13
Location: Galapagos
This morning we started the day by waking up an hour earlier by accident. Because of the time change, Isabelle set the alarm at 6:00 am instead of 7:00 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel and headed out to the school Centro Educativo de Aula Especial. This is the only school for kids with special needs here in the Galapagos. In the school, there is a garden filled with the native plants of the Galapagos which still had work to be done. We started working on it by pulling out weeds and invasive vines. Some of the older kids from the school helped us with all of the work, and we got to share time with them and get to know them. We worked on that all morning, had lunch and then started with planting. After making holes along the walls of the garden, we planted trees and watered them. The kids of the school were very thankful towards us, and they gave us bracelets and postcards that they had made as a thank you gift. Once we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and changed to go to the beach. We walked 2 miles along a path until we finally reached the ocean. We were all very excited to go in, especially when we realized the water was much warmer than expected. This was an especially exciting moment because it was Robin’s first time going into the ocean; she loved it. We swam in the water, took pictures, played volleyball and tanned. This was exactly what we all needed after a day of hard work. As we were walking along the beach to head back, Isabelle spotted a shark close to shore! After that, we showered and got ready for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called La Garrapata and had ice cream for dessert. We finished off the day by playing mafia on the rooftop of the hotel, a game full of suspense.