Four University of Malaga students (UMA), which participate in international cooperation projects in the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), have reached survive a shipwreck in which they traveled with about thirty people, four of whom died.

Young women Ana, Yaiza, Marina and Estefania, aged between 22 and 26, made a crossing between Isabela and Santa Cruz last Sunday, which lasted about two and a half hours, when the boat began to sink and sank a mile from the shorein the middle of the night, with a cold and bad sea.

The students, who jumped into the water when the sea had already swallowed the boat, managed to swim across to another boat that was in the area and helped save some of the passengers, as explained in EFE UMA professor Enrique Viguera, who is coordinating one of the projects involving young women.

Estefania, Marina and Yaiza, biologists, and Ana, a biochemist, are PhD students at UMA and have been running an International Collaboration Fellowship in the Galápagos Islands since August, linked to two projects: one to identify invasive species posing a food risk using molecular methods, local flora and fauna, and the other is aimed at preserving the vegetation of the islands.

Despite the tragic experience they had to endure, young women intend to stay there and finish their volunteer activities in OctoberAs planned.

Last Sunday friends took Coastal boat on Isabela Island to go to Santa Cruzwhere they remain. According to Viguera, the boat had problems getting to sea due to an engine failure, but it finally happened after an hour and a half.

In the middle of an intersection the boat ran out of gas and drifted off the coast of Tortuga Bay.. Another boat came up to refuel them, and the boat sailed again for about half an hour, although the engine again gave problems.

The young women were on a boat when they realized that water began to flood the bottom. The boat immediately began to sink, and Estefania, Marina, Yaiza and Ana went to the bow, from where they jumped into the sea.

In total darkness young women swam to the boat that brought them gasolinewho turned around when he realized the shipwreck.

Those who died in the shipwreck are two Ecuadorian tourists, a Colombian and an American-Israeli.although there are two missing, according to Ecuador’s foreign ministry.

The boat, called Angy, was carrying 18 tourists, including citizens and foreigners, as well as residents of the Galapagos Islands and two crew members. Foreign tourists included Spaniards, Americans, Israelis, Swiss and Germans.