Bartholome

For the last day of the holiday, rather than relaxing and packing, I decided to sign up for a trip to the most photographed place in the Galapagos Islands. A day trip (leaving at 5am) to Bartholome Island. A small island just off Santiago. The famous site there is 'Pinnacle Rock' which juts out the side at a very strange angle.

We were picked up at 5.25am (after having waited 25 minutes) and driven across the islands to the harbour at the north and boarded our boat there. After breakfast we sat up on the deck for the 2 and a half our trip to Bartholome. Luckily this boat wasn't a speed boat crasing against the waves, but a gentle put-putter! Bartholome was actually right next to Cousins Rock where I had been diving 2 days earlier and it had taken an hour less to get there! But we sunbathed and finished off our nights sleep on the way.

We arrived and climbed the Volcano on Bartholome (not too high) to one of the most amazing views there are. The guide pointed out that there was one beach (with Pinnacle Rock) for people to swim, snorkel etc and the other one was for turtles! It was protected and people were not allowed there.

After taking a mountain of photographs we went back down the volcano and round to the beach to snorkel. I felt quite brave and swam out round the rock and to the lagoon type area where there were supposed to be penguins. We found one penguin busy cleaning his feathers and swam up closer. He didn't flinch and just carried on with what he was doing. We got closer and ended up close enough to reach out and touch him and he still didn't bother with us.

We came back round the beach and waited for the small boat to take us to our bigger boat. As we were waiting, most other groups had left and we ended up being some of only a few people on the beach. When the bay is quiet, the penguins and sea lions come round to swim, play and fish. We were standing knee deep in the water and they were swimming all around us. It was truly amazing. We caught our boat, went back to to the bigger boat for lunch and slowly made our way home.

An amazing finish to an amazing holiday. Probably the best of my life so far!

The view from the Volcano. And Pinnacle Rock.

Last day diving.

I decided to go for one more days diving with the company I had done my PADI with (Scuba Iguana) and headed to a different place. We went to Cousins Rock and then round to Beagle Rock. The dives were amazing. I was still quite nervous, there were still others who kept swimming underneath me which is very unnerving as a new diver. But we saw some pretty amazing stuff. The first dive we saw a lot in the reef - a seahorse, moray eel, octopus, clam, sea cucumber, a few reef sharks. But the second dive was probably my best so far. I was feeling more confident and was relatively calm and we saw Hammerhead sharks. Which made me a little nervous again.... We were on a reef, kind of hanging onto the rocks and looking out into 'the blue' although not very far as the visibility wasn't so good. People had said there were Hammerheads, but I had spent a few other dives watching people swim quickly through the visibility until I couldn't see their flippers and then come back telling me that there was a hammer head. It is quite a surreal experience to see someone swimming back towards you after feeling stranded and a little scared, looking excited and banging their clenched fists at either side of their heads (the signal for hammerheads). So I knew, or at least thought they were there.

It didn't quite prepare me for seeing one, then another, then another swim past. There were about 7 or 8 of them, and they must have been about 10ft long. They came round in front of us a few times. They were only about 5 or 6 metres away and you could see their eyes. They swam past not looking interested, but they knew we were there, and could probably hear my heart hammering in my chest. We spent the last 10 minutes or so of the dive in the middle of thousands of fish. Lots of different types, including lots of Baracuda seemed to congregate around us! Diving has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever tried. And one I think I will be doing again.

a seahorse a Sarah Paddick a White-tipped Reef Shark

Last week at School

I realised that as the school seemed to have lots of random days off and because my spanish was so very limited that I wasn't going to be able to do some activities with the kids as I had hoped. There was no way I could explain them to the children and the class teacher had her own planning. So I decided to just take in all the resources that I had brought with me and give them to the class teacher. I did this on the tuseday of the last week and she was so happy. She really appreciated everything I took and showed it to the supervisor the next day when she came round. She also planned an activity on the wednesday with some of the resources that I had brought, which really made them (and me) feel appreciated.

Because of the number of days the school had been closed (I was only in school for 10 of the 17 days I should have been and 2 of those were with a supply), I didn't really feel that I was contributing to anything. Until the last week. I think the irregularity played a factor, but there is another factor I believe had a hand. There are some volunteers, who once they arrive and get into a holiday mode lifestyle, they will sometimes just not bother to go in some days. When this happens, obviously the staff are let down. We are only volunteers, but they come to rely on us (or not, if they can't) and I realised the last week that it takes a while for the class teacher and children to build trust in a person. On the last day the teacher made a comment that it is always good to have volunteers, but some volunteers are great to have.

