Yesterday we arrived in Quito, met Tomás, our Envoys group leader, and checked into our hotel. We fell asleep to the sounds of Ecuadorian music playing in the city.
This morning we had fruit and eggs for breakfast and geared up for a big day of travel. In between our flights we tasted some Ecuadorian snacks. Upon landing on Santa Cruz Island, a Land Iguana immediately approached us.
At the airport, we met Mica and Yasu who will be our ECOS tour guides for the rest of the trip. We first drove to our ferry, where we took some group photos. Then we started our bus ride through the highlands. We experienced that as elevation changed, so did the environment. We observed that the landscape changed from desert-like in the lowlands where we came across cacti, crabs and marine iguanas to a lush forested area in the highlands. We drove past the scalesia forest. These trees are endemic to the Galapagos and are being preserved by the National Park in order to avoid invasive species from spreading. A few miles later, we entered a more urban area with houses and farms. The landscape now had more grass fields and less trees. We also drove through a small village where we saw villagers gather to play volleyball. Mica and Yasou explained to us that this is a common Sunday activity for people here. They do this to catch up with family and friends and have fun.
A few minutes later, we settled in at our campsite and ate lunch: meat, rice and potatoes, each in their own clump, which may have represented the islands which we will be traveling to. We swam in the pool, played pool at the pool table and afterwards played an ice-breaker game in South American fashion standing in a circle. Afterwards we received a lesson about Galapagos tortoises and we performed fun presentations about specific elements of the tortoises. Finally, we ate dinner( fish, plantains, and veggies). After dinner our instructors went through tomorrow’s itinerary so we are prepared for our first day of tortoise research in the National Park!
