Day 19 - Leaving the Galápagos and returning to Quito

It was our last breakfast in the Galápagos, every morning there was a lovely lady that asked whether we want "scrambled or fried" in a high pitch voice followed by "Joose?". After having breakfast we took a bus with our luggage to the ferry on the north of the island where we saw hundreds of blue footed boobies systematically diving into the water to grab a fish. On to another bus for the short distance to the airport. After checking in we said goodbye to our CEOs. The Galapagos flight was shortly after and this flight touched down in Guayaqcil. 

After returning to our hostel called "593 hostel" in Quito which had cool dorms, we repacked our bags and got reunited with our Otovalo shopping we left there before leaving for the Galápagos. Later that evening we went to the Quito mall (the one closed to 593 hostel) for our final meal together we had a private room at the rear of the restaurant, my meal consisted of a beef burger with caramelised onion, bacon, lettuce, cheese and some chips with ketchup don't worry our Heinz ketchup is better than any ketchup I've tried here!!!
We had churros to take away and had back at base.

After coming back to the hostel we had a group chat about our top three highlights such as swimming with turtles, having amazing food whether it's octopus, lavae, Guinea pig or fish every meal was incredible!! We continued with evaluating our adventure including our projects, our kit list and overall health of the trip. And we started to make plans for our reunion event.

After most of us had packed and showered we played a couple of card games, had mini chats in our rooms or gave each other hairstyles for example when Shona's hairstyle changed dramatically it made her look like Jayden Smith. 

Emily and Herkiran 

Day 18 - Speeding our way between the Galápagos islands

We awoke to the screams of chickens at 3am and tossed and turned until 7. We packed our rucksacks ready for our journey back to Santa Cruz! There was hot chocolate for breakfast with cinnamon, which was a nice addition. After photos with the lovely staff of our campsite we journeyed to the pier where we got our water taxi to our speed boat! We boarded two speedboats back and the water was much calmer than on the way out (yay!). No one was seasick! We were desperately looking for dolphins and whales but the buzzing of the engine sent us to sleep. One of the boats struggled as an engine got flooded but luckily there were an extra two! And one of the crew soon fixed it. So it just took a little bit longer than expected.

When we arrived back at Pueto Ayora, we walked back to the hotel where we rested our wobbly heads and waited for the other group. Once the others had arrived we went for lunch, had free time to explore and go shopping. Some of us were sitting on the pier looking out and saw a large shark, which resembled the Galápagos shark, which was a lovely addition to our wildlife collection! We worked out that we had seen over 70% of the well-known Galápagos wildlife.

After a chilled out day by the pool, we went for dinner and once again ate at the 'Blue Marquee' with everyone. We  enjoyed fresh fish, octopus, lobster tail, chicken and veggie options. The passion fruit juice was incredible!

Katie H and Grace

Video of our speed boat journey

Day 17 - Wildlife Safari around Isla Isabella including hanging out with Turtles

Today we had breakfast at 8am, we had boiled eggs with that really nice bread and hot chocolate, mochas, coffee, mango and papaya. We really could get used to this!

After breakfast we went to see flamingos in their natural habitat, they were very pink. 

Then we went to the tortoise breeding centre where we witnessed an educational display of tortoises playing 'leapfrog'. We saw tortoises of all ages, from 3 months to 100 years. 

For lunch we went to a restaurant by the beach which specially opened for us as they would usually be closed on that day. They prepared a delicious meal of soup, fish and rice or vegetarian spaghetti. The views over the beach were amazing.

After lunch we went on a boat ride to Las Tintoreras, where we saw loads of sleeping white tip reef sharks and to our surprise there was also a turtle sleeping amongst them and we noticed its shell had a big dent in the side of its shell, which we assumed must have been caused by a boating accident, but don't worry guys it was swimming fine and let the Sharks know who was boss. Also on the island we saw lots of other wildlife including, marine iguanas, sea lions, lots of birds including blue footed boobies and penguins! 

We then went snorkelling where we got to swim with hundreds of fish, starfish, marine igunanas, Eagle Ray's and the highlight of it all: TURTLES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup we swam with turtles, so close that we could touch them, but we didn't because we're Girl Guides and we follow all the rules, which means staying at least 2 meters away from all the animals, but may have accidentally brushed a hand against a fin or two when we least expected them to appear.

