The Helicopter Rescue

Nate - Looking Happy - A Few Hours Later He Was Helicopter Rescued Off The Volcano

Cynthia had to be back in the United States to start teaching again, so she left the three of us out there on Island Isabela with one station left to service and a weather station to instal. It was our final day of work but due to some stupid behaviour on all our parts and some unfortunate incidents, it turned out to be a disaster. The fact that for this final day there were only three of us, was the first unfortunate incident. We left early morning and took the two hour walk along the well guided trail. The trail leads to a viewpoint along the caldera rim, but round the other side of the crater to where we had normally been. Eventually you come to a point where the trail ends and a sign emerges, explaining the geological details of the sulphur emissions that can be seen from this location, situated within the middle of the caldera, but at the back end. From here, it was a short walk off trail, through some vegetation to reach the station. While the three of us sat there servicing the machine, time was pressing. Something on the station was playing up and it was taking longer than we had expected. Nate suggested that Marco and I leave him there to finish the servicing, while we go and instal the weather station. None of us knew where the weather station was located but we had been told that it was close to where we were now. This is where the problems started. Nate thought we were going to meet back at the sign, while we had interpreted the conversation as we would all meet on the trail near the weather station as it was on the way back to the rangers hut. Off Marco and I went, but because there were only three of us that day we would be breaking the number one rule of the Galapagos National Park - Never leave anyone alone.....................

Marco and I walked thirty minutes back the way we had come and eventually found the weather station. We installed it with great ease. However, when we had finished there was no sign of Nate and he should have been there. We had no cell reception at this point so we couldn't reach him, but we had left him with a cell phone, a GPS and the satellite phone - so he could call anyone if he was in trouble. After waiting for him, but with no sign of his whereabouts, we decided he had simply not spotted us off track and had walked on past. So Marco and I left, heading back to the rangers station. Once we had cell reception we called him but there was no answer. We got back to the station two hours later. We called again. Finally he answered. During the time we were walking back, Nate had finished the station, gone to the sign and waited for us. There he had fallen asleep for an hour, before waking up feeling very ill. He walked an hour before collapsing. He was sick - it was definately food poisoning. We summoned the park rangers to go and help him. Five of them ended up taking the trail one hour to his location, where Nate had become dehydrated and couldn't keep any water down. He was also drifting in and out of consciousness. Marco and I waited at the station for hours while they decided what to do. Even with five rangers, they couldn't get him off the volcano - so it was decided that the helicopter should be called in.

Marco and I headed back to Puerto Villamil via taxi. Nate was helicopter rescued. We saw the chopper go over head as we drove back. Apparently the helicopter looped the volcano twice before returning to town - just so the park rangers could get a good view of the volcano up there. The chopper is rarely on this island. Apparently it just happened to be there that day - so Nate was pretty lucky in that respect. We met Nate at the local hospital where he was put on a drip and after an hour or so made a full recovery. Marco and I had to buy the medicine and injection needles from the local pharmacy. The hospital doesn't have these!!! They made us buy two of each and of course only used one of each item on Nate - the others were for their own supplies. I guess their thinking is that if tourists come - then why not make them buy some extra equipment while they are there. The doctor later told us that this was the most serious incident on the island to happen for quite some time - two hours later the whole town had heard about it!!!

In the end everything turned out just fine. We even got all the stations finished. If Marco and I had been there with Nate, in hindsight - there probably wasn't anything we could have done too diferently anyway - not if five rangers couldn't get him off the mountain. It didn't really matter though - we still broke rule number one - and we were severly cautioned about it later by Robbie - head of safety at the Charles Darwin Foundation. The following day, we all rested in Puerto Villamil as all our jobs had been completed. For Nate, I think the incident was a message from god that it was time to leave. Two days later , he got his wish..............................