Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
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BLOG POST FOR JULY 23
Hola Hola!
Coming to you from the Galapagos program Day One.
We have spent the day today picking everyone up from the airport in Quito and moving into our first homebase.
While we’ve waited for our later arrivals, the first cohort of students have been playing games, hanging out, and getting to know one another.
We have lots of students arriving late tonight and we are all so excited to meet them in the morning for orientation day & a visit to the equator museums.
Full group picture to come tomorrow!
¡Hasta Luego!
-The Galapagos Staff Team-
BLOG POST FOR JULY 24
Reporting from day 2!
Today we spent the morning doing our orientation where we learned about GLA, our upcoming schedule, cultural norms, and more. We got to meet the full group in the morning at breakfast after a late night at the airport for many students!
After lots of learning, some fun games and swim tests, we had lunch and got ready to head to the Equator Museum. Right before we arrived, we made a pit stop at the grocery store so we could buy some of our favorite snacks.
At the museum, we learned a lot and got to do fun interactive activities like trying to balance an egg on a nail to demonstrate various scientific phenomenons. Some of us even became egg masters!
We arrived back to homebase at night and had a delicious dinner, hung out with new friends, made our group community agreement, and got all of our stuff prepared to head to the Galápagos Islands tomorrow. We’re so excited for this new journey and to make our way to Santa Cruz soon!!
Talk Soon,
Galapagos Crew
BLOG POST FOR JULY 25
Hello GLA families,
Today we started by taking our packed bags downstairs, as we are headed for the Galapagos today! After a wonderful breakfast, we headed for the airport. First, we touched down in Guayaquil, before continuing our journey to Santa Cruz.
After touching down on the island we immediately saw wild life like iguanas. We took a short bus ride after immigration, before crossing a river by boat. On the other side of the river we continued our journey by bus, seeing the town and even more wildlife.
Our mentors took us into town to get some ice cream and check out the beach.
Tomorrow is a full service today, including seeing the tortoises, which we are all excited about.
-Beckett & Ethan
BLOG POST FOR JULY 26
Our day starts with a nice breakfast prepared by the nicest women in all of Galapagos. After breakfast we brush our teeth and get ready for the day and head onto the bus.
When we arrive to the tortoise center first we put rubber boots on and they tell us about the tortoise species that live on the island’s! It was really fun! Then we go to work, it was kind of exhausting and very wet from the rain but rewarding in the end. On break we had a couple of group games where we played duck-duck-goose and a game where we had to line up in specific orders based on different categories silently (each lead by leaders of the day).
After doing more work we had a really nice lunch: we got to choose 4 different plates —chicken, fish, pesto pasta, and Pomodoro pasta. Then we did more work without rain.
After, we take a bus and arrived at a movie theater to watch a movie about a sea lion named Leo who lived in the Galápagos Islands. We see Leo grow up and go on many adventures. After the movie we took a walk through town and stopped at a grocery store.
Then we have dinner, participate in our first mentor group where we wrote a letter to out future selves and got ready for bed.
We’re excited for tomorrow!
-Lily & Manuel
BLOG POST FOR JULY 27
At 7:00 we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. After the delicious meal we walked to the Darwin Center to see Saddleback Tortoises. We were able to see them at different ages and see how they mature and change over time.
Then we walked to Las Grietas, a swimming hole in a lava crack, to get a refreshing swim in. We swam and snorkeled for the next hour until we eventually walked back to the hotel for lunch.
Shortly after eating a replenishing meal, we loaded onto the bus to do service work. When we arrived, it was raining on and off, but we quickly got to work until we got tired and picked oranges from reserve. After a bit more work, we got delicious snacks from the shop at the reserve, which tasted delicious.
Finally, we got back on the bus to the hotel and after a quick stop at a bakery, we concluded our day with a delicious dinner of chicken and rice and a leadership activity in our mentor groups.
Talk Soon!
-Ally & Troy
BLOG POST FOR JULY 28 & 29
Hola hola!
Writing to you from a busy two days in the Galapagos!
We completed our last two days of service at Primicias with the tortoises. We cleared lots of introduced plants and dug holes to plant new endemic plants. We carried and pushed tons of rocks to help protect our baby plants. It was hard work, but rewarding!
Yesterday morning, we got to visit the beautiful Tortuga Bay and have a super chill and relaxing beach morning. We took a long walk to arrive at the white sand beach where we were even lucky enough to see a Marine Iguana swimming! We played in the water, laid in the sand, and made some awesome sand castles.
This morning, we visited Los Gemelos, some super cool sunk holes and crawl through a lava tunnel!
After our last day of work, we split into groups and headed out into town to do some souvenir shopping and grab some ice creams. It was a relaxing end to our time in Santa Cruz.
Tomorrow we will head to San Cristobal and we’re excited for all of the amazing things we will do there!
Talk Soon!
-Leaders of The Day (Tierney, Andrew, Caisa, Conner)
BLOG POST FOR JULY 30
Hola!
