Reflections of a Galapagos Volunteer

I feel a huge wrench to have left Jatun Sacha and all the friends I have made during my stay there.

My expectations of this trip were so mixed and any negative worries about whether I would physically cope were completely unfounded. The only negatives actually experienced were the silly niggles you get on any trip under difficult conditions.

So, is my judgement clouded because of the romance of Galapagos?

Possibly...

Is it the people that made it so special? For sure...

Is it Jatun Sacha itself? Certainly...

This has been one of the most amazing experiences I have had ever had the privilege to be part of. I almost think life changing. Cliched? Of course! But true.

The Galapagos archipelago is a very special place and "Jatun Sacha" is part of that package.

They say you should never go back and I would have to seriously think about returning for that reason alone. I'm not getting any younger and this is definately a younger person's venture unless you have the right mentality (which I think I do).

I managed two weeks with no additional adverse physical problems to what the younger people experienced. In fact, some younger people had a difficult time.

I would highly recommend the Jatun Sacha San Cristobal Station if you want to work on land conservation and take part in the wonderful work the staff and the volunteers undertake. If you want to go there to "work with the animals" then this is not the trip for you. There are no animals there to look after (unless you count doing bird observations or equiv).

If, after reading my blogs you think you might like to spend some time in this magical location giving something back to the land (or in the case of the mora, taking something away), don't faff about! Just go for it!

Adios Jatun Sacha!

What carbon footprint?

As a writer, I am in a privileged position to be able to write about my experience on San Cristobal. Thank you for reading about my adventures and I hope I have entertained you over the weeks that I have been writing this blog. I also hope I have brought some of the magic that is Galapagos to a wider audience.

Since my return, I have had great difficulty trying to re-adjust back into my day-to-day life. But my biggest challenge so far has been to verbally communicate my experience without getting into an in-depth discussion on the current conservationist buzz-word: carbon footprint.

Some might say and some have already criticised that surely the work done by the folk at Jatun Sacha cannot justify the enormous size of the carbon footprint used to get here.

Well, I'm no scientist and cannot comment on carbon footprints. All I know is regardless of how big my carbon footprint was, whatever a carbon footprint actually is, if volunteers such as myself and hundreds of others who have given up and are still giving up their time and money stop going to Jatun Sacha, how will the land be restored to make it suitable once more for the tortoises to live freely on San Cristobal? If the land isn't suitable for these creatures, will those tortoises being bred in the breeding centres on Santa Cruz or San Cristobal be forever condemned to live in cages or pens?

Ironically, when Charles Darwin first stepped onto the beach on San Cristobal in 1835, the destruction of the giant tortoises was already underway by whalers to be used as fresh meat on their boats. Darwin himself even helped to destroy many more of these unique reptiles as they provided fresh meat for his expedition. Now, 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species it would be nice to think that in another 150 years time we have taken responsibility for putting right what our ancestors inadvertantly almost managed to destroy.

If successful, Jatun Sacha's work in the community and education programme will have taught local people how to clear their own land of the destructive, invasive species that are currently choking out everything that is good for the endemic flora and fauna. They will also be encouraged to grow their own sustainable crops. This will therefore reduce or eliminate the need to import produce which in turn will halt the ever increasing number of introduced pests and diseases from the mainland.

It's all about the bigger picture and whether or not we care enough to preserve such a special place on this planet. I don't need to be a scientist to know I care enough.