Feelin Settled In

I've definitely fallen into a groove these last couple of weeks. Most days, I just go to school, then a massive lunch followed by a Spanish lesson. Afterwords, I spend a few hours in the travel agency, helping them with their English and any tourists that come in who don't speak Spanish. These last few weekends have been incredible though. Last weekend I went to the island of Floreana, which only has about 100 people on it. There, I hiked up to a pirate cave, swam with sea lions and sea turtles, and saw an incredible view from the highlands. The weekend before that, I went to Isabella, the largest of the islands, where I saw flamingos, penguins, and of course, more sea lions and sea turtles. The day trip there definitely wasn't enough time, so I think a group of us are going to go visit one of the other volunteers on Isabella next weekend. We want to climb the volcano and go to the lava tunnels, which are supposed to have amazing snorkeling.

Recently, two new volunteers have moved into the house, and I have also met some other volunteers who live nearby from the US and from Germany. We pretty much spend the weekends together, going on day tours to the other islands for one day, and packing as much as we can into the other day. We go surfing, rock climbing and hiking, trying to see as much as possible. Last weekend, we went to Las Grietas, which is basically a massive fissure filled with water. I've now been there about 5 times, and I can't wait to go back. There, the water is crystal clear and about 35 feet deep, and the cliffs are about 45 feet high. You can snorkel, cliff dive, and rock climb. We even found a cave about 30 feet up the rock face that we had to climb to. We brought headlamps and explored the narrow chasm, which was so thin you could wedge yourself between the walls and climb. All in all, the other volunteers are a blast to hang out with, but I'm definitely speaking a lot more English these days. My Spanish has gotten a lot better, but the English is taking its toll. But it seems pretty worth it to me. They've really pushed me to spend as much time as possible enjoying what the islands have to offer. Whenever I have free time, there's always someone up to do something fun, which is probably the biggest reason I haven't posted for so long. Well, that's it for now. Until next time!