Day 15 - Service activity and M/Y Galaven

We spent the morning at Fundar Galapagos, helping with 2 different projects. Half of the group started out watering the plants in the greenhouse, while the other half removed elephant grass from a section of the preserve. Yes, we even got to use a machete!

Students washing their own dishes at the preserve:

 Our group ready for action:

 Removing the elephant grass (invasive species of grass that takes nutrients from the new trees):

We left Fundar, and the bus dropped us off at the dock to get on the yacht, M/Y Galaven (the driver went the wrong way at first, taking us in the direction of the airport!!!) We met our guide, Billy, a the dock, and took the zodiaks to the boat.

We ate lunch on the boat, settled into our rooms, and then left the boat for another tour of a tortoise field ("Tortuga Crossing"). This was a little different than the other field, in that it had a lava tube that we could walk through. We saw more tortoises than the last place, had a small snack, then boarded the bus for town.

We had about an hour to kill before we got back on the boat, so we walked around the shops in Port Ayora. We got back on the boat, had our first debriefing about the next day's activities, and tried our "welcome cocktail." The food was amazing, and every meal came with dessert. Just to warn you, I think all of the students will be expecting dessert with every meal when they come home! 

The boat was moving quite fast as we traveled to our next location at the north side of Santa Cruz Island. It was hard to sleep with the boat rocking and tossing us around - some even said they were air-born in their bed!