The Marine Iguana

The marine iguana is a remarkable animal that can only be found in the Galapagos. They live on land, but they eat sea algae, so everytime they are hungry, they have to jump into the ocean and find food. They can dive up to 30 feet. Also, they are the only iguanas in the world that can swim. These marine iguanas can only spend about ten minutes under water, and then they have to come to the surface for some air. When they make it back to land, they sneeze out the excess salt from the algae in the ocean.

The Galapagos Islands

I still can't believe that I am going to the Galapagos islands. The other teachers and I won't go to all of the islands, but the plan is for us to visit about four of the islands. The Galapagos tends to be one of the most volcanic places on Earth. There is constant simmering beneath all of these islands.

The islands move about one to two inches every year, so these islands are on a kind of "geological conveyer belt." The oldest island is in the east and the youngest is in the west. Some of the islands are still volcanically active.

Isabella is an island that is shaped like a seahorse. It is a million years old and it has a lot of vegetation.

Santa Cruz is a middle-aged island. It's very far from the hot spot, so there is no volcanic activity there. This island is teeming with wildlife. There is a lot of rainfall and freshwater pools.

Your assignment: Google the Galapagos Islands. Find out an interesting fact about the islands. Write your fact and post in below.

Ecuador on February 13th

On February 13, 2013, I'll be going to Ecuador and the Galapagos with a group of teachers/administrators from various school districts. This will be the third professional development trip that I have participated on, so it's pretty obvious that I find them very worthwhile. This will be our itinerary.


Day #1: Quito


Day #2: Tena and Misahualli; visit Amazon Rescue Center


Day #3: Pakay Chikta (Community Service)


Day #4: Tena and Otavalo and Papallacta


Day #5: Bosque Jerusalem and Mercado de los Ponchos (and back to Quito)


Day #6: Yunguilla and the Intinan Museum at the Equator


Day #7: Balta and Santa Cruz Island; visit Charles Darwin Research Station


Day #8: Bartolome or Isabela Island


Day #9: North Seymour or Floreana Island


Day #10: Twin Craters; Fly back to Quito


Day #11: Fly back to Boston


How many of these locations are you able to find on a map? Are they on Google Earth? What happens if you just google them?

We had a meeting on 12/19/12 about our trip. Here were some of the interesting facts that I learned.

* There are Starbucks in Quito!


* Ecuador has four different kinds of ecosystems. There a cloud forest, dry forest, rainforest, and the Paramo which is the high mountain region.

* When we do our community service in Pakay Chikta, we'll be at a 'jungle community' where there are only 35 students in one school with a few classrooms. It sounds like it all of the grades and ages are housed together, so there must be a lot of cooperation among the students.


* Since 2001, Ecuador has been using US currency, so we were told to bring a whole bunch of new, crispy small bills. It's interesting to think that a country uses a different country's currency. In 2001, there was an economic meltdown, so that's when there was a shift to the US currency.

Ecuador and the Galapagos in about 6 weeks

So I decided to start a third blog- this blog. My first blog was solely dedicated to my trip to Peru last year. Then I just started a blog entitled "Learning Here, Learning There, Learning Everywhere." I was afraid that all of my Ecuador and Galapagos preparation would get lost in other musings, so then I decided to start this one. This blog will be dedicated to my trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos for now. I always want to be the traveling teacher. This will remind me to remain that which I want to be.