We left Quito on August 10th and headed to the airport. I rushed that morning to finish my field journal for class so that I could submit it before going to the islands, which we were warned have very slow internet connection (I had tried to finish the night before but ended up going to a soccer game and falling asleep with my laptop and notes sprawled across the bed).
Outside of the university, I lugged over my likely overweight suitcase and backpack to the bus that took us to the airport. At the airport, we had to send our bags through the Galapagos security check to ensure that we didn’t have anything that could contaminate the protected ecosystem. My bags got flagged going through the scanner because I still had a bag of Reese’s that Carlos gave me before I left that I have to try to make last the next three months (I had two bags and already went through one in the month in Quito, whoops). Once I showed the security guard that it was just Reese’s she put a tag on my bag to show they were cleared and our group headed over to check our bags. I soon found out that my stuff was very much overweight and thankfully I was just able to pay a slight bag fee and drop off my bags. When we got on the plane, I was surprised that it wasn’t completely full because I feel like it’s so rare to not have overbooked flights with a line of people waiting to take the spot of a late passenger. This flight didn’t hold all of the people who were going to the Galapagos. We had to first fly to Guayaquil, the biggest city in Quito which is located on the coast, and we had a short layover there. However, we reached the gate and they told anyone who was going to the Galapagos to stay on the plane. This meant that we sat while the rest of the people staying in the mainland took their carry-ons and headed to the gate. It felt weird to have a layover waiting on the tarmac rather than inside, but it made it less complicated to have the 30+ people stay on the flight than to have us all re-board. Not too much later we took off again for another short flight to San Cristobal island!
This plane wasn’t like the little propeller plane we took the week before so the landing on the runway was a lot smoother than that one. We were all glued to the windows as the plane landed and watched the ocean and a few cacti pass by as we pulled to a stop. We all grabbed our bags and had our paperwork and passports ready. The security was more relaxed than I expected it to be, we just had to show our paperwork that the university had given us for entrance, have someone check our carry-on very briefly and then waited for our checked bags. So fast and easy, especially compared to any airport in the U.S. where the same process would have probably taken at least thirty minutes rather than maybe ten. The university coordinator in the Galapagos met us outside the airport and we piled up our suitcases to be transported in taxis while we took a bus to the university for a quick orientation. Before orientation we had a break to explore the beach that is right across the street from the school. You can see the sea lions and cruise boats right from the top balcony of the building!
We all were mesmerized by the little baby sea lions by the waves and the big sea lions rolling around like horses in the sand. The sea lions are everywhere and didn’t seem to care if you were sitting on part of the beach, they would still wobble over and laid down right next to our group. The orientation was quick and mainly covered the rules and included a short tour of the building. There is only one building with multiple classrooms, very different from having to plan how you are going to make it across campus in 10 minutes for class back at Chapel Hill! Also, only having one class a day is very different from back home too.
Afterwards, we finally got to meet our host families. Most people hadn’t talked with their families at all yet so they had to wait for the coordinator to match them with their family. I had talked with my host mom before coming and we were already friends on Facebook so we recognized each other but still had to wait for me to be called off the list. My host mom, Maritza, and brother, Gabriel, picked me up and we shared a taxi with another of the USFQ students back to the house. We unloaded my suitcase into my room and I got to meet my host sisters, Carolina and Yessica, who are twins. (It’s now been two weeks and I still have to think a bit to tell them apart). 
My room is so nice and I realized that this is the first time I have had my own bathroom! Back home I have always shared with either Boden or my 6 lovely suite -mates. But now, I have my own which is actually kind of odd to not have to worry about all my stuff taking up too much space or anything like that. After I unpacked most of my stuff, I ate dinner with the family and got to meet my host grandpa, Don Guido Rosillo. He and my host mom informed me that to get back to the house all I need to do is tell the taxi or ask someone where the house of Don Guido Rosillo is and they will know. The perks of now living on an island with a population of about 8,000 people.
