Overall, this trip exceeded any expectations I had. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. I never really got homesick which was nice because that was one of my fears. I learned a lot about Entomology on this trip, and a lot of our learning was done in fun ways. I am a “hands-on” visual learner, so by getting to do things in Ecuador I really learned a lot more than if I were just reading a text book. All of the accommodations on this trip were incredible. Every single place we stayed at the hospitality was great and the places were beautiful. The food was awesome. I loved every single meal. I am also a vegetarian and every place made an awesome effort of trying to fulfill my food accommodations. I definitely never went hungry. I really enjoyed getting to see the hundreds of sea lions on the shore of San Cristobal, and sea turtles floating tranquilly in the sea. We saw monkeys and they played with us. One monkey grabbed someones bandana and then ran up the tree and then threw the bandana around as if he was saying “HAHA!!” I got to zip line through the cloud forest which was pretty awesome. One day we hiked a mountain and my fitbit said overall we took 22,000 steps. The people on my trip were amazing, I miss them already. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to be with. We made amazing memories and I definitely made some friends for life. I really could not say anything negative about the trip if I tried. Oh… except for the malaria medication, take it with food or it won’t stay down for long… you’ve been warned! I am so glad I got this opportunity, ever since high school I have wanted to do this. I totally want to move to the Galapagos Islands now! Next, I am going to finish out my senior year and hopefully get a job. I still am not really sure what I want to do as a career, but I really love the Sea lions…. and the Georgia Aquarium has sea lions. So maybe I can go somewhere with that. I would recommend this trip to anyone, it was life changing experience.
After The Return