I think I went out there with larger aspirations than were possible with my limited spanish, the fact that I was only there for 4 weeks and the sheer amount of days the school was closed.

Once I had readjusted my views, I felt a lot less useless and the fact that the teacher bought me a leaving present and we had a huge cake on my last day really helped to change my views.

In the end I took a lot more, and felt that I had given a lot more to the volunteering than I was thinking I had in the middle of my time there. (picture of the class with their teacher and the cake!)

Isabella

Well, I have decided to finish updating this after my return home. I was just to busy to do it the last few weeks, and figured I would spend my time enjoying the Galapagos rather than sitting in an internet cafe!

So, the third weekend I went to Isabella with another volunteer. We decided to do it independently. I didn't really fancy sleeping on a boat for 3 nights and we didn't want to have to horse ride - I don't like horses, ane everywone we spoke to said that the path was really muddy and at least one person in their group had their horse fall on them. Definitely not for me! We got the boat over on friday afternoon, after having our bags checked to see that we weren't taking anything we shouldn't onto another island - like fruit. Apparently lots of endemic species are being threatened by other plants that have been introduced and there is lots of conservation work being done around this. The main town in Isabella, Puerto Villamil, has sand roads and only about 2,000 inhabitants, coupled with the 200ish people that live in the highlands, it makes for a small population on the largest island in the Galapagos.

We went for a walk along the beach just opposite our accommodation - fantastic long beach, with loads of birds and little sand crabs. The saturday we climbed (on foot) the Volcano. Sierra Negra. It has a crater in the middle (see picture) that is 10km wide (the second largest in the world) and the solid lava is apparently only 1.5m deep, under that it is still molten! The last eruption was about 50 years ago, so it is still definitely active. It was quite a walk and most of it through the clouds, so quite wet. However, when we got round the crater, we went on to another volcano (Volcan Chico) and from there we had one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The clouds cleared up and we could see all the way up the island (including the other 3 volcano's), and the islands on either side of Isabella (Fernandina to the left and Santiago to the right), we could even see Santa Cruz in the distance.

The volcano itself was pretty impressive, and we learnt quite a bit about volcanos from our guide. Apparently the black lava is new, the older stuff gets oxidised as it ages, if it erupts very violently, then it can create lava bombs which kind of explode on impact but solidify in mid air so they create very interesting structures! Won't bore you with any more volcano facts now.

On the way back we passed a Galapagos Hawk, that was just sat on the roof of the horse shelter whilst everyone took pictures and walked past him.

The next day we wandered around the places near the town. Which was quite relaxing. I got a few photos of birds, we went snorkelling in a lagoon, and saw some lava tunnels. Home on the Monday morning on another choppy boat ride that without the local anti seasickness tablets, I would not have survived!

