It's been quite a week! Today I went to Las Grietas, which is basically a massive fissure full of water. The cliffs are about 15 meters (50 feet) high, and people were jumping off of them. I had only ever jumped off of a cliff once, and this was much higher. I think I had enough time to count to 3-Mississippi before hitting the water. It was amazing, but 4 times was more than enough. There was one guy there who was going to the highest points of the cliffs, probably closer to 60 or 65 feet, but where I was going was fine for me! The water there was also crystal clear, and there were some big parrot fish there, which are bright blue and shiny. It was a really cool place, but there were a few too many tourists there for my liking.

Speaking of tourists, a couple of days ago 2 tourists that were staying at the hotel I volunteer at went missing. (The travel agency I volunteer at also has 10 rooms they rent out). A woman I work with was the first to notice that they hadn't come back from their bike trip to the Chatos, which is basically a massive park where there you can see tortoises in the wild. The grass there is really think and about 10 feet high. Any local you ask will tell you not to go there without a guide because the trails are very confusing and it's very easy to get lost there. They had been missing for two days and the park was arranging a search party to find them. Because no one else spoke much English, it became my job to track down and tell their families that they were missing. After an hour of searching the internet, I finally found out what city they lived in and called their local police station in Wisconsin. I had just gotten off of the phone with them when who should walk in but the two missing people! After spending the night on the beach, they had been walking since 5 in the morning and didn't get to town until 8 at night. The search party came back and I had to act as translator between the two. They hadn't had anything to eat for two days and only 1 liter of water between the two of them, but luckily, they hadn't tried to eat any of the fruits in the park because some of them are poisonous for humans. The park rangers kept repeating that they were lucky to be alive, and that people had died doing exactly what those two did. It was quite an experience for me, but I'm sure it was much more of an experience for them. But mostly they just looked very tired and very ready for a shower and a meal.

Before I sit down to write one of these, I always tell myself this one isn't going to be so long. But once I start typing, I always seem to have more to say. O well, better luck next week, I guess!

Update

Well, I've been here for a few weeks now, so I'm starting to settle in. I went scuba diving on Saturday, which was great! We went off of the coast of Seymour Norte on a massive sail boat, but because I don't have my diving license, I couldn't go to the more interesting places. The current in some areas is VERY strong, but that's also where the best wildlife is. While the more advanced divers went around the island, I went snorkeling with a smaller group in the strong current. We didn't even have to swim because we were already moving so quickly. Where I went diving, the water was pretty calm and the group consisted only of beginners, so we didn't get to see much. But we did see three reef sharks sleeping between a few rocks, which was awesome! I was kind of disappointed though, because one of the people ran out of air very quickly and we all had to go up, even though I still had half a tank :/. But I was having some problems with my ears anyway, so I wasn't too upset about leaving. It sounded like the more advanced divers had a really exciting time. They saw a cave full of reef sharks, a massive eel and a group of about 10 sea turtles. They also hit a current, and all ended up being scattered across the bay. A few of them were completely by themselves when the boat picked them up, which I'm sure was a little frightening. As much as I may want to get my license for trips like that, it costs $500+ here, so I think I'm better off just snorkeling from here on out.

Other than that, the school has been pretty good, but also pretty stressful. Last week, Monday was the only day that I had another teacher in the class, so for Tuesday and Wednesday I was left alone with a class of 25 kids who knew very little English. Most of the time it was fine, but the classes of younger students were impossible to control. They thought it was funny to do exactly the opposite of what I said and I don't think they learned a single thing. I tried to be serious and I tried to implement rules, but they broke them with smiles on their faces. Thursday and Friday I'm normally by myself in the classroom anyway, but there are also a lot less kids, so it's manageable. The children there seem excited to learn and they ask me question after question about English. It's completely different from the larger school. I told the teacher yesterday that I didn't want to be put by myself with the large classes again because the kids are just too much for me to handle. They don't take me seriously and they realize how little Spanish I know, so they simply don't listen. It wasn't good for them, and it definitely wasn't working for me. She told me she understood, and that many of the children are just looking for the attention that they don't get at home. She told me abuse in the home is quite common here which makes disciplining them that much more difficult. But she also said that she wouldn't leave me with them again, so hopefully, from here on out things will be better. The children are a lot calmer with two adults around to manage them and they are a lot more enjoyable to work with.

After one week on the island...

