1 Week on the Galapagas!

Wow i am actually on the slowest computer ever and it has crashed twice since trying to put phots on....so no photos until next week!

So arrived last sunday, flight was really cool for a flight! The views coming in were mad! It looked like we were going to land in the sea at one point....wasn´t scared at all! So me and another english girl started work on same day, she is from london and also 27! mad! We were met at the airport by 2 of the workers and the biggest bag of rice and got taken to our new home! We waved goodbye to civilisation and the further we drove, the less road there was and the more worried i got about where the hell we were going! We arrived to literally a campsite! Its mental, literally on top of the island, there is a new house and old house although not sure what distingushes the new and the old and a dining room and staff quarters and showers etc and thats it! There are about 5 staff and 18 volunteers.

In brief......we get up for breakfast at 7am and start work at 8am, last week we did a lot of chopping of things! When i say its hard work, i mean i literally can´t lift my arms anymore to chop after a while! We have a break at 10am and then lunch is served at 12. We have a rather long lunch break which is great, normally hang out in hammocks have a bit of siesta and back to work at 2. The afternoons are a bit easier than the mornings, done a bit of chopping, painted some numbers and cleared some mud! After the first day of chopping my hands hurt so much! Blisters and everything! But we only work for 4 days and then fridays we have a work to do and end up somewhere touristy with normal things! This friday, we hiked and i mean hiked, never done anything like it!! Up hills down hills through mud, we stopped to learn about plants etc and after leaving camp at 8am we finally met our guide at 1.30pm! Don´t think i have ever been so happy to see a fridge filled with cold drinks! But then we went to the turtle farm which was great and then to a beach! All week have been thinking wow can´t believe we are on the galapogas but its 4 HOURS to a beach! Ha ha! The sea was amazing and even though we were only there for 40minutes all the pain of chopping down trees and mora plants was SO worth it! We have been given a personal project to do, there are 4 of us doing it, its a bit of a mission and we got a bit lost on the way. We basically have to clear the trail leading up to the mountain and then put numbers on the trees every 50 metres just in case people get lost. We started with number 20 and then cleared the trail but then we lost the trail so had to go back to camp! We asked cesar (guy in charge) how we know we are on the right trail and he said just go straight so none the wiser! In the afternoon I made the numbers for the trees with another guy and we asked how many we needed and cesar was like i don´t know maybe 50....so get the impression that maybe this isn´t a finished trail! Its quite cool to have our own project to do though, it does take 30 minutes to walk to the start of it though! Such hard work!

So the camp obviously has an array of insects....to say the least! There are mosquitoes all the time so we have to wear head nets to work and long sleeved t shirts and wellies to work in. Have been bitten a couple of times! Going to buy some vitamin B from pharmacy today, apparently this helps heal bites quicker, we shall see! Then there are fire ants that live in the trees that we chop down, if they get you it hurts, it feels like you are on fire, they got the back of my neck it hurt a lot! Then there are the usual spiders, roaches, moths etc but not normal sizes they are MASSIVE! Just best not to look! The house is not really a house it is just 4 walls with a tin roof! Hence the need to sleep in a mosquito net! Its pretty hard to sleep sometimes! Its best to fall asleep listening to music or otherwise you are just like ahh what is that noise! There are 2 dogs on camp, negro and linda, they are sweet and they don´t have flees they are well looked after! The neighbours dog who has 3 puppies does have flees so we steer well clear of them! Shame though the puppies are really cute!

So camp is cool, life up there revolves around food....pretty normal for me, the chef is from the states and he is a proper chef! He is married to the project leader Daniela....but quite disappointinly he has now gone on holiday for a month. The other lady cooking just seems to burn things! The food is pretty good though, we have rice with every meal, well not breakfast. But there are so many fruit trees around and so we have bananas, papayas, lemons and oranges oh and of course the dreaded blackberry plants (these are on the ones that have taken over and we are chopping down!) so that´s really cool. There is a rota for the kitchen and you help with either breakfast, lunch or dinner. So you go and pick fruits before hand and then squeeze them for the juice pretty cool!

Me and jo have been going to the neighbours house in the evenings to teach them english and they are meant to be helping with our spanish, which doesnt actually happen that much! They have a bar though with a couple of pool tables. They are really sweet!

This weekend we have been in port, you can come down or stay up on camp...hmm easy decision to come down here! And its just amazing! There are sea lions on the beach, its hot, there are no mosquitoes and there are shops! Just chilled out on the beach yesterday and then went to see a crazy band last night, they were actually called iguana rock! They were pretty bad!

I thought i would load some photos before the beach but i don´t think its going to happen! So we are going to grab some pizza (rice is banned at weekends!) and then head to the beach and hopefully do some snorkelling. We go back to camp at 5pm! Can´t believe my first weekend is nearly over!!!!