After what may have been the most amazing experience of our lives, and was definitely the highlight for many people, we returned to Campo Duro for our last meal, before enjoying an amazing campfire and hot chocolate, in true Girlguiding style, singing all the camp fire songs we could remember, with an incredible view of the stars and the milky way, and may we say the stars were so incredible I can't even find any words to describe how beautiful they were.

That's Shona and Imogen signing off. BOOP!

 

Lunch on the beach

Our view from our tables

Going to miss the delicious food

Caption competition!

Not quite getting the hang of 'leap frog'

Turtle taking a selfie with Ella 

Shona getting up close to a turtle

Our campsite

Our campfire under the stars

The Milky Way

Day 16 - Climbing Sierra Negra volcano caldera

Today started with an 8am breakfast of scrambled egg with peppers and tomatoes in it, fresh fruit from our campsite and the most delicious bread we've tasted in a while. We also got treated to some really tasty hot chocolate and coffee too.
The weather - damp and drizzly - was not quite what we were hoping we would have for the day which we had ahead of us... Hiking up an active volcano!!! We split into two groups for the hike as some of us didn't fancy the 16km and opted for the 6km instead.
Once we started hiking we were actually quite grateful for the little bit of drizzle from the clouds that were actually giving us a little bit of shade from the burning sun. The hike, to start with, was quite
steep but once we got about 1km in, the ground started to even out... Much to our lungs delight!
The longer group had set off first and got to the crater at the 3km mark just as the clouds began to clear away - "time to re apply sun cream girls" we heard Katie and Steph say. Not so long after the
shorter hike group caught up with the first group at the crater just in time for a group photo with our famous flag and the magnificent view of the caldera as our backdrop.
The longer hikers set off again so it was time for the shorter hikers to stop at the crater, take a loo break if needed (yes... In the bushes with the most amazing view), and have a bite of lunch whilst overlooking the inside of the Sierra Negra volcano.
Personally, I had envisioned seeing red hot flowing lava but much to my disappointment it was 'just' black cold lava rock.... Still pretty cool really! Katie had said that she thought that she would see trees inside the volcano so we all had different expectations.
On the longer hike, the team encountered some more rain which helped to keep down dust. One of the struggles was trying to ration our water to only a couple of sips every now and then to make sure that we would have enough for the way down. The hike wasn't too challenging once a few km in as the ground once again did even out, making it all much more enjoyable. After about two hours we got to another view point of the crater and we saw lots of really beautiful lava rocks that were ever so sparkly and shiny. But to our disappointment we were unable to take any back (quite rightly).
We sat and had our lunch where we experienced quite a breeze - which meant anything unattached might blow away... so we had to run after Jane's hat!
Just before we started to make our way back down, our guide showed us some guava trees which the public are allowed to pick any ripe fruits from, so of course we did! Us Girlguides never miss an opportunity to get some free food!
Our route back down was quite a bit more challenging and than we had expected as the dust had started to dry out now and with sixteen pairs of walking boots trampling across the dusty tracks, it was inevitable that Ellie would end up with dust in her teeth! (We have tried to tell her to stop smiling so much but she was just enjoying herself so much that she could not help it!)
We arrived back at camp, covered in dust from head to toe, being welcomed by the shorter hike group all fresh and clean from their showers.... We couldn't get in the showers quick enough. However, with
only two showers between all of us girls, some of us decided to make some juice out of the guavas we had collected from the top of Sierra Negra. We shared the juice out between the girls and the general consensus was that actually, it was more of a dessert than a drink but was rather tasty nonetheless.
For dinner we all went out to Central Park with quite a selection of restaurants however, the majority of us ended up gravitating to the restaurant that had a sign saying "PIZZA"! We got back to our camp, relaxed on the hammocks and did a bit of stargazing and even saw the Milky Way with our eyes for the first time which was crazy exciting!
What a great way to end the day!

Beth and Kiera

End of chapter two: the Leader's perspective

As we board two speed boats to Isabela island for the next chapter we have the chance to reflect on our second week...

Conservation project This week has been a serious challenge for the team. For most of the girls in the group this was their first experience of manual labour, let alone the shock of the 6:30 alarms and a workforce who speak a completely different language to them. All of them attacked this project with enthusiasm and energy and the results speak for themselves. We created a beautiful pathway for a local high school with endemic and native plants which will be enjoyed by the students, their parents and generations to come. We cannot begin to describe how proud we are of them all. They worked hard with no complaint and completed the school project faster than anticipated. They lifted lava rock and carried gravel and dug holes with determination, proving to all present that women really can do anything. We moved on from the pathway to help a endemic species of Mangrove which is suffering with invasive bugs. The Mangrove clearance was dirty work but it was a pleasure to be involved in something that would benefit the whole community, and do our part to help preserve a part of the Galápagos. It also gave us some time for reflection after a hectic week. Many friends were made as the team worked alongside 16 students from the school aged between 15 and 18 and we have finished our week knowing that we have definitely made a lasting impression in Puerto Ayora.