Diving with sharks

Hello all,
Yesterday was a fantastic diving day. We did 3 dives in one day around the area north of Santa Cruz Island where we are staying. It was an early start and I was quite nervous. I went with an American from Texas who is staying at the same homestay as me and has learnt to dive since beig here too. It was really fun to go with someone who I knew. She has also done further qualifications including her 'rescue diver' qualifications and she got to try them out on me. More about that later...
I was definitely the novice on the trip, and it certainly showed when I managed to lose the dive mask before the first dive! We had stopped the boat and were getting ready to go in. I had spat in my mask (a necessary activity to stop it from fogging up) and leant over the side of the boat to dip it in the water to rinse it. I obviously was not holding it tight enough and it fell out of my hands. I kind of went "oh, no", and the divemaster put on his mask and jumped in after it, but it was too late. It was gone. I apologised when he got out of the water, but I don't thin k he was overly impressed. He had a look on his face that kind of said "oh, so we have one of THOSE people today...". To make matters worse, the mask I was using, and had just lost, was the owner of the shops own mask. Needless to say I felt rather bad about that. Luckily they carry spare kit and I was handed the old mask that had black gunk growing around the edges. But I didn't complain. I was just happy they had brought spares. I imagine I am not the first person ever to do that.
So we finished kitting up and went over the edge, we descended and the visibility was a lot less than on my previous dives. Which worried me a little, I spent the day chasing other peoples flippers. We saw a white tipped reef shark not long after we got down, and I think I sucked up about half of my tank of air when we saw it. Trying to control myself, but it just swam on by. It was probably about 3 metres away and about 2 metres long, and not fussed at all by us. (I was rather less calm and collected). We carried on swimming and my left foot flipper felt a little loose so I looked down and realised that the part that goes round the back of my heel had slipped of, so I could have potentially lost a second piece of equipment. I had visions of me arriving back at the boat in my wetsuit and little else!! So I tried to fix it, and Amber, my dive buddy came over and wafted my hands away, she sorted it out for me and felt really good after for using her rescue skills (although her instructor for the course just laughed later when she told him she had rescued someone).
So, reattached to my flipper, we carried on. The divemaster was just ahead and waving the mask I had lost at me. Someone had just found it. I was so grateful. Grateful that I hadn't completely lost the owners mask and also grateful that I didn't have to buy him a new one!
During that dive we also saw a sea turtle really close. We were just coming up over a bit of rock and he was resting on the other side. I think we disturbed him and he went away.
We also saw 'galapagos garden eels'. Eels were not something I was overly fussed about seeing, but these ones are quite funny, they look like sticks sticking out of the sand, but when you go nearer they go back into the sand. What you see of them is maybe about 10-15cm long and a few centimetres wide.
On the second dive we went to another islet which above water is basically a beach full of sea lions. While we were spending time above water, we saw some of them having a little argument. They make a real racket. When we did the second dive, one of them came over to see us. They are really amazing creatures. They are so graceful and fast in the water and they are really playful. I just stayed quite still and he kept swimming around us. One moment you think they are gone, and then they are right in front of your face looking you in the eye. They come close enough that if you reached out you could touch them. I didn't reach out. I just kept still, breathed and held my regulator in my mouth. When they are swimming around you their heads move in lots of directions, but their eyes are always watching you. They are quite amazing.
The last dive was off another islet, but this one was sheer cliff and before we went down we did a tour of it looking at the birds, crabs, sea lions etc that we could see above water. On that dive we saw everything again and went inside a small cave. Not my favourite thing...
I ahve just been to the dive shop to try and get my logbook signed and get the picture, but the guy was not there again. I will go when I get back and try to put some of the pictures up early next week.
I have one more dive trip booked. I figured that I saw smallish things on the first dives I did, things my size or a little bigger yesterday, maybe I can cope with big things next time. Bring on the manta rays, hammer heads, whale sharks and humpbacks!!

Diving!!

Oh my goodness. Why I have not taken up this sport before now, I do not know. I was a little scared about quite a few things, my ears, sharks, rays, taking my mask off underwater etc etc. But the course was great. We did the first bit of theory friday night, the PADI videos are rather humerous. There were 4 of us on the course - me and another volunteer, and 2 girls that were working at the Charles Darwin Station (where they work to preserve wildlife, especially the tortoises).
On Saturday we went for the pool session in the morning. The pool was filthy and the visibility was less than a metre. Which made it quite hard to see the instructor demonstrate the skills. I also think that I had too many weights, or my jacket was too small as when we were above water I had to inflate my jacket fully which restricted my breathing and I ended up with a sore ribcage for a few days. Oh, well. We managed the skills, and went back for more theory in the afternoon. Sunday was our first dive in open water, it was in Academy Bay which is the main bay at Puerto Ayora where we are staying. Different people have mixed views about it, but I think we were really lucky as the visibility was really good (15-18 metres on all our dives) and we saw a lot of things. We had all bought underwater cameras and were quite eager to take them out, although we did wait until our second dive as we had to do all our skills on the first dive. Taking the mask off underwater in the sea I did not like, but once it was done we got to go around a little bit. Once I had got used to swimming along without using my arms, whilst not hitting rocks etc it felt far more comfortable. Although getting the buoyancy right does take some work, at one point I suddenly realised I was actually on the surface again and some one was pushing me back down!
On sunday's dives we saw lots of colourful fish, it really is amazing to see them just swimming around and not running away from you. We saw some stingrays which swam away once we had all clumsily crowded round (we disturbed the water quite a bit!) and the others saw 2 sharks.... I missed them. Not quite sure what I was doing at that point, maybe checking my gauges, maybe floating to the surface, maybe trying to get the camera out of my face (they are built to float, which is great unless you have them attached somewhere on your chest and they keep floating infront of your mask!) or maybe trying not to hit the rocks! But yes, I managed to miss them. I did see the starfishes though. They were great, and one had 6 legs (which is apparently very rare)!
Yesterday we did dives 3 and 4. A couple more skills - including using a compass. I managed to follow the correct direction and do my 30 kicks out, I just went up towards the surface but didn't realise until I stopped and looked around, saw the instructor quite far below, looking at me and pointing down!! Oopps! I stuck where I could see the sand on the way back.
Yesterday we saw a sea turtle and a sealion in the water, although neither came particularly close to us and lots more fish. But I figured for a first diving experience, that is actually quite a lot. I hope the pictures come out ok!
My favourite of all had to be one of the fish though. They have big bright yellow lips and bright blue eyes and suck the algae off the rocks. To me they just look like they are made up to go out on a friday night with far too much make up and bad botox!
I have another dive booked for thursday, apparently there may be hammerheads.....although whether I see them or not is another thing!

