On the island, I met up with several people from NOAA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). I had the opportunity to spend a few days with the next teacher at sea, Jane Temoshok, who will be on the ship from the Galapagos Islands to Arica, Chile. She will be accompanied by John Kermond from NOAA, who is easily recognizable by the video camera mounted to his forehead. I look forward to seeing the clips he'll make of the islands and the ship. The entire time I was on the islands I was joined by Mike Patterson from NOAA and Anjuli Bamzai from NSF. The three of us made wonderful travel partners, and I wished we could have spent even more time together. One of the best parts of an adventure like this is the people you meet. When you work with 50 people on the ship and on land, your bound to make some wonderful new friends.

The hotel I am staying at is the Red Mangrove Inn. It's a very charming place with a hot tub (the only one on the island!) and great atmosphere. No telephones or televisions to detract from the classically tropical setting. My room is in a treehouse sort of setting, accessed only by a second story wooden walkway through the trees. The architecture is interesting, and my favorite part of the room is the green glass bottles inlaid into the wall, allowing filtered green light to enter the room. The ceiling is draped in batik fabric, making the room a wonderful place to stare at the ceiling and daydream. The windows have screens to keep insects out, but there is no glass to keep out the wind and elements. This is a sure sign that the weather never gets too unpleasant here! Most of the restaurants in town are the same- no walls, sometimes not even ceilings. Even though we are on the equator, the temperature is surprisingly comfortable. In fact, it's hotter at home in California than it is here.

The first item on the agenda was to find some cool animals, which was a surprisingly simple task. We went to the beach and scrambled on the black lava rocks (the islands were formed by volcanoes) and within a couple minutes I saw a rock out of the corner of my room that started to move. I jumped, scared to death for an instant, when I saw that this moving rock had a face!! As soon as I realized it was a marine iguana I was so excited- they really do exist!!! I was afraid it was something reserved for the tour books, but sure enough, they were everywhere!!! During our stay I saw hundreds of them, many of which were 3-4 feet long with huge spikes on their head and back. They are so ugly that they're actually quite cute! Definitely my new favorite animal in the whole world. I saw some swimming, some fighting, lots expelling the salt from their glands, and even more of them just backing in the sun.

In town there is a small landing area on the water where the fishermen come to unload their catch. The landing has a table for gutting and cleaning the fish, which has made it a very popular tourist spot for the pelicans. Every time we walked by there were dozens of huge pelicans waiting for a handout. They had no fear of people, and once while Mike and I were walking down the street he just about stepped on one sitting in the middle of the sidewalk! You really have to watch where you walk, because the pelicans are comfortable and show no signs of moving out of the path of stomping feet.

The first day on the island I can only describe as "enchanted." It was one of those rare days in the coarse of one's life where every single element came together perfectly and provided the unreal sense that life is nothing more than a dream. An element that added to the magic was the soccer game that day. We were at a restaurant and had to wait 1 ½ hours for our meal because the cooks and waiters were watching the game with every other person in town. Every now and then we'd here a bunch of cheering coming from all directions and the sports announcer yelling "GGGOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!" Ecuador vs. Bolivia. We finally got served at half-time. After lunch as we walked down the street I saw most of my ship-mates in various restaurants, and everyone was just so happy! The stresses of ship life had been removed, and I seemed to be everyone's best friend that day. We all got our faces painted with the colors of the Ecuadorian flag, and when "we" won the game (5-1) every single person in town piled out into the streets on foot, bicycle, or in the back of a pickup truck, and they all paraded up and down the streets, cheering, waving the national flag, and having the biggest party you can imagine. It was such a neat thing to not only witness but to be a part of.

During my 5 days in the Galapagos Islands I took several mini trips. First Mike, Anjuli, and I hiked to Bahia Tortuga (Tortoise Bay). We hiked through desert vegetation and finally reached the beautiful white sand beach. When we saw a huge marine iguana walking along the surf, I decided I never wanted to leave this amazing place! I went swimming and sat in the sand, wishing time could stand still for a while.

