Life is always better on the beach

In my first 7 days on the Galapagos, I will do exactly half a day of work - can´t complain about that.

Day 1 (Wednesday) was orientation. I arrived at the station with 4 other new volunteers. There are a total of 19 volunteers at the station right now, representing at least 8 different countries. Some have been here just a few days and some 4 or 5 weeks. It´s a much bigger group than at the Bear House, and people arrive and leave at various times so it has a very different feel. There are 2 volunteer houses and a separate kitchen. The facilities are rustic, made from a combination of bamboo and concrete. We have running water and electricity (usually), plenty of hammocks, and a good supply of bananas, papaya, pineapple, coffee, and a few other fruits and vegetables growing at the project site. The bugs are as bad as they said, at least in terms of numbers - there are thousands and they swarm. But for me the bites don´t itch like Manitoba mosquitoes or black flies.

Day 2 (Thursday) we worked in the morning.
The work includes:
- general station maintenance (there are plans to build a clay oven to bake things like bread and pizza)
- maintenance in the nursery (so far that means cleaning out overgrown plant beds)
- bird observation (to be able to record which birds are hanging around and whether they´re using native or introduced vegetation)
- cutting down and burning banana tree leaves that are infected with a fungus (Cesar, our station manager, estimates that if the problem isn´t controlled, in 10-15 years there won´t be any more banana trees here)
We did not work in the afternoon in honor of the beginning of Carnaval - a giant festival the week before Lent. In the spirit of Carnaval we had a giant water/flour/mud fight. I don´t know why, but people celebrate by throwing water at each other.

Every Friday, instead of working we do a hike to learn about the island. Today was not so much a hike, but got taxis into Port and went to the interpretation centre, followed by the beach. There are a lot of interesting things I should report from the interp. centre but not everyone seemed as interested as I was, so I rushed through it to not keep everyone waiting. I will go back sometime when I can take my time. The beaches are fantastic. Beaches (like mountains) have a way of making all worries and negative thoughts disappear (not that I had a lot of those to begin with). The sea lions are everywhere, and are very playful swimming around you in the water.

Saturday and Sunday we normally have off, and this week we will get Monday and Tuesday off as well to celebrate Carnaval. Most volunteers stay in Port for the weekend - there are no bugs, it´s usually sunny, and there are lots of beaches to enjoy. Me and a few other volunteers are taking advantage of the long weekend and taking a ferry to Santa Cruz (another island) tomorrow, coming back Tuesday.

I´m sure the following 3 weeks will involve a lot of hard work, but for now I´m enjoying the free time - there´s lots to explore!