We arrived on the island of San Cristobal! (Teresa and Kent)

We are thrilled to have arrived at our first, long-term (4 mos) destination......in the Galápagos Islands!    It was an easy trip from Guayaquil to S.C. and a beautiful place to land.  We can't quite believe that not only do we get to visit here, but it's our home for a while.  What an amazing gift!!

As we landed on the island it appeared to be mostly wild, with a small populated area.  Yet, there were several cruise ships in the vicinity.  I was seated beside an Ecuadorian couple (in their late 70s or 80s) who had never before visited the islands.  Their excitement rivaled ours as we neared the island!! Once on the ground we exited the plane on open stairs, and then walked across the tarmac toward the small, open-air building.  (K, M & L had never experienced exiting a plan this way!)  It took some time to go through the "foreigners' entrance" where we had to present more paperwork and money, but we had finally arrived, so nothing else mattered.  After getting our luggage we were greeted by Reina, a staff-person of the Project Galapagos, who escorted us to our new home.

A few from our host family greeted us.  They are an extended family:  mother Julisa, father Pablo, daughter Ashanti, grandpa Pepe & grandma Yolanda, uncle Jefferson, and the cook/maid named Jaqualine.  There may be others we haven't yet met :)  They have a large home, with 3 levels, so we have 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  They are used to hosting internationals -- from Europe, the US and Canada -- so are set up well for doing so.  But, Spanish is the language of the house, which is also good for us!  The parents know a bit of English and they'd be glad for Ashanti to learn some from our girls.  We've already had 2 nice long conversations with family members at meal times!  They are easy to be with and are great conversationalists!

After we had the mid-day meal, we were taken to our work site (Projecto Galapagos) to meet with the director, William, who's also on the city council, and to get oriented.  A volunteer picked us up on foot and we walked the few blocks to the office.  It was bustling with kids programs and volunteers coming and going.  Two main international programs feed into Project Galapagos' program.  Our program, Performing Arts Abroad, is based in the U.S. and sends artists, music teachers and dance instructors to volunteer.  The other one seems to send more Europeans and feeds their English teaching and conservation programs.  Already we met folks from Norway, Holland and Germany.  We had two nice walking tours by other volunteers of the downtown/Malecon area.  It's an incredible little town with a nice mix of tourist and "local folk" stuff.  In a 15 minute tour, we walked along a bike path, saw many sea lions, artisan and souvenir shops, the post office, the hospital, the police station, cafes, touring agencies. . . you name it.  Mostly roads and bike paths with pavers/stones.

When we met with William, he gave us a nice overview of the island and Project Galapagos, which he founded in the late 90s.  He seems like an amazing guy and a strong leader.  He has volunteer English teachers, art teachers and volunteer conservationists lined-up all year so that there is program consistancy.  He also has a local staff.  It sounds like there has been less consistency with getting music volunteers, so he is very happy to have us.  It looks like this next week will be one of figuring things out.  Monday morning at 7:30 Kent will go with William to the middle school/high school to meet with staff there and figure out a plan of when and where to work with a group of 15 or so students.  We'll also probably do work with elementary students both in the school and with the after school program.  While Kent goes to what Luisa would refer to as "a boring meeting,"  Teresa, Magdalena and Luisa will all join the regular Monday morning Project Galapagos conservation group  trip to the giant tortoise sanctuary, which is like a nursery before taking the tortoises to the wild.

When we got home, Teresa and Magdalena (a.k.a, "the introverts"), wanted to rest, while Kent and Luisa (a.k.a, "the extroverts") wanted to explore the town more via roller blades (Luisa) and walking (Kent).  We walked the entire bike path of the Malecon and saw: many sea lions (including a mother nursing a baby), a blue-footed booby, tons of Sally light-foot crabs all over the rocks, and a brown pelican.  We bought a little animal guide today that has pictures of all the Galapagos animals and their names in English and Spanish, which will be very helpful.  We got to see a male sea lion fight off another male from taking over his harem of 30-40 females and babies.  Sea Lions are everywhere:  laying on the street, sleeping on park benches, all over the beaches and rocks!

I know that this is only our first evening here, but this all seems too good to be true.  Our first impression is even better than we thought it would be.  I'm sure that we will have our ups and downs, but for now, this definitely seems like paradise.  I don't think 4 months will be too long to be here.