Sorry everyone! I meant to post sooner, but it's been a very busy week. On Tuesday I started working at the school Caupolican Marin, which has probably around 150-200 students in total. There I work with the English teacher, mostly as an assistant. I basically help with specific clarification (should I use "have" or "has" in this instance, etc.) and making sure the students stay on task. The kids are between 5 and 14, and we probably have around 20 students at a time, so it can get a little chaotic, but with 2 people it's pretty manageable. Although my Spanish is slowly getting better, it's very difficult to understand the kids sometimes because they speak very quickly and mumble a lot, but at least at that school I have the other teacher to help. On Thursdays and Fridays however, I'm at a different school. This other school (whose name I can't remember to save my life) only has about 30 kids in total, all between 5 and 10. Each grade only has about 5 or 6 kids in it, and there are only 4 other teachers in total, none of whom speak English. So I've been teaching classes by myself, which has been very interesting. Within the first hour of my first day one of the children started crying and I had no idea why. He was trying to explain it to me but between his sobs and my awful comprehension, I still have no idea what happened! I tried to calm him down as best I could, but I gotta say, I was feeling pretty lost. Then, after lunch a teacher brought in the youngest students, who didn't even know the alphabet in Spanish, let alone any English. This presented a whole new challenge for me. How do you teach someone English without writing anything? I did my best to remember some simple songs from my childhood, but I could only remember about half of "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes." The next day, I came more prepared and taught the kids Simon Says, which I think was a really good way to teach simple English. Turns out there are a ton of suggestions for simple games for teaching English on the internet. Who knew?

But aside from that, I've also been volunteering at a local travel agency/hotel where they book cruises for the islands. There I mostly answer emails and questions from English speaking tourists. They don't pay me in cash, but I believe I'm going to be getting some free trips to the other islands out of it and it's only about 3 hours a day, most of which I spend on the computer, so I'm ok with that! Everyone on the island has been extremely nice. No one seems very stressed out about much; one of the first words I picked up when I got here was tranquilo. The English teacher I work with even let me borrow her bike for the weekend, which has been great. Yesterday we took a sort of field trip to one of the student's houses, where they raise pigs and process milk, cheese and yogurt. It was in the middle of a massive field and surrounded by fruit trees, which was beautiful. After that, I went back to Tortuga Bay, which has about the softest sand you can imagine, and tried to snorkel for a bit, but the water wasn't very clear and you couldn't see more than 3 feet in front of you. Today, I went back to the Charles Darwin Research Station and took a few pics of the tortoises, and went down to the water just to walk around. I walked to the port and looked over the railing and instantly there was a sea lion below me! I was excited, because it was the first sea lion I had seen since my first day here. I watched him for a few seconds before he jumped up onto the cement landing about 20 feet away. I took out my camera and snapped a few great shots. I stepped out onto the concrete to get closer, but didn't realize it was covered in sea slime and I slipped! I then had to walk back to the house covered in green muck. I'm sure it was a pretty funny sight for the locals to see this stupid gringo nearly fall into the water while trying to get a better picture!

 Otherwise, I've pretty much been spending what free time I have talking with the family here, playing soccer with the 6 year old who lives here, and just exploring the town. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pics soon. Well, that's about it for now. Tune in next week...

Hey everyone!

Well, it's been an interesting week. I spent 5 days touring around Quito and the mainland while living with a local host family in the city. The first two days, we walked around town looking at the churches, parks and statues. The Basilica was spectacular, and probably rivals any church in the US in size, but the most incredible one was named Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus. The entire inside was decorated with gold, in incredibly intricate patterns, but they didn't allow pictures to be taken. The next day we visited the cascades in a smaller town called Otavalo, which was incredible. Even though it was really cold and raining, you couldn't see the rest of the waterfalls without walking upstream through the canyon. We ended up having to climb up several wet and slippery rock faces that were about 20-30 feet tall, but it was well worth it. Afterwards, we went down to the town to check out the local market, which was filled with people selling alpaca wool and various arts and crafts. The next day, we went on a tour of equator, at a museum called El Mitat del Mundo (The center of the Earth), which was really neat. The tour included a demonstration of water draining one way on one side of the line, and the opposite way on the other side. They also had us try and balance an egg on the head of a nail, which was tough, but still possible because of the opposing coriolis forces being equal directly at the equator. Of our group of around 10, only one other girl in our group, Emily, and I were able to do it. I've got a certificate to prove it and everything :P

I arrived in the Galapagos Islands yesterday with another volunteer named Aaron, and it has been really incredible. Yesterday, we went on a quick walk to the beach, and on the way we say a ton of iguanas and pelicans, but while on the boat-cab (yeah, that's a thing here) we saw two sea turtles, which was really awesome for me. While swimming at the beach, I came within 5 feet of a spotted eagle ray. It was only about a foot across, and they don't sting, so it was fine, but it was still intimidating to see. I haven't seen any sharks yet, but we met a nice couple from Australia who said that a tourist had recently been bitten at a beach on the other side of the island. Later, we walked to the Charles Darwin Research Station where they house the giant tortoises. Despite the name, I was still shocked to see just how big they really are. I think I could fit inside one of their massive shells pretty easily.

Aaron left for Isla Isabella this morning, where he'll be spending the next 2 months filming for the government, leaving me as the only volunteer on the island (as far as I know). I visited both of the schools I'll be working at this morning and met the principles. Everyone was very nice, but they spoke very rapid Spanish, and a lot of it went right over my head. I already feel a lot more confident in my Spanish, but there's just so much to learn. I start working tomorrow. I don't really feel ready, but luckily I'll be following another teacher for the first couple of days, so that should help. Well, that's all for now. Hopefully my next few posts won't be quite so drawn out, now that I'm going to start falling into a routine. I also have regular, daily access to facebook, so if you want to talk, feel free to send me a message!

Hasta Luego,
Kyce