Book Bus project

Arturo - our local Book Bus co ordinator - had never met volunteers quite like our group before. He was used to 1 or 2 people turning up with the best intentions, but needing a lot of guidance and support. It didn't take long on the first morning for our girls to prove to him what we were capable of. He quickly saw that, as we were suggesting, we did not need to all be in one classroom with him, the girls split into pairs and 3's to maximise the impact in every school we visited. A lot of hard work and effort has been put into the project this week. Busy active mornings and then late nights preparing lesson plans and resources for the next day, we are incredibly proud of the group, everyone learnt something, whether it was their first teaching experience or not. Each school we visited was very different, the group did a great job of adapting and gave their full effort each day at the project. Friendships were formed and the schools, as well as our group, were all sad to say goodbye, I'm sure everyone involved will remember the experience for a long time to come. 

Our CEO's were initially confused with us making our own packed lunch each day to take with us to the projects but soon realised why: it was usually eaten about 11am due to the hard work and energy being consumed! Both groups returned to our hotel between 12 and 1pm to shower and change and get ready for the afternoon activity which usually started at 2pm. Having been split into two teams all morning for the projects it was always nice to come back together again to go out and explore the Santa Cruz Island. We crammed so much into this week, visiting Lava tunnels, hanging out with Giant Tortoises and Sea lions, sea kayaking and learning about the work of the Charles Darwin conservation project. We also spent a lot of time in the water. We swam in crystal clear waters at Las Grietas and snorkelled off our sea kayaks in Tortuga Bay. For lots of the girls this trip has been their first experience of snorkelling, a challenge in itself and then to see a Shark on your maiden voyage is something quite special. 

Kathy, Sharon, Katie, Steph

Day 15 - Final day of our projects and travelling to Isla Isabella

On Friday both teams woke up, ate bread rolls with a selection of spreads and a bowl of fruit and got ready for the last day of their projects. The book bus left at 7:30 and travelled to the same school they attended on Tuesday which consisted of 26 students - all of various ages and abilities. Along our way to the project, to our surprise we saw the children along the road who were on route to a farm for a school day trip out. They had planned to hitch hike their way there so it was lucky we came along. We picked them up in the bus and travelled to the school to collect everybody and then took them all to the farm in our bus. When they arrived, we played a few games, read the "Going on a Bear Hunt" book and then got stuck into reading with them and making bear masks and completing the word searches we created by hand. After this, we showed the children our "about me" picture books and asked them to draw a portrait of their family (la familia). Finally we were lucky enough to go on a real bear hunt through the farm and visit the exciting lava tunnels nearby which we called the cave. We could not have asked for the perfect fininsh! We took the childrenback to the school to say goodbye to the children. After giving out a few of our presents and shedding several tears - the team said "adios".

We returned to base to complete our final evalutation of our project. Overall we are very happy with what we have achieved in just a short time and hope that The book bus volunteers continue to support this much needed work. It really saddened us to see no story books in any of the schools we visited us and warmed our hearts when we saw how much the children were enjoying our story telling.

Team Conservation group finished the final touches to the restoration of the mangrove fores and reunited with some of the students from our early conservation project, together we were thanked formally by charities and a member of the local government for a presentation ceremony. This was all in celebration of National Mangrove day in the Galápagos. Later the students took us to their school so we could see their talent contest. Walking through the town we saw a Galápagos festival which was a nice way to say goodbye to the Santa Cruz island.

When we all returned to our hotel, we finished packing and prepared for our two hour speedboat journey to Isabella island. Upon our arrival at Campo Duro we settled into our luxury tents (they had mattresses!) and then we tucked into a delicious meal prepared by our hosts; chicken or vegetables with rice alongside a lentil sauce.

Maeha and Ellie

  

Day 14 - Clearing mangrove forests, going on a bear hunt and snorkelling a deep channel

We woke up normal time, we had white pineapple slices, juice and bread with Nutella (which we bought from the supermarket) in the morning. Later we went to the mangrove forest and Rosemary explained all about how the forest made the perfect ecosystem for young fish and other creatures such as small crabs. After a while we did an activity where we wrote poems about about the 5 senses. The view of the white, red and black mangroves were stunning and I can now tell the difference between all the different leaves.

