Galapagos - the journey

I am still in Galapagos. It's been an amazing two weeks of discovery. My friend Janice and I spent the first week on a boat with thirteen other travelers, mostly from Europe.
We got super lucky with the group and all got along well.
I have written about our cruise as the last chapter in my book and have pasted an extract below.

The great news is.... I have now completed the first draft of my book!
It's a story in 5 acts...
1.The Past....flashbacks of the important events in my life that shaped who I am today...marriage, divorce, Harbin, Hal, finding the yogic path etc.
2.The present....or at least earlier this year.... feeling crappy with menopausal symptoms and my journey to balance and wellness
3.Asia this last Fall.....because some interesting things happened and it kind of relates to my ongoing tale
4.Dave... our surprise connection.. co-written by him
5.Galapagos... the denouement. Realizations and self-discovery along with the actual journey.

It's very personal, very auto-biographical and I intend to find a good publishing house for its eventual home. That's the next job... polishing the manuscript and finding a publisher.

Enjoy......

GALAPAGOS


Sheets of rain greeted us as our plane landed at Baltra airport, the tiny Galapagos island with the airstrip. I had chosen February for the trip because the water is warmer then and flowers bloom in the rain. The guide books all said the rain would be sporadic and brief. We will hope they are right!

Janice and I collected our bags and met Billy, our local guide and naturalist, at the arrivals hall. Billy is a local Ecuadorean with curly, black hair and speaks great English with a thick, gravelly accent, the kind that comes from smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for too many years. He told us to sit down and wait for the rest of the group that would join us on the boat.

First came Nanita, the Swedish bombshell, 27 years old and traveling alone for the week while her boyfriend dives. Her Dad is Indian and her Mum Finnish. You can imagine how lovely her skin color and features with that genetic combination! Nanita works for a visa office in Stockholm and speaks perfect English. I felt sure all the guys would have huge crushes on her!

Greg and Pat are a retired English couple from Norwich, which is near my hometown of Newmarket. They are keen ornithologists and Pat gets the prize for having the biggest telephoto lens on her camera and the most photographic equipment.

I asked Greg how long they'd been married.
“46 years. Could have done three murders for that,” quipped the funny man.
God, I miss British humor!

Shushky and Christo are also a retired couple, but from Sweden. They seem very quiet and sweet and in their reserved demeanor, remind me of my elderly relatives back in England.

Next to find us were live-wire thirty-somethings Olwyn and Luke from London. Luke is a project manager in finance, currently taking a career break and his girlfriend, Olwyn, is her family firm's accountant. Despite the Welsh name, she is Irish with that lovely lilting accent. I felt pleased to have some London natives on board to catch up with news from my old home town.

Christina is a young, Dutch doctor doing her annual trip with her Mother, Cornelia. She has an engaging smile and warm personality. I immediately felt drawn to her. My Mum and I like to do the same thing... take a few days for a trip each year to create new memories together in the most exciting way we can imagine! I thought it was great that they were taking three whole weeks to be together in South America.

Then there was Katrina and Stany, a young Belgian couple. Stany looks like a young, skinnier Cat Stevens. Katrina is short, cute and bubbly.

Finally, a young, blonde, Dutch couple arrived touting two enormous suitcases plus two medium-sized bags.. I wondered whatever they could need for an eight day boat trip that was so important? Vivienne was five months pregnant. She was tall and wearing a clinging red and black woolen dress that would have looked too tight on a hooker, exposing her extended belly, plus black pumps and tights that would have been better suited to a dance hall. She looked hot and uncomfortable, her legs already swelling in the heat and humidity. Patrick, her husband, was handsome but shorter then her, well muscled and with a determined look on his face. I wondered how he would manage to carry all those suitcases.

The group gathered, Billy packed us into a bus and we drove off across the island. The coastal area sported a barren landscape of lava rock and scrubby bushes, with tall prickly pear cactus trees standing like sentries guarding the land.
“These cactus trees and endemic to Galapagos,” said Billy. “They are the only cactus species that grows like a tree. But watch out for their prickles or you will get a nasty cut!”

As we headed up into the hills, however, the landscape became lush and tropical, with more diversity in trees and vegetation. It also got noticeably cooler. We were headed to a private reserve where there was a good chance of seeing some giant tortoises.
“An adult can weigh as much as 600lbs,” said Billy. “They, too, are a species that are unique to Galapagos and if we are lucky, we will see some today.”

The sun came out and the rain stopped as we donned wellington boots and walked the muddy trail of the tortoise reserve.
“Look Julia, there's one by that bush!” Janice whipped out her camera and got her first tortoise shot.
It's always exciting to see an animal in the wild for the first time and these tortoises really were huge and impressive. The animals in the reserve are free to come and go as they please but they like this area and can often be seen in large numbers eating grass and plodding slowly along by the meadows and ponds. We saw at least a dozen of the prehistoric-looking creatures and got very close for taking some great pictures. They did not seem to mind us at all.

