a domination routine.
• Marine & Land Iguanas - which are some of the weirdest looking animals you’ve ever seen. One marine iguana walked right through my legs as I stood listening to our guide!
• Took a trip to Post Office Bay where 19th century whalers left mail to be shipped home to Europe/South America/America. Now it’s a tourist attraction where you can leave your own post cards and collect those of others in your area. Upon your return to your home country you’re supposed to either hand deliver (or mail) the postcards to their recipients.

Overall we visited five islands: Baltra, Santa Cruz, Floreana, Espanola, and San Cristobal. We’re now back in Puerta Ayora on Santa Cruz (a town of ~12,000 human inhabitants) and getting ready to start our volunteer work. My students area really great group so far and I’m having a fantastic time seeing the sights and getting to know them.

Two more days in the Galapagos, and then off to the Amazon!

Email is appreciated if you get the chance. If you’d like a postcard and I don’t have your address already feel free to send me an email and I’ll try to get you one.