Hello,

So I´ve caught you up with what I´ve been doing up to the end of the 4 day tour (sunday 30th Nov) so now I have a week to fill you in on..

Monday 1st December

As far as I´m concerned this is the earliest time Christmas decorations can go up, although they have been up in port for ages. It is very strange to see all of the plastic christmas trees up in the sunshine. There are no decorations up yet in the station, except for a countdown to Christmas day on the whiteboard in the kitchen. There will be a few volunteers staying over christmas.. I kind of wish I was as it wouldbe brilliant fun. Has anyone at home got decorations and lights yet? I think that some of the power shortages here are to do with the crazy amounts of christmas lights on the houses... don´t they know this is a national park????

Anyway, on Monday 1st all of us had a hard day of machetting trees. We all agree that normally trees are cut down using saws (or even chainsaws) and definitely not with machettes. The work was really hard and the day was hot and so sweaty. The good thing about the heat is that there are fewer carmelittas about. Which reminds me.. I´m still taking vitamin B with the hope that it´ll help with the bites... I can´t tell the difference but at least it makes me feel like I´m doing something!

IN the afternoon we dug holes and planted some trees in the area we had deforested a couple of weeks ago. The idea is to remove invasive species and plant endemic ones. The digging was hard but the planting pretty satisying. What is great about Jatun Sacha is that once you´re there for a while you can see the changes...

.. Which reminds me of something else... One of the reasons that species on the Galapagos evolve relativly quickly is El Niño. When El Niño occurs about once every 7 years a lot of the wild life dies and only the strong ones remain... survival of the fittest (innit!). SO the islands have a regular clear out making changes visible in short period of time.

Oooo.. time for dinner.. I´ve been invited to someones house tonight for my last night here. It´s the couple that own the tour company I´ve been using here... should be fun.

I´m off to Quito tomorrow and am having to leave this idyl behind..... I think Quito is the polar opposite of San Cristobal... booooooo