This past weekend, a group of volunteers and I went to explore two of the other islands, Santa Cruz and Isabela. Friday morning we left for the 2.5 hour boat ride to Santa Cruz. Upon arrival, I felt like I was in paradise just by the color of the water! It was gorgeous! We went and found a hostal to stay in that just so happened to have wifi, hot water, AND air conditioning, all of which feel like luxuries now! After we got settled, we went to a beach called Tortuga Bay. It was worth the 2.75 mile walk uphill to reach it! This is like the beach you see on screen savers; the water was crystal clear and faded into darker shades of blue and green as it grew it depth, the sand was completely white with no shells or seaweed, and there were many trees, flowers, and animals all around.
Saturday morning we woke up early to go to a prime snorkeling spot on the island, Las Grietas. Unfortunately, a group of kids on a field trip beat us to the spot, so we weren't allowed to go in. Nevertheless, the sight was incomparable. It was pretty much a canyon with water in the middle filled with thousands of fish and other creatures. It had to be at least 200 feet deep, and you could see all the way to the bottom. I wish we could have snorkeled there, but it's alright! We found a smaller beach on the way and swam there instead.
In the afternoon, we boarded our next boat to Isabela. We spent what little daylight time we had trying to find the cheapest place to book our trip to Los Tuneles for the next day. Los Tuneles are lava tunnels that were created by a volcanic eruption right after the last ice age. Many of them are now under the water, but what tunnels remain are home to many large bonsai trees, cacti, blue footed boobies, and penguins! In the water, there are many species of fish, turtles, sharks, and sea horses! We spent five hours snorkeling around various spots in the tunnels. I got pictures swimming with a family of sea turtles and penguins!! Trying to get in and out of the snorkeling spot on the boat was a bit wild; the waves were buffer than the boat, and we had to surf in and wait thirty minutes for a calm spot to get out.
After we returned from the tunnels it was raining, so we just hung out in our room for the rest of the day, venturing out only for dinner. Our boat ride back to Santa Cruz required waking up at 5am, so I didn't mind staying in for the night! That boat ride was not my favorite as I got extremely seasick. After finding some Dramamine at the pharmacy, the ride home to San Cristobal was MUCH better.
It's crazy to me how much this island feels like home now. I've been really homesick this last week, and I thought only coming back to my host house would make it worse. However, being welcomed home by my family and sleeping in my own bed made me feel much better. Consquelo, my host mom, is seriously the biggest blessing here; she made me some ginger tea and my favorite banana bread/cake to settle my stomach and gave me the best (and only!) hug I've gotten in three weeks! It's not the same as my real mom, but she's a really great alternative for the time being!
I'm really glad to have had a weekend away from teaching. After class on Thursday beginning to teach the music I wrote, I got a feeling that the music teacher doesn't like my ideas at all. However, he still is not communicating verbally what his opinions are at all. I was pretty discouraged. Don't get me wrong; I am completely fine with him not liking it. I've never done this before, and I know for a face that it's not high quality! However, it's the lack of communication that is irritating. The kids enjoy that it's something different, even when my pacing of teaching is slower because of the language barrier, so I want to be fully invested in the process. With the professor having disapproving looks on his face and telling me that we need to be moving and playing in day three when we (still) can't hold our sticks right, however, I feel like I'm being criticized without any constructive feedback. I would much more prefer him tell me that he likes the concept and not the implementation or to demonstrate how he normally teaches this process and let me assist for a while than the lack of direction, suggestion, opinion, and guidance that is happening right now. The director of the volunteers here was supposed to talk to him about what he thinks while I was away, so I'm interested to see what happened. Hopefully we can make some more progress beginning this afternoon!
For now, I'm headed to the beach with a good book until lunch!
Saturday morning we woke up early to go to a prime snorkeling spot on the island, Las Grietas. Unfortunately, a group of kids on a field trip beat us to the spot, so we weren't allowed to go in. Nevertheless, the sight was incomparable. It was pretty much a canyon with water in the middle filled with thousands of fish and other creatures. It had to be at least 200 feet deep, and you could see all the way to the bottom. I wish we could have snorkeled there, but it's alright! We found a smaller beach on the way and swam there instead.
In the afternoon, we boarded our next boat to Isabela. We spent what little daylight time we had trying to find the cheapest place to book our trip to Los Tuneles for the next day. Los Tuneles are lava tunnels that were created by a volcanic eruption right after the last ice age. Many of them are now under the water, but what tunnels remain are home to many large bonsai trees, cacti, blue footed boobies, and penguins! In the water, there are many species of fish, turtles, sharks, and sea horses! We spent five hours snorkeling around various spots in the tunnels. I got pictures swimming with a family of sea turtles and penguins!! Trying to get in and out of the snorkeling spot on the boat was a bit wild; the waves were buffer than the boat, and we had to surf in and wait thirty minutes for a calm spot to get out.
After we returned from the tunnels it was raining, so we just hung out in our room for the rest of the day, venturing out only for dinner. Our boat ride back to Santa Cruz required waking up at 5am, so I didn't mind staying in for the night! That boat ride was not my favorite as I got extremely seasick. After finding some Dramamine at the pharmacy, the ride home to San Cristobal was MUCH better.
It's crazy to me how much this island feels like home now. I've been really homesick this last week, and I thought only coming back to my host house would make it worse. However, being welcomed home by my family and sleeping in my own bed made me feel much better. Consquelo, my host mom, is seriously the biggest blessing here; she made me some ginger tea and my favorite banana bread/cake to settle my stomach and gave me the best (and only!) hug I've gotten in three weeks! It's not the same as my real mom, but she's a really great alternative for the time being!
I'm really glad to have had a weekend away from teaching. After class on Thursday beginning to teach the music I wrote, I got a feeling that the music teacher doesn't like my ideas at all. However, he still is not communicating verbally what his opinions are at all. I was pretty discouraged. Don't get me wrong; I am completely fine with him not liking it. I've never done this before, and I know for a face that it's not high quality! However, it's the lack of communication that is irritating. The kids enjoy that it's something different, even when my pacing of teaching is slower because of the language barrier, so I want to be fully invested in the process. With the professor having disapproving looks on his face and telling me that we need to be moving and playing in day three when we (still) can't hold our sticks right, however, I feel like I'm being criticized without any constructive feedback. I would much more prefer him tell me that he likes the concept and not the implementation or to demonstrate how he normally teaches this process and let me assist for a while than the lack of direction, suggestion, opinion, and guidance that is happening right now. The director of the volunteers here was supposed to talk to him about what he thinks while I was away, so I'm interested to see what happened. Hopefully we can make some more progress beginning this afternoon!
For now, I'm headed to the beach with a good book until lunch!