ACG Strathallan Student's Blog

Hola de Isabela Island!

On Tuesday we flew out from Quito and made the long anticipated journey to the Galápagos Islands. After a tedious stop in Guayaquil we eventually made it to San Cristobal, excitedly taking in our first glimpses of the Galápagos from the narrow plane windows. Once through customs we drove to our hotel and were gifted some much treasured free time, which was spent exploring the beachfront and browsing the various shops.

The next morning we met our guides who will be with us for the duration of the tour and got suited up with snorkelling gear, then headed out to a bay not far from the hotel for some eargerly awaited snorkelling. We were joined by a sea turtle and a couple of very playful sea lions, making it an incredible once in a lifetime experience. After lunch we visited the research centre where we learnt about the history of the Galápagos and their current conservation projects, then ventured out for more snorkelling joined by more playful sea lion pups, even spotting a blue footed booby on our way.

On Thursday we said goodbye to San Cristobal and set off for Isabela, stopping off at Santa Cruz to visit the Charles Darwin breeding centre for giant tortoises and land iguanas. Though the boat rides were uncomfortable to say the least it made our arrival in Isabela even more wonderful as we were greeted with beautiful views of the island as the sky magically cleared. Today we were treated with a 5 hour walk ascending the Sierra Negra volcano, the most active volcano in the Galápagos. Though the rain and dust made it just slightly frustrating the vast lava fields in the volcano’s crater and glimpse across the whole island were certainly worth it.

Tomorrow, hopefully after seeing a few penguins, we begin our journey back to Santa Cruz then the long haul back home begins.

Besos,

Hasta Luego!

Buenos noches de Quito!
This afternoon we arrived back in Quito after an unforgettable 5 days spent working with a community in Guanabana. Our time was divided between refurnishing buildings or building from scratch, which for many of us felt like endlesss tedious painting, and spending time with the community getting immersed in their beautiful, vibrant culture.

Even as we arrived the community members were friendly and inviting, and over our stay the feeling of connection grew immensely as we were treated with the upmost respect and warmth. The children especially were a favourite amongst the team, many making devoted friends – though we were repeatedly shown up in games of football. Our help and donations were clearly well spent and very gratefully recieved, highlighted through the cultural display and meal organised for us on our final night where the community and team truly connected through ceaseless dances and laughter.

It was with a tearful goodbye that we sadly departed this morning to continue our journey, yet our final phase is one that has been highly anticipated and will no doubt be even more enthralling and enjoyable than we hope.

Besos,
Hasta luego!

Hola de RioBamba!

After 4 exhausting days we have finally completed the trek phase of our expedition, climbing to 5000m up the magnificent Chimborazo volcano.

Measuring 6310m from it’s summit it is the heighest mountain from the centre of the earth so our achievement is a pretty impressive one, especially since it is one of the hardest treks World Challenge offers. Over the first 2 days we travelled over Chimborazo’s ecological reserve admiring the beautiful scenery and occasionally spotting wild lamas roaming the hills. Yesterday was definitely the most challenging working against the weather, terrain and altitude yet we managed to make it up to 4600m by crawling up far too many steep, rocky cliffs. Today we first walked up to a refuge at 5000m and a small group even made it to 5200m, then began our descent back to civilisation. Though our guide was definitely lying when he said it was all downhill, after 4 long hours we completed our trek with a private bus waiting to deliver us to our hotel, where the luxury of hot showers and fresh clean clothes were greatly appreciated! Tomorrow we rise at 5 am to travel 6 hours or so to Guanabana community, where we will be working hard for 4 days so expect little contact until our return to Quito on the 18th.

Muchos besos;
Adios!

Buenos dias!

We finally arrived at Quito airport late last night after an exhausting 17 long hours flight, which I’m sure put most of us off air travel for a while at least. At our arrival we took a bus to our accomodation in Quito, The Yellow House Hotel, where at last we were able to crawl into bed and sleep until the dreaded 8 am wake up call.

After a delicious breakfast we are heading off to visit the equator, a sight anticipated by many though less exciting is the 45 minute drive to get there.

We will also be visiting many markets and city treasures during the next couple of days until it’s off on our acclimitisation trek then the real thing.

As we are soon off trekking the andes there may be limited contact over the next week or two but we will try keep in contact as much as possible.

Adios!

Believe. Believe in the world. Believe in your peers. And most importantly, believe in you. This was the main message told by Richie McCaw, former All Black and speaker at the iSport Leadership Conference that myself and nine other students attended at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manakau. The word ‘believe’ really resonates with me as it motivates me to achieve my goals and dreams, not only in sporting aspects but also in my school and personal life.

The speakers at the conference were Sir John Walker, Dr. Ralph Pim, Richie McCaw, Temepara Bailey and Jeremy Scott. They all provided their own insight into what leadership meant to them and how their own experiences helped them to build their confidence and lead them to success. Some of the key words they used were dream, purpose, passion and attitude. These are qualities and ideas we all have inside us, but it is a leader who uses them and plans their goals to achieve their greatest desires.

One of the messages that stuck with me was about the idea of ‘What if I can’t? But what if I can?’ In life, there always will be people who try to dampen your success, who try to drag you down and tell you you cannot achieve your goals. Instead of listening to these negative thoughts, you have to motivate yourself to fulfill your own dreams. I really relate to this because in my sporting and academic life, there have always people who have told me I can’t achieve the highest grades or win competitions because “it’s impossible.” The very word “impossible” says, “I’m possible”, and it only drives me even more to complete my goals! Also, many people think that a goal can be impossible because it might be something major like being a great All Black or cycling around the world, but if you break this one goal into lots of little goals, it becomes more achievable, realistic and possible.

Along with ACG Strathallan, there were 50 other schools, and all students in attendance were specially selected for having an aptitude in leadership and sport. This created a great atmosphere and we were able to meet so many other young leaders and visionaries. After the main speeches, we split off into groups and played many icebreaking games, along with discussing ideas like success, dreams and optimism. It was very interesting hearing other people’s views on what leadership meant to them and their opinions on the ideas we heard in the speeches earlier. It was also great fun playing games and experiencing different cultures.

One of our students, Mckenzie Northcott, got selected to go white water rafting with a group of students and Richie McCaw at the new course recently built next door to the event Centre. They paddled in rapids, went down a 4m waterfall, got soaking wet, and had a blast!