After dinner, Gabriel and I walked down to El Malecon, which is a sort of boardwalk along the ocean with lots of shops and restaurants. We walked along the street and heard all the sea lions and saw a pelican trying to get a fish from a little sea lion right near the walkway. We also saw a baby sea lion that had somehow found its way up to a store and was just hanging out in front of it.
The whole walkway is really nice and reminds me some of Folly Beach, but in a compact version. After pointing out some of the important things, such as how to get to school, we walked back to the house and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next day was my first day of a new class. This module I am taking Quantitative Field Ecology, which sounds super scary and I was expecting it to be but hasn’t been too bad yet. For this course we have class in the morning and afternoon because our professor has to leave to go back to Quito to teach another class during the week that would be our third week. So, every morning from 9-12 and every afternoon from 3-5. Our morning class the first two days was just normal class time but the rest of the week, during the morning class we did fieldwork. The afternoon class for the whole duration of the course was focused more on statistics of fieldwork data. The fieldwork was getting data on lava lizards and the location of where they were found. Since you can’t go off the path in the Galapagos national park without a permit, we had to get permits to be able to do the work. Our professor had to request them about 4 months in advance. Off the path is very rough and most days we were struggling to get through trees, avoiding cacti, and climbing up sharp rocks. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would but it was for sure difficult work (which is I think what the professor wanted to show us). The first day we hiked up around the Darwin statue to be able to get an idea of where we would be doing our work.
After the first day, we had to read a chapter for a quiz for the next day and I was reading in the kitchen as my host mom was cooking dinner and she said that I could go sit up on the balcony on the second floor to be able to watch the sunset as I read. I went up there and it was so gorgeous. You can see all the ocean and it looks never ending. It was so amazing and I can’t believe that this is where I am going to be living for the next three months.
Since we have about three hours each day between class that’s when we all go to try to find an almuerzo. Instead of just ordering a normal lunch if you order almuerzo it tends to be a cheaper, about 4 dollars, and normally comes with a soup, main dish (normally fish) and a juice. We have been switching to different restaurants to see who has the best almuerzo but they have all been so good so we just pick one each day to go to. I was thinking I would get sick of rice and fish but so far that hasn’t happened. One day we went to a vegetarian restaurant (it was more expensive than $4 but still good) and I found Dulce’s doppelgänger. He was just hanging out with us and actually lives at the restaurant/hostel.
My schedule was pretty set for classes and lunch this week. After class two of the days though I went to explore some of the island with my host brother, Gabriel. On Thursday before dinner we rode bikes around the whole town, from the airport to the university. We passed by the stadium where some people were playing soccer and all of the schools. It was really cool to see the whole town. I was surprised by 1. how many hills 2. how out of shape I feel. (Probably because I hardly did anything super active during my month in Quito …) We headed back to the house after the tour around and then ate dinner. After dinner I talked for a while with my host grandpa about everything from natural medicine to war and it was such a great conversation. We talked for a while and all in Spanish so I remember the content but don’t think I would do the conversation justice to try to translate it.
On Friday, after class, Gabriel and I went to the beach that’s just 20 minutes from the university. It’s called Punta Carola and like Playa Mann (the one across from school) it has a bunch of sea lions. We walked over to the old lighthouse and were able to see a few of the smaller islands that are off the coast of San Cristobal. What I found funny about them is that the English names are all harmless names and then the Spanish names all go with something dangerous. Example: Kicker Rock – León Dormido (Sleeping Lion). After getting a few pictures of the beach from the lighthouse we headed back to the house.
We stopped at the bakery on the way and got a whole bag full of bread that cost $3 and would have probably been at least $8 in the U.S.! It’s gonna be very dangerous for me to live this close to a bakery that cheap. We got back in time for dinner and afterwards we all hung out watching TV in the living room before I had to go to sleep to wake up early the next morning for my class field trip.
Solaventuras 