Well Shane and I actually made it to the airport, on and off the plane and were (eventually) allowed onto the island of San Cristobal in the Galapagos.
This new reserve is quite different from La Hesperia, not only in environment but also in the way things are run, the atmosphere, the bazillions of volunteers, etc. But not different in a bad way, just different!
Our first full day consisted of bright and early breakfast at 7am followed by the work allotment meeting at 8am. Shane and I were given the job of cutting the fungus infected leaves off of the banana trees around the reserve to be burned (controlling the fungus spread hopefully)and cutting down banana trunks for the Japanese compost that is being made in the nursery. The job itself wasn´t too hard as long as you´re not squeemish when you poke a leave with the sharpened shovel and spiders and cockroaches fall down... but the cleanup was a real bitch! Everything was wet and heavy and there was no real direct route between where we were working and the fire pit. Also, with all of the rain that has been falling lately the very hilly road was a slippery muddy mess!
After a tough morning of work we had lunch followed by free time until 2 as per usual... however, after 2 we still didn{t have to go back to work since we decided to have some celebrations for Carnivale which is this weekend. The celebrations, of course, meant water fights, mud fights, soap fights... sadly, not in that order... but it was pretty funny times!
Once we all dug the mud out of our ears and showered as best we could we had dinner and chilled some more until about 830 when a group of us headed to the ¨bar¨... a building the same size as our dining area except the kitchen is replaced by a bar and the pingpong table replaced by two pool tables. The patrons were: US... and two locals who actually also work the bar!
So needless to say, Shane and I decided to participate in drinking games with the other volunteers (all under the age of 21 lol) and we most certainly are paying for it today :( Ah well... it was fun and good for bonding with the group, right?
So this morning came unusually quickly, partially due to my turn at breakfast duty that started at 6am... but it´s ok since I was still drunk, lol, so I was FANTASTIC!... til later today. After breakfast we took some taxis and did the 40 min drive from the reserve to town for our ¨hike¨that consisted of a wander around the Interpretation centre before heading down to this little cove where we lunched... after a few sandwiches which helped with the sobering process, a few of us grabbed our snorkles and jumped into the water to hang out with the sea lions who happen to be everywhere, sweet, playful, and fearless...
I{m looking forward to playing with them more as we´ve been given leave from the reserve for a 5 days weekend to continue the Carnivale celebrations so we don´t technically have to work until Wednesday next week!
That said, I´m off to grab some food and a bevy (not beer!) and will post more as things happen with sincere effort to be more diligent, I swear!
oxox
Hooray for stories and pictures!!!
ReplyDeleteThank You.