Imagine a place inhabited by tortoises that weigh as much three grown men, a place where you can take a swim with sea lions and climb a volcano.
In the early morning of April 6, 47 students and chaperones from Mattituck High School began a journey that would take them to this place, one of the most isolated and biodiverse groups of islands in the world: the Galápagos.
Located 620 miles off the west coast of Ecuador, the islands, whose native language is Spanish, feature some of the most unusual animal life in the world and afford an ideal opportunity for students studying Spanish or environmental science to see for themselves the people and the natural life they learn about in school.
Each year, language teacher Kathleen Galvin organizes a trip for students in grades nine through 12 to give them a sense of reality for the language and culture they see in their books.
“When I was young I was able to participate in an exchange program that I really benefitted from. I wanted that for my students,” said Galvin.
The trip is paid for by the students and Galvin holds fundraisers to take care of extras such as buses and tips. If a student can’t afford the cost of the trip, they are given an opportunity to participate in fundraisers such as car washes, plant sales or water bottle sales to earn the money.
Some students work all summer or year-round to save up for the trip, said high school principal Shawn Petretti, who chaperoned this year’s trip for the first time.
“We want to make sure the trip is accessible to anyone who wants to go, so we give them plenty of advance notice,” he said.
Getting to the Galápagos Islands is no easy feat. The group departed from New York, transferred in Bogota, Colombia and arrived for a two-day stopover in Quito, Ecuador.
While in Quito the students were able to experience the culture, interacting with the local people at the marketplace and in the restaurants and experience a different way of life.
“It was a pleasant surprise for me to watch the students experience and work through the cultural and language barriers,” said Petretti. Some of the students dove right in and practiced speaking Spanish with the local people, he said. No one was forced to speak Spanish if they weren’t comfortable doing so.
After exploring Quito, the group finally headed toward the highlight of the trip, the Galápagos Islands. But just as they were about to land, the plane was forced to turn around due to crosswinds and bad weather, and the group ended up back in Ecuador, in a city named Guayaquil.
“The kids were really disappointed,” said Petretti. But when he pointed out to them that many of the people on their flight missed a connection for a four-day cruise of the Galápagos, they rallied and enjoyed their time at a nice hotel in Guayaquil. “They learned a lesson in being flexible,” he said.
Once they arrived in the Galápagos, the group met up with guides who would stay with them for the duration of the trip. The itinerary was modified to make up for the lost time, but no one complained, said Petretti.
“The latest we slept any morning was 6,” he said. “Most days we’d get up at 4:30 or 5 to experience as much as we could experience.”
The Galápagos is comprised of many islands and traveling from one to the next requires a boat trip over the open Pacific Ocean. On one adventure one of the boats broke down and took five hours to get to its destination. But Petretti said that everyone took it in stride and enjoyed watching the fish jumping out of the water and seeing the tips of volacanos during the journey.
As they toured island after island, the students were able to snorkel, hike, hang out with the sea lions on the beach and even play soccer with some of the locals.
“Everywhere you turned there was a learning experience,” said Petretti. “It was a giant learning lab.”
There were no required assignments or experiments on the trip, something that made senior Cassie Nine very happy.
“Having no assignments was cool because it made the learning environment more fun and more relaxed,” she said. “It was self-motivated education. If you wanted to learn and get something out of it you had to put yourself out there, go see the Darwin Institute, take a hike and see the Wall of Tears. You learn about these things in the classroom and then you’re there – wow. It was awesome.”
One thing that particularly struck Cassie was the poverty she saw on every leg of the journey.
“You think of these places as magnificent tropical countries but when you actually go there you’re surrounded by poverty,” she said.
“On Isabela Island there are all these dirt roads and places that were falling over. It was shocking because when you look at the pictures online it’s like a paradise and when you walk around and see a five-year-old working on a construction site with adults you think wow, we are so lucky. I think that was the biggest thing that affected me. You walk away and feel grateful because so many countries don’t have what we have.”
Senior Alex Bradly was struck by the amount and diversity of wildlife he saw on the islands and was fascinated by the impact the Galápagos have had on science.
“It’s a unique place,” he said. “I really enjoyed being able to go somewhere new and discover things and see for myself. It was an educational experience not just for the subjects we study, but to show us about the world.”
Petretti also mentioned how much he learned on the trip, both about the Galápagos and about his own students.
“As a principal, to have that kind of time outside of the school setting was great. To get out and to learn with them while they were learning — I learned just as much as they did — and to go on adventures with them and get to know them was a great experience for me and something I really enjoyed.”
“I would dare to say that for many students it was a life-changing experience,” he said. “There’s only so much we can teach kids in a brick and mortar building.”
Photos courtesy Kathleen Galvin, Lisa Hinsch, Lucas Kosmynka and Cassie Nine
