crawling around in the Galapagos

Experiencing the Galapagos Islands

It’s a tradition at RSGC that, every year, students in both the Junior and Senior Schools be given the opportunity to take part in an international trip during the March Break. This spring, a group of Senior students from the College and from St. Mildred’s Lightbourn School engulfed ourselves in the mystery of the Galapagos Islands. 
From 300-pound tortoises to 54 kilometres of volcano craters, the Galapagos have it all. Quite literally, actually. The Galapagos Islands are the most bio-diverse group of archipelagos in the world and are home to the famous research of none other than Charles Darwin himself. As a student who attended this trip, I agree with all travel brochures and say that this was indeed a life-changing experience!

We arrived on the island of Santa Cruz, the highest populated, but not the biggest of the 21 islands. Despite only getting two hours of sleep, we were all so excited to be in an environment of 30ºC humidity. The next five days were spent in Santa Cruz, bonding with the copious amounts of crabs, sea lions and iguanas living free of their human-inflicted shackles!

Almost instantly, our group connected and within less than a day, everyone was conversing, free of shyness. This trip would not have been the same without my friends around – including teachers and instructors – to laugh and smile.

The last four days before our departure to Colombia was spent on the largest island of the bunch, Isabela Island. The four days we spent here were action-packed, consisting of beautiful hikes, eye-opening water adventures and swimming alongside sea turtles. Not everyone can say they’ve done that!

Even the food was wonderful. I’m a relatively picky eater, but, boy, was I satisfied with the cooking. Island-grown bananas were easy to get a hold of and always a favourite. It’s rare that you can find organic food that tastes so good for such a low price. 

Visiting the Galapagos was magical. To live alongside nature is one delicacy that not many people can say they have experienced, but in the Galapagos, it’s the norm. I am forever grateful to my parents for supporting me and to everyone who put the slightest bit of work into this experience because I can say that it touched every person on the trip. Thank you to Mr. Rankin for escorting us. 

By Finlay Gane, Grade 11
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