My first point of entry into Galapagos was the town of Puerto Barquerizo Moreno, the political capital of the islands. This is a nice quiet town (compared to the more touristy Santa Cruz) of ~8,000 with nice beaches and places to eat and have fun.

Sea lions are EVERYWHERE.

Unfortunately, their poop smell is also omnipresent.

Soon after arriving I took a taxi ($20 one way) into the biological station where I would be staying and doing most of my work. In approximately 45 minutes, we transitioned from the hot and sunny coast environment into the HUMID, cloudy and cooler climate of the highlands. And I know humid. I’ve lived in Managua and HOUSTON for Christ sakes. Well, I thought I knew humid… this is a “mold your passport even if it’s inside your backpack in a plastic bag” kind of place. Nothing ever dries and the sun appears about 2 or 3 times a week for a few hours around noon.

This station is called Jatun Sacha (meaning big forest in Quechua). The same organization has 4 other similar stations around Ecuador. The station is on a 200 hectare property and can host up to 70 volunteers. Right now, there are around 35 volunteers but when I arrived last week there were only 18. It fluctuates from day to day. There are British, French, Finish, Swiss, Russian, Canadians, people from the US of course, and a LOT of Germans.

Here  is a picture of the house where I’m staying. You sleep in mosquito nets, rubber boots are essential and spiders are everywhere. You get used to it pretty quickly.

Some of the activities I have partaken on include: clearing fields of invasive species (with machete), making holes and planting endemic coffee, collecting endemic coffee seeds, making beds for the vegetable garden, and cooking. Yes, every week we need to sign up for kitchen duty. Since there is only 1 cook, Dona Yadira, for 30 or so people, she always welcomes help.