O’side students visit the Galapagos Islands

Oceanside High School students took the trip of a lifetime to the Galapagos Islands, with a tour of Ecuador. Katrina Almodovar, Victoria Ambrosecchia, Grace Bandini, Alec Calderon, Allison Cecil, Samantha Cohen, Lily Cregeen, Adrianna Eisendorf, Megan Lutz, Mia Restrepo, Allison Rifkin, Alec Rovensky, Danielle Totino, Liana Weinstein, Victor Zatto and teachers Jessica Zima and Mark Gary visited the Cotopaxi Volcano in the Andes Mountains, the city of Quito and the Basilica of the National Vow, the largest neo-gothic basilica in the Americas, and toured the Galapagos Islands on the 207th birthday of Charles Darwin. There they toured the Sierra Negra volcano, and snorkeled at Concha Perla, visited Tortuga Bay, the Darwin research Center, Santa Cruz and San Cristobel.

The flora and fauna were the highlight of the trip. In their blog of the trip each critter they saw is named and discussed; marine iguanas, Galapagos tortoises and sea turtles, sea lions, manta rays, eels, sea urchins, sea horses and colorful star fish and penguins to name a few.

Another highlight of the trip was the unusual foods the students tried. They enjoyed baked tree tomato, a fruit from a small tree native to the Andes, Mate de Coca, a tea made from the leaves of the cocoa plant, and fresh octopus.

Each student had the chance to blog about the trip, some climbed higher, some dove deeper, swam longer, or had a memorable encounter with an animal. The students did have a beach day Kayaking near penguins at Tortuga Bay. The sand was as fine as sugar, the water completely still and warm they wrote.

In spite of some bad weather and sunburns, they had the trip of a lifetime.