Saturday, 29 May 2004

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

Today was the first day of training at the Galapaguera of San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos. We met with the class participants at 7:00 a.m., and after running a few errands, we were on our way to the park. We arrived there about 8:30.

The schedule for today was primarily classes. The class was smaller than the previous classes, so we set up in one of the rest areas, immediately adjacent to the installation site. It actually worked out perfectly.

Because of the strike operations, the park personnel had not had a chance to install the posts and equipment racks required for mounting all of the power equipment — the inverter, meters, and disconnect switches. Before starting class, several of the guys went ahead and dug the holes to install the posts, mixed the concrete to set them, and mounted the equipment board. This way, the installation will have more than 24 hours to set up before we get to the stage of installing the electrical equipment on the board.

After the setting of the posts, the class started at about 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. With the smaller class, there was a lot of time for questions and answers and we went through to the end of the day, after covering all of the topics we have been covering in the previous three trainings.

We returned to the town, and then went to a couple of hardware stores to pick up some supplies we would need for tomorrow’s installation work. We also set up the lunch preparations for tomorrow.

While walking through town, we came across Eli from Santa Cruz. He was supposed to have been here yesterday but could not get off of Santa Cruz due to the strikers blocking the road to the airport. They finally opened the road this afternoon, and Eli was able to fly in.

Another high point of the day was when we learned that our bags that we had dropped in Quito over a week ago, for shipment here, finally made it in to the airport and were cleared out.

Another good day. And now we are on to several days of installation.