Hello,

Well it is Thursday today and I have been given the all clear by the doctor to go diving, so my course starts tomorrow! I am quite excited now. I saw my first ray today. I was on a beach and decided to go and paddle for a bit, I stepped in the water, over the seaweed like stuff, and somethimg floated by, I turned to look and it was a ray, apparently a sting ray. I thought I was being paranoid shuffling my feet in water that barely covered my ankles but apparently not. I

jumped right out of the water, rather scared. And looked at it again. I ran to get my camera but needn't have ran, he wa swimming around for about 10 minutes. I took quite a few pictures, but this was by far the best one.... School today was good, the regular teacher was back, and it wasn't that much calmer with her around. I don't think I am used to how frantic nursery can be. We did a cutting activity where they had to cut along a few straight lines and stop at a certain point, and then after breakfast, which today was chips with mayonnaise and ketchup and half a bright red sausage with some random juice (all at 9am), we did a tearing paper and sticking activity. I am in class with another volunteer at the moment and it is her last day tomorrow, so from monday I will be on my own.

The homestay we are in is great. The woman whose house it is, Auriola, has 3 grown children who don't live at home and she has a woman who helps out with the cooking, Dina. The food is amazing, always different, lots of fresh fruit, veg and juices. They are really friendly and very patient when I try out my bad spanish on them. There are 8 other volunteers in the house and there are rarely dull moments. There is a hammock out front, which is great for just chilling in, and a big patio area to eat out on. We are one of the lucky few volunteers to have hot water, which is a blessing. This is a picture of the house we are staying at.

First day at school

Went to school this morning and there was a teacher there. She was a supply techer and is apparently there tomorrow as well. I am in a class with another volunteer as she is leaving on sunday and they said for us to just stay in the same class this week. I took in the small parachute I had bought with money donated by friends and we used it at break time. They kids absolutely LOVED it. They were very excited and when we put a ball ont he top and played a game where you had to keep the ball on the top they were jumping up and down and screaming until the ball came near them and then they got a little scared.
The school has a main building but the nursery and Year 1 classes are in little round huts that are seperate from the main building. School started at 8 and finished at 12. I don't think today was a typical day as they had a supply, but the kids were very cute. The class has 3 and 4 year olds and not all of them were in. The schools are quite minimally resourced. For the sticking activity they did, the kids got a little glue in a bottle lid and had to dab a little on their finger then put it on the paper they were sticking. They are really good at using minimal resources and not wasting things. Something kids at home could do with learning.

I really think that the things I have bought will go down well, especially the paints as they don't appear to have much of that either. I will take them in bit by bit I think and more when the class teacher is there.

After arriving he kids sang a song and then went to English class where minimal English was spoken and it was held in a language lab style classroom, so the kids are the back were really far from the teacher and just took to flicking through the book they had been given. After this we went back to the classroom for breakfast. The kids all got their packed lunch boxes and produced a bowl or tupperware and a spoon from it!! There was the mother of one of the children there waiting for us and she had brought in the breakfast - cereal and yoghurt. Apparently the parents take it in turn to do this.

Very interesting experience. And I am quite looking forward to tomorrow.

These pictures are ones that I couldn't upload yesterday. A galapagos penguin and a view of the Island of Floreana where we visited on Sunday.

Well, today was the first day of school, so I was up and ready early. Walked with Hannah the other girl based at my school and as we were walking, we passed some of her students heading the other way. A little concerned, but not put off, we continued. When we got there, there was a notice on the hut for Hannah's class and we figured it meant that there was no class for her students. We went to see someone in the office and she told us that the teacher wasn't there. Come back tomorrow. My teacher was there, but the woman at the office told me tomorrow as well. A little disappointing, but hopefully tomorrow will bring more luck!

Yesterday I went on a trip with the girls I arrived with to Floreana one of the other islands. We raced down to the harbour in a taxi and a arrived at 8am on the dot, thinking we were going to be late. They left about half past. I think we are still getting used to Ecuadorian time!! The trip was great. We went on the speed boat to the island and then went up to the Tortoise reserve. There were loads of them around. Apparently there are none left that originate from Floreana so they have put about 40 there from other islands that have been overrun with animals that are not native and causing problems. For example goats. Which they are trying to get rid of on Santa Cruz and another island so they can return the tortoises to the islands. Well, it started raining whilst we were there, which caused great fun as we all went slipping and sliding along the path to the pirate look outs. Getting up there was ok, but coming down was quite a feat. We ended up slinding down a mud path and the people who had gone in flip flops ended up just taking them off. Then we had lunch before getting back onto the boat. There were quite a few turtles in the water and we went off to find the Galapagos penguins. They were tiny - see the picture and probably would not come up to your knees. We went snorkling and saw some amazing fish. I have never done that before and some of the fish were very brightly coloured. We also saw sea lions whilst snorkling which was great. And someone claims they saw a shark. I got out not long after. My confidence in the sea is building slowly.... not quite taking sharks in my stride yet!!

Hello All,
Now we have been here a few days, I think I am finally over my jet lag - the permanent headache I have had for 3 days has finally gone. This truly is an amazing place. We have seen so much and done lots in our first few days. We went to see the tortoises and on a bay tour on thursday which was amazing. Yesterday we went to the beach nearest to us - about a 40 minute walk down a path that is surrounded by cacti plants and trees and past trees that you are not allowed to touch because they are toxic. Apparently they will give you a large burn like mark and the fruit will make you very ill if eaten, if eaten by a child it can be fatal. So I was rather glad I was walking with a woman who pointed them out. Interestingly enough, the only thing that can eat the fruit apparently without dire consequences is the tortoise. They have adapted to it.
The beach itself -Tortuga Bay had really rough sea and there are apparently very strong rip tides there. We walked along to the end, past the marine iguanas (they seem to be everywhere) and to a very calm bay. We hired some sea canoes and went out to see what we could see. Which included quite a few sea turtles. There were apparently a few rays around, but I didn't see them. Sting rays and golden rays. I am a little wary of the rays, apparently the sting rays can be in water knee high and also make you quite ill if you step on them.
The wildlife here is like nothing I have seen before. There are animals everywhere and they really are not scared of humans. You can get close enough to touch them, but we don't actually do that. The rocks on the beaches are full of crabs, the sealion we saw sat waiting for his photo to be taken, the pelicans are like sea gulls and a big pest to the locals, especially the fishermen. The marine iguanas - probably the animal I was least looking forward to seeing thinking they were quite ugly - are really quite funny. They swim in a weird wiggly way and then walked past us really slowly to where they were going to sun themselves. They snort salt out their nostrils which makes a funny sound and sprays everywhere. Apparently this is part of what happens as they have learnt to adapt to life in the water. Once in the sun they lie on their belly's with their legs out and just sun themselves. Really quite lazy and docile. I am really quite taken with them now.
As for the volunteering, apparently schools are closed this week, so we start on Monday. Which is a whole other step of the adventure. We have been given a list of words and phrases that should be helpful, they incude - Don't bite, Don't touch me, Do you want to go to the toilet, and so on. Can't wait.....

The pictures are as follows; Blue footed booby, marine iguana, crab and the posing sealion/seal, not quite sure which it is.

First full day on Galapagos!

What a great day. Absoloutely fantastic. We went to the Charles Darwin Research Centre and saw lots of Tortoises and a few land iguanas. Then we went out on a bay tour and saw turtles, marine iguanas swimming, a seal that was just there posing whilst we all took pictures. We saw frigate birds-femals and the males with the big red fronts, pelicans which are everywhere, crabs too! We went snorkling and saw some big fish and a few small ones. This place is quite amazing!

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