Helllooooo,

I´m going to skip straight to the esciting stuff while the connection is good and then fill you in on the rest if it keeps going.

I´ve just got back from an amazing snorkelling trip. It is the first time i have gone orkelling properlly and i can´t believe what we saw. First of all our boat stopped of at Lobo Island where the water is pretty shallow and calm. To start off with i only saw small fish but then spotted a Manta Ray. It was lying on the bottom and occasionally flapping it´s wings, probably about 1 metre across. Then some sea lions jumped in and swam with me.... v scary but they are so sleek in the water. I also saw some Blue Footed Boobies, marine iguanas, loads of red crabs and a million small fish. It was like being in Finding Nemo.. and i saw Dora as well as some really colourful ones with yellow lips that look like the fish has had a lip job!

Next the boat took us to Kicker Rock which is unbelievable. It is a massive lump of rock in the middle of the sea with shear sides. The face goes down really deep and even before I got in i´d seen a shark flipping out of the water. Once I was in looking down was really scary as the water was so deep and blue and the current was strong. It´s important to stay calm and not get scared as breathing gets difficult in the deep choppy water. Pretty much straight away I saw a giant sea turtle..... I can´t believe it.... sooo fantastic and i was really close to it. The turtle was being pulled by the same current as me so I just hung in the current and we went along together for a while.

Kicker rock is split into about 3 or 4 pieces where the rock is split verically to create deep channels with vertical cliffs either side. We swam through one of the channels and a school of sharks swam right underneath us. There was about 50 of them and I was really scared but fascinated. We saw 2 kind of shark - Galapagos sharks and the Black tooth shark... just outstanding. Then there were more small fish and sea turtles. On the next bit of the boat ride i saw a huge Manta Ray leap out of the water. This is apprently to remove lice and bacteria from the wings.

The next stop was Puerta Grande. This is a series of beaches and mangroves. The beaches were like paradise. White sand, turquo¡se shallow calm sea, not another person in site and a view of Kicker Rock. We had some lunch and then snorkelled and sun bathed for a bit. Then it was back to Lobo Island. Here we got in again and swam with more turtles and sea lions and then a Marine Iguana!!!!!!

As you can tell I enjoyed myself A LOT!!!!! I can´t wait to do more snorkelling. The water was pretty cold so we were in wet suite... nice and attractive but they work pretty well. I´d love to upload some pic but as usual this a nightmare so you´ll have to use your imaginations for now.

OK, so that´s the fun stuff. Now to fill you in on my week...

On sunday we got taxis back from port to our station. In a strange way it was nice to be back. I missed my hammock and the frequent siestas (but not the mosquitos, deet or mosquito nets). However it did not take long to start day dreaming about pizzas again!

On monday we worked in production. This is where the fruit and veg is grown. Quite a lot of the area was overgrown so our task was to clear the area with machettes. IT was raining so the carmalitos were really bad and i got bitten a lot. It is quite difficult to clear plants right down to the soil and it requires a special machette action. Maybe they need to get a machine?????? I also got the job of collecting the aubergines and carrots that were ready. IN the afternoon I was assigned to coffee but managed to persuade Cesar (the boss) to let Katherine and I bake a cake for everyone. Before we could abke the cake i helped to collect papayas. This is pretty hard!!! THe papayas grow very high up trees and to get them down you shake the tree and catch them (dropping them is bad as they bruise a lot)... sounds easier than it is!!! I identified a ripe one and was ready to catch it as someone else shook the tree but the 7 other unripe ones decided to fall off instead and hit us on the head.... painful! The ripe one is still up there but i am too scared of being hit on the head again to go and get it!

Katherine and I made lemon cake which went down really well with all of the other volunteers. It was pretty interesting cooking in such an outdoor kitchen but the cake turning out really well!

On tuesday it is personal project day so a group of 4 of uscarried on clearing the path to the volcano and nailing up signs. Walking up to where the path needs clearing takes about 35 mins of fast up hill - it is like being on a stair master at the gym. We walked up twice on tuesday as well as machetting so the muscles in mylegs are pretty strong now! Tueday nght we had a fire and sat around singing like hippies.

Wednesday and thursday were pretty easy days. The National Park has asked Jatun Sacha to provide 700 endemic trees to be replanted in the park (the park covers all land below 100m) so we spent most of these 2 days in the nursery planting sapplings in small plastic bags. I got off pretty lightly on thursday as a few people had to go and pick up Tortoise poo and then pick the seeds out of it to grow poison apple... nice! On Wednesday afternoon the leaders said we could spend it playing football (up at the bar with the best view in the world) instead of working. v nice! The only condition was that we all actually had to play and not sit out. I went in goal and impressed myself and everyone else with my amazing saves and high kicks. Maybe i should take it up at home. Lots of fun!

Wednesday night was spent at the bar where we played a lot of cards (cuarenta is the game to play here) and attempted to dance salsa.

On thursday night there was a lot of commotion made by the camps 2 dogs (Negro and Linda who are lovely lovely lovely). I was lying in my hammock at the house and heard some snorting in the bushes. It turns out it was a wild pig so along with the leader a few of us went on a wild pig hunt. We didn´t catch one but i´m scared if we do as they have tusks and weigh about 300 pounds! The dogs were going crazy but were also intermittently hiding behind Katherine and my legs... and it was completley dark. I think if the dogs are scared there is somthing to be worried about! I´ll keep you posted on the wild pig hunt. Traps have been laid now so it should be a bit easier but it will mean going out at about 4am to check them each night.

Yesterday was walking day where we walked up our trail (the personal project one). The group admired our numbers and machetteing. Cesar scared the life out of my by pretending to be a wild pig in a bush and after the previous nights hunt it felt like it was a real pig. I was holding a machette so he´s lucky he didn´t get it in the head.... although in reality i gave my machette to Nathan and hid behind him looking for an escape route! The whole group has been lauighing at Nathan and I ever since. We were both shouting for the dogs like crazy and i was shaking.

Yesterday afternoon we came into the port pretty early so it feels like this is a 3 day weekend! Lovely! I started taking vitamin B tablets last week as these are reallyh meant to heal your bites. No difference so far but keep your fingers crossed!

NExt week Katherine and I are going on a 4 day tour of the islands and have been allowed to take thursday and friday off of work. I´m v v excited about seeing more wildlife and hopefully some penguins.

Over and out for now. Will try and add some pics anther time.

Loads of love