Cruises and Tours to Galapagos

Synopsis of the super enriching trip of Westminster College

While some of us were bundling up in these frigid temperatures, Dr. Marosh Furimsky and Dr. Joseph Balczon led a group of 30 Westminster students in traveling throughout Ecuador as part of a two-week academic field experience. Westminster’s biology program offers both domestic and international travel experiences as part of the curriculum for students. While in Ecuador, the group observed and identified many different species of native and endemic animals and plants including the famous Darwin’s finches, giant tortoises and blue-footed boobies. This particular trip was part a field experience offered by Balczon and Furimsky. The group visited different sites including the city of Quito, Cotapaxi National Park, Otavalo, the Cuyabeno River in Amazonia and the vairous Galapagos Islands. Throughout the trip, the students were fully immersed in the different cultures of Ecuador. They climbed the side of a snow covered volcano at over 4500 m (15,000 feet), hiked through the Amazon rainforest and even snorkeled the reefs of the Galapagos!