When giant tortoises mate, they moo like a cow, It's the only vocalization they make. Billy had walked ahead on the trail and suddenly we heard him yelling at us.
“Come quickly! I can hear them mooing! They must be mating somewhere!”
Round the next corner, we saw them – a male standing on his hind feet mounting a female!
“It can last up to an hour!” said Billy, as we watched, fascinated, while the male tortoise humped himself silly on top of the female, breathing heavily as he hoisted that great weight up and down.

Back when whalers and sealers discovered these islands in the eighteenth century, the tortoise population was decimated from 400,000 to 10,000. Because the tortoises can survive for up to a year without food or water, they were coveted as a source of fresh meat on the long ship journeys home. Darwin even ate one. Now conservation efforts are bringing back their numbers with great success, all except for the sad plight of Lonesome George.

How would you feel if you were the last of your kind on the planet? Lonesome George was discovered all alone on the island of Pinta in the nineteen seventies. He is the last remaining tortoise from that particular island. Each tortoise has adapted a little differently to best suit the conditions on their home island and therefore George is a unique tortoise. He was brought to the Darwin breeding center on Santa Cruz island and attempts have been made to breed him with other females from different islands. Unfortunately, efforts have failed as George does not seem particularly interested in sex.

One Swiss researcher even spent seven months with George, living in his enclosure and coating herself with the scent of females in heat, hoping to at least catch a drop of sperm from the lonely tortoise, but to no avail. All is not lost, however. Maybe he just hasn't met “the one” yet. He is only about 70 years old and could live another 100 years. There is still hope for his genetic line to continue, albeit as a crossbreed.

A visit to see this famous tortoise was next on our agenda, so we headed straight to the the Darwin Research Center. There we saw one year old baby tortoises that are bred, then released back to the island of their origin. Introduced animals such as wild pigs and dogs and goats have been eradicated on some of these islands to give the tortoises a chance to survive. It seems to be working, as tortoise numbers are increasing.

Naturally we had to visit Lonesome George. He is a bit of a reclusive personality and was hiding behind a rock during most of our visit. He must get completely fed up with all the fuss and bother over him, a simple tortoise trying to live a quiet life!

After our visit to the Darwin Center, Billy loaded us into dinghies at the dock and a couple of minutes later we were boarding “The Gran Poseidon”, our home for the next eight days. It was surprisingly nice. Having been on boats before with cabins way too small to turn around in, let alone swing a cat, I was pleased that our cabin was a decent size and even had a closet! The bathroom was as big as mine at home with a real shower and flush toilet!

The entire boat is made from some exquisite Ecuadorean woods that gives the interior a classy yet cozy feel. Our beds are comfy and there is air-conditioning – luxury! And no wifi... at last I get to disconnect completely from the outside world. No facebook, no checking emails or phone messages.. peace, quiet and nature – heaven!

That evening, Billy asked us all to come down for a briefing on the next day's activities before dinner. He was playing guitar and passionately singing a lovely Spanish ballad when we arrived at the dining hall deck.
“I used to have a great voice, you know, but years of singing in smoky bars and drinking too much whiskey changed that.”
“Don't apologize,” said Janice, ever the defender of musicians, being a folk-singer herself. “It's lovely to hear you play.”

After our briefing, he asked the crew to come and introduce themselves. There were eight of them in total, including two gourmet chefs for our dining pleasure and a barman called Diego.
“I make the best capirinha in all of Galapagos!” he proudly proclaimed.
How could one refuse a challenge like that?
“I'll take one!” I said, eager to begin my celebration of this wonderful week. It was indeed excellent and helped whet my appetite for the delicious buffet meal about to be served.

I was excited to get to know thirteen interesting new people! On that first evening, Janice and I sat with Patrick and Vivienne. It turns out he is a concert and event organizer in Holland, handling big names like Madonna, Cold Play and summer festivals. He works 18-20 hour days regularly, so likes to come away to unwind and let his hair down. Patrick is charismatic and high energy and I enjoyed his lively Dutch intelligence. He told me that he also used to be a Dutch ballroom dancing champion! Quite the over-achiever, that guy. I also noticed that while Janice and I tucked heartily into all the fresh vegetables on offer at the buffet, Patrick ate none.
“I just eat meat and potatoes,” he said with a grin.

Vivienne sat quietly most of the time, smiling adoringly. That first night, I couldn't make out if she was his eye-candy who wouldn't interfere with the way he chose to live his life as long as he kept her in bling, babies and cruises, or his rock. Or both. In any case she had snagged herself a wealthy entrepreneur and seemed pretty happy about it.

Exhausted from the long travel day, Janice and I were in bed by 9.30pm and slept like babies in our cozy cabin, waking only to hear the sound of the anchor being hauled back aboard.
We sailed through the early hours, coming to anchor again about 4am.

********************************

We awoke to the sounds of gulls soaring overhead and sea-lions barking.. a gorgeous sunny morning, the 6am light surreal. We had sailed overnight to South Plaza island and were anchored between it and North plaza island in a lovely sheltered bay. The boat's hardