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Leader of the day:   

Alice

Hola! Today we woke up early and went to our last meal on San Cristobal. After we ate our "feast" we headed for the Blue Fantasy, loaded with huge bags and sea sickness pills! After a 2 hour nap on the yacht, we went to lunch. After checking into Hotel Castro, everyone split into groups for free time. Free time is usually time to find the best candy shops and this time it was time to do laundry! Once free time was over, we headed to Escuela Nacional de los Galapagos, to meet our tour guides (who were the members of the high school English class).
We finished the tour back at the school and went to a performance of dance and music that portrayed the Galapoginian culture, during which we got pulled onto the dance floor to show them how we groove in USA, Canada, Bermuda, Korea, and Romania! Our day with the high school students ended with a game of football (soccer) between the Lifeworks group and the students. We met Guillermina and Mirna (owners of Hotel Castro) who also owned Calypso (restaurant we eat dinner at). We went to dinner for a great salad, chicken, and potatoes! We went to bed right after dinner so we would be ready for a hard day of work on Saturday.

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Leader of the day:   

Clara

Still slightly asleep, we walked to the local high school. When we arrived, it was evident that the mood between the locals and lifeworkers was slightly awkward. We played the "nose-tape" game, which Laura was reigning champion. A few of us, me included, got a ride up to the highlands in the back of an open chicken-like-carrying truck. Knowing my lack of Spanish skills, I smartly sat myself next to Thomas, one of the few kids who spoke some English. After arriving at the bottom of a hill, we prepared ourselves for a rocky hike. After huffing and puffing for a good 15 minutes, we learned about the task at hand. We then set off into the dense woods and ruthlessly pulled out hundreds of invasive cascarilla plants. In total, the number we pulled was around 8000. At 2pm, we met for a trip to Las Grietas, a crack in the earth filled with salt and fresh water. Everyone was awestruck, both by the beauty of the landscape and the insane cliff-jumping by the local people. We all realized how amazingly lucky we were to be in a place this unique. Once out of the water, Daniel stupidly took out his lunch in front of 12 hungry teens. We soon learned the magnitude of teenage hunger. After we were all sufficiently full, except Daniel, we headed back and tried to inform Theo on the correct way to pronounce "pillow." We then showered, stuffed our faces with delicious food, and headed back to Hotel Castro for an early night to prepare for the adventures that lay ahead on our next day of Lifeworks Galapagos!

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Leader of the day:   

Saphir and Eliot

We started the day half conscious at 4am. We then headed to the opposite side of the island where we all disembarked from the port on our boat. Most of us took a nap, while some watched dolphins, manta rays, and sea turtles. We had a brief breakfast with fabulous hot chocolate. After we arrived at San Bartolome where we started hiking. On our way to the top, we were amazed at how species adapted to nature. Lava lizards have the same color as the ground. We thought some plants, which were growing all over the area, were dead. But the tour guide told us with its narrow leaves it could save water rare in the volcanic islands. At the top, we enjoyed the majestic scenery that was a fantastic blend of volcanic islands, craters, corals, sea, sky, and beach. After we returned we started snorkeling. Snorkeling for the next 2 hours was an adventure in itself. We saw several sea lions, many large sea cucumbers, coral, and starfish. But this was only the beginning! We found hundreds of nearly invisible jellyfish, rare puffer fish (one puffed up!), and trumpet fish. We then saw some penguins, some drying on the beach and one darting in and out of a huge school of fish trying to find lunch. The little guy would pop up right in front of us. We thought there was nothing more we could possibly see, when some white tipped sharks were spotted! Some of us had been in the cold water for a full 2 hours, and so we headed out from the great island. We napped, sunbathed, ate lunch, and admired the view as we crossed the silent, serene ocean. Some of us were lucky enough to see a manta ray doing a triple back flip only 20 feet from the boat. Many agree that this just might be the best day we've had in Galapagos.

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Leader of the day:   

Averill

We work up early and after breakfast we met with Marcos to go to the recycling station. We helped with making compost, separating recyclables and crushing plastic. We went to lunch at Descansa Del Guia and then did a painting project. The coolest thing was that we got a tour of the Darwin Research Station. Some of it was hard to understand, but the stuff they find here is so cool!

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Leader of the day:   

Brit

This morning we woke up very very early to catch a 7am boat to Isabella Island and the Galapagos National Park. We arrived and had lunch then went to a presentation at the park. We toured El Mango and El Mirador. The best part of the day was definitely dinner at Pepa's. It was delicious!!

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Leader of the day:   

Libby

We woke up around 6:30 and went to the park headquarters and then went off to do a roadside clean-up. We collected all the excess debris on and moved it away. We also removed all the invasive species so that hopefully they wouldn't damage the surrounding species. After dinner, we had free time to relax and just hang out.

July 26 - Day 14

Leader of the day:   

Ally

After breakfast we met Galapagos National Park officials at the headquarters then shuttled to El Mango to work with invasive species. We extracted the species, called Cabuyas, for the whole morning. For lunch we went to town and to Pepa's... so good!! After lunch we went back and planted native species where we'd removed the invasive ones. We we got back we had dinner at Pepa's again!!