TORTUGAS!!!

(Written 8/1/13)

Checking in from la hacienda. We've been working pretty hard this week. On Tuesday, I worked on a farm cutting down grass of that isn't native to the Galapagos. And by "cutting grass", I mean literally bending down and wielding a machete. And this was only after walking 45 minutes to the worksite. Walking 45 minutes is no big deal, the paperwork said I may have to walk 45 minutes to the worksite, however, the paperwork made no mention of the fact that it was 45 minutes up the side of a rocky mountain. Woooo lord that was intense. I'm sure I'll have to make that hike again and I'm not looking forward to it. However, the view from the top was incredible and it was a real sense of accomplishment to take the climb.

On Wednesday we cut down mora (blackberry) plants. They aren't native to Galapagos and because of their thorns the turtles don't like them. Unless we remove the plants, the turtles wont roam around the land. That was another difficult task but again, rewarding to get your hands dirty and really do hard manual labor.

Today we had a rare treat to work at the Galapaguera. This is a breeding center for turtles! There are about 30 large turtles they keep to reproduce and they protect the babies until they are 3 or 4 years old then release them into the wild. We didn't get to actually work with the turtles, but we helped clear tree branches for a nearby greenhouse. We did get to visit the Galapaguera when we were finished which was really cool. I've really fallen in love with these adorable tortugas! They're so cute!

A group of three girls from Switzerland and Germany arrived on Tuesday so it's been nice working with a slightly larger group (and split the costs of taxis if we go into town).

After work tomorrow I'll go down and stay in the town for the weekend. I'l go to the beach and hopefully arrange a day trip snorkeling to some local spots.

I'll write again soon.