School

I felt like I was doing a lot around the islands and getting lots from that, but not putting much back in at the school. What with days off and the supply being there etc etc. But that has starting to change this week. Even though school was only from 8am until 9.15am this morning (including breakfast) and only about 8 kids turned up.

I have looked up a few phrases and chatted to the teacher a little. Well, maybe 'chatted' is a misleading word.... Struggled through a basic conversation may be more realistic. The teacher of the class I am in is called Silvia and is really friendly. She has started talking to me a bit more since I looked up the phrases to say to her and explained that I am a teacher at home. I have started taking in the resources I brought bit by bit and they have gone down really well. So thank you to all those who have sponsored me to do it. The kids love them. I am hoping to do a couple of activities with them over the next week and a half, so I will be looking up phrases and making examples to try and explain what they need to do!! I really wish I spoke better spanish as this would have made quite a difference with the volunteering. But I am still really enjoying it.

This is the classroom for the ´'pre-school' class that I teach. There are about 4 of the huts in a cluster when you enter the school, 2 nursery classes and 2 Year 1 classes. The kids in the class are 3 and 4 years old. I realised the other day that there is no glass in the windows, there is just wire mosquito mesh covering them, so when the wind blows, the work goes everywhere, and when it is windy and rainy (which is not that often) you can get a little wet!

This is the playground. I am not sure if it is still under construction, there is definitely work still being done on other buildings, but it is basically volcanic rubble, with different things to climb on and some seesaws. There are no health and safety considerations, and volcanic rubble REALLY hurts. But I haven't seen any real accidents yet. Maybe that is because the kids who were throwing the rocks at each other were not particularly good aims!

There are 20 children in the class and there is quite a mix of abilities, but very little differentiation for skills etc. One of the kids can be very aggressive and messes around a lot, but he is really quite bright and bored half of the time. The other thing I have heard is that there are a lot of single parent families. Apparently there is a high percentage of alcoholism in men here and domestic violence is very common. I have also heard that divorce is expensive, so most people just seperate, split belongings, but don't actually get divorced.

As far as school goes, the class have been doing a lot of work with colours and mixing primary colours to make new colours. Which they found amazing. There is not daily maths and literacy activities that I have seen. The children can count, but there is not regular maths based activities. As far as literacy, they don't seem to know letter names and there are not real literacy based resources in the class. There are a few books, but they are quite old and tatty, and the kids much prefer the jigsaws. They really love doing jigsaws. They do a lot of activities that build up the children's motor skills, lots of fine motor skills development. The other day they coloured in a picture and then instead of cutting it out, they had to tear it carefully to get the shape of the pear, which is actually reall difficult. They do a lot of collage work, finger painting and they use there fingers to put small amounts of glue on their paper. It really works, because they are very good at it and other stuff, like undoing knots and opening zips, some can even tie there shoelaces, which at the age of 4 is pretty impressive.

Here are the kids in the class using the lacing cards that I bought. They really liked them. And this was taken today, we made bracelets with beads which are quite a bit smaller than the ones they are used to- they kept going everywhere, but we finished them and they went down well too!