One day we all took a boat trip where we went snorkeling at several spots- a few with with sea lions and beautiful fish, and a spot in a narrow channel where local boys were cliff diving. We left the boat several times to go hiking over the lava rocks to see the blue-footed boobies and marine iguanas. It was a beautiful day, and our guide, 18-year old Willum, was wonderful.

Another day, we hired a driver to take us the beach next to flamingo lagoon. We only saw one flamingo, but it was so beautiful. The beach was gently sloping, and wonderful for swimming. Next, the driver took us to the highlands to see the giant tortoises. It was late in the day by the time we got there, and they were all sleeping. We were amazed that every single tortoise we found was snoring very loudly! In fact, you could often hear them snoring before you even saw them. It was the sweetest thing! Finally, we went to the lava tubes (remember, all of the islands in the archipelago were formed by volcanoes). It was pitch dark, and we were all pretty nervous about our safety as we descended the steep, muddy path into the tubes. Our guide said she had flashlights, and that we shouldn't worry. But it turns out the only source of light was a tiny pen-light she was carrying, which illuminated nothing outside of a 2 foot radius around her (the rest of us were desperately clinging to the tree trunks for support). Someone commented that this must be the place where tourists are taken and never heard from again. Someone else commented that this looked like something from the "Blair Witch Project." All I could think was that this was a classic scene from a horror movie. We all giggled, and yet, we were stupid enough (or adventurous enough?) to continue. Suddenly, a whole bunch of lights came on in the tubes (our driver had gone to hit the switch a mile away) and we felt like we were in the middle of an Indiana Jones flick. It was a beautiful and completely natural (aside from the electric lights) lava tube. There were stalactites along the ceiling, stalagmites on the floor and walls, and hardened lava flows under our feet. It was well worth the initial fear we experienced while trying to reach this place.

Of course, no trip to Isla Santa Cruz is complete without a visit to the Darwin Research Station ( http://www.darwinfoundation.org/ ). One of the goals of this station is to breed the many races of giant tortoises that exist on the many islands in the Galapagos. Sailors used to take the tortoises on their ships because they were an excellent source of fresh meat and fluids. Darwin reported in "Voyage of the Beagle" that some ships took as many of 700 tortoises from the islands! As a result, the tortoise populations declined dramatically, and the Darwin Research Station is making an effort to restore these communities. Each island has its own race(s) of tortoises, often identifiable by the shape and color of the shells. There were mature tortoises (100-150 years old and 200-250 pounds) and baby tortoises (3-4 years old and maybe 5 pounds), but the highlight was seeing Lonesome George. George is the last of his race, and when he dies there will be one less race of giant tortoise in the world. Sad, huh?

There is just no way to adequately capture the incredible feelings of being in the Galapagos in words. You'll just have to make a visit yourself some day.

After 5 truly amazing days, it was time to head home. I flew from the Galapagos to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for a night before catching my flight to Miami, Los Angeles, and finally San Diego. At 10,000 feet elevation, Quito is located in the Andes Mountains. I would have loved more time to explore this part of the world, but unfortunately my trip had to end. Anjuli and I squeezed in a visit to the Indian market near our hotel, where we bought some local textiles and souvenirs. The highlight of the market was admiring the beautiful women with their alpaca wool hats and scarves. They looked exactly like the women depicted in the local artwork.

It was a bit of a shock returning to the U.S. There were armed military personnel at the airport in Miami, and I experienced my first full frisking in Los Angeles. The country is a much different place than it was when I left September 4. I have a lot to catch up on.

-Jennifer Richards

Read Week 6 Daily Logs

Note for educators: Although Jennifer and Jane's reseearch cruise ended, the EPIC research continues. Please use this web site, Jennifer and Jane's lesson plans, daily logs, the videos, and the photos to educate your students about climate, El Niño, and scientific research in general.

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