With the book bus group, we returned back to the first school that we had visited and had a new and exciting lesson plan for the children. We split up into 3 groups to have an all round presence in each class and read and acted out 'The Bear Hunt' in a repeat after me manner - we have a great time lapse, have you seen it? We obviously had to sing our number one hit 'Che Che Cole' for the children before we kicked off the activities. With The Book Bus we try to have the activities correlate to the book we read together so; we had the create and decorate head bands with bear ears and a little nose on them. This went down so well as they all took on the character of an actual bear creeping around the room and grizzling at us all. After some independent free reading, we went over 'The Bear Hunt' again so that they could make their own step by step map of all the locations that the family had to travel through to get to the cave and find the bear. It was something new that they don't usually do as an activity but they took it on board and got really into it making the sound effects to help them remember the order. As well as the maps, we gave them a word search of the key words from the book in Spanish and their English translation which they started and completed in no time.
Saying goodbye was hard after such a fun time getting to know the children and their competitive football personalities at break, but after all the hugs and waves we knew we had accomplished what we had come out to do.

After leaving the school we stopped off to see the progress and hard work that the conservation team had made. The path and plants that they had created and planted were perfect and we're all very proud of their dedication and tireless work. Once we had picked up them up in our open side public bus called a chivaas, we headed back to the hotel to get our swim suits and towels ready for snorkelling at Las Grietas in the afternoon.

The depth of the water went down 4 meters within the lagoon and was home to many fish including parrot fish and one particularly large catfish. The water was as clear as glass which was an incredible sight to see. At first the water was freezing but you had to just brave it and dive straight in and let your body become accustomed to the cold. After swimming around for a little while and getting used to the water, we all gathered round (more like treaded water vigorously to stay afloat) so that I (Zoe) could finally make my promise and officially join the Senior Section of Girlguiding. It was a first for me and also for Steph to initiate someone into the senior section as she had recently been awarded her leader certificate whilst on the equator.

To follow into the evening we went to blue tent restaurant, as a whole group, with the life changing chicken for our final meal on the island Santa Cruz.
After the wonderful evening spent with the leaders, others Rangers, the Book Bus and conservation project organisers, the G Adventures guides (with one of their sons as a plus one) we came back to the hotel and did a treasure trash session - but not before a quick game of 'Simon says' and a vocal solo by Mauricio's ten year old son!!
Emily and Zoe

Day 13 - Midweek projects and hanging out with giant tortoises

Team Conservation 

Today was our final day working on the school garden, although we were all tired from the days before we were able to power through and finish the walkway. We learned a bit about native and endemic species and then planted trees in the spaces we had made. This involved digging holes in extremely rocky soil which proved to be a lot of work, don't worry we didn't let the boys do it for us, even though they still offered to whenever we picked up a heavy tool. We also spent a lot of time talking to and getting to know the students as this might be the last time we see them. We also got the chance to meet an English class to help with their conversational English. Their teacher paired us up in speed dating style and we exchanged emails so we can be pen pals, as even after just 15 minutes of talking we could see that their English had improved (much more than our Spanish!)

Team Book Bus

We arrived at a bigger, louder school and it was intense. We were told that we had 150 kids to handle but we were prepared as we had written down a plan and everyone knew what we had to do. We began with the Hokey Cokey but it failed as the kids thought it was funny to keep falling on top of each other. After a couple more games we split into different classes and began our activities. We read the books, and did the arts activities and included a couple songs including Che Che which the kids loved. At break we learnt some of the games the kids play and play with them before going to our next class. This time the book was "We're going on a bear hunt" and did other craft activities and free reading which went well. Then we said goodbye to the kids and returned to the town. 

After we cleaned up and relaxed after our projects we headed out to the lava tunnels and saw more giant tortoises. When we arrived they offered free organic Galapagosian coffee and lemongrass tea which was muy rico (delicious). We split off into two groups and began our tour. We learnt more and saw over 100 year old tortoises. We even saw them relaxing in their own mud bath spa. Then we descended into the cold and dark lava tunnels, where we listened to how they were formed. Inside some of the tunnels there were lanterns and underneath where the light was shining plants and ferns were growing which was really cool. 

Once we had explored the lava tunnels we came back and got a chance to explore the local area and buy some souvenirs. Then we went out to dinner in the food market Street , in one of the restaurants a couple of girls ordered grilled chicken and it was "life changing" (Ella's words).