This morning we woke up and had a wonderful (last) breakfast on Santa Cruz! After we finished, we took a bus down to the water, hopped on a boat and took a short ride to our next boat. we then chartered for two hours until we arrived in San Cristobal!
Upon arrival we were greeted by a bunch of sea lion friends on the docs after we got off! later in the day, we were introduced to our rooms and unpacked our bags.
After about an hour of relaxing, we grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed off to the beach to go swimming. This beach had quite a few sea lions resting on the beach to warming up and swimming in the water. If not the whole group, most of the group had some close sighting with the sea lions. A few in the group were even approached by a few curious ones! Of course there was one big sea lion who we called the beach master, this big guy would chase away any other sea lions he did not think that were welcome on the beach.
After we went snorkeling we stopped at a small shop with some snacks to buy some items for ourselves, and headed back to the hotel to change. After a quick turnaround we walked about 15 minutes to a local football (soccer) field to play with some kids. It was an intense game, but for the 3rd time in the GLA galapagos history, we won!! we played an exciting game and pulled through winning 4;3.
After our tiring game we went back to the hostel to eat dinner, shower, and head to bed.
Goodnight!
-Alice & Elijah
BLOG POST FOR JULY 31
Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a splendid day. There was a lot that went on today and we have a lot to share.
This morning we took a bus to Playa Mann beach to go snorkeling. There we saw many cool sea creatures! We saw turtles, parrot fish, and even got to play with an energetic sea lion! We then spent some time on the beach before returning to homebase for lunch.
After having lunch we arrived at Kati’s abode, there we learned about the locals goal to recycle materials in mass to help the environment and the wildlife. While we were there we also created art panels with CDs to represent what the program is for. Lastly, at night we went for a walk in town.
Talk tomorrow!
Carlie and Leo
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 1
Hello Everyone, this is our recap from Group A.
We woke up at 7:00 am and then went to breakfast. After breakfast our group got ready and walked to the port where a boat took us to Isla Lobos. At Los Lobos we walked around the island and saw many endemic animals such as Blue Footed Boobies and Bull Sea Lions. After walking around the Island we went snorkeling and saw sea urchins, fish, a stingray, and a sea turtle.
Once done with Isla Lobos and snorkeling our group went back to base and walked around town. Then we watched the sunset and had dinner.
—
Hey everybody! Writing to you from group B.
We started off our day with breakfast and an interesting leadership activity called My Passion Roadmap where we created goals to reach after the program!
After everyone was done we started our walk into town and did some souvenir shopping along with grabbing some ice cream.
At noon we came back for lunch and quickly made our way to the boat where we went snorkeling and hung at the beach for a few hours. We saw turtles,sea lions, and tons of fish!
We then came back to home base for a moment before walking to the pier to watch the sunset. We then ended the day with dinner and a group activity!!
See you tomorrow!!
-Scarlett & Aiden
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 2
Hey everyone!
We’re writing to you from day 11 of our trip! During the first half of the day, we revisited one of the beaches we went to earlier, called Playa Mann. There, we drank (yummy) smoothies, tanned, and snorkeled a little bit. It was a relaxing start to our day and we enjoyed it a lot.
We started the second half of our day with a ceviche lunch, and then walked to a local school and repainted the wall white, (as well as each other). After some time washing off we had a nice chicken and pasta dinner.
Then we had our last mentor group and did an activity where we shared our favorite moments from the trips and lessons we learned.
See you tomorrow for our last day on the island!
-Nina and Noah
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 3
Writing from our last day in the Galapagos.
Today we had our final snorkel at a place called Tijiretas. We swam with sea lions, sea turtles, and lots of different schools of fish. It was awesome!
In the afternoon, we had an empanada making class and we ate so many empanadas full of Nutella and bananas. Then, we moved right into our salsa class and became pro dances while having a ton of laughs along the way.
At night, we got dressed up and headed out to our farewell dinner at a pizza place. We said goodbye to our local guides, Fernando and Wilson who helped make the trip so much fun. We then stopped for some ice cream cones and headed back to homebase to get packed for our journey back to Quito tomorrow. It’s been amazing! One more day!
-The Galapagos Team
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 4
Hello from our final day of the trip!
Today we woke up in the Galapagos for the last time and had one last breakfast up on the roof overlooking the ocean. We did our first farewell activity where we all wrote a short letter to each other and then set off into town to do the last of our souvenir shopping.
Then, we headed to the airport to make our way back to Quito!
When we arrived we got settled, had our last dinner and then did the appreciation circle. This is an activity where we were able to reminisce on memories from the trip and recognize each other for all of the amazing moments we had.
We spent the last couple hours of the night just soaking up our final hours together and starting to say our goodbyes. We have lots of students leaving around 3am, so we are heading to bed and getting ready for a very early morning.
We’ve had the best time in the Galapagos and are so grateful to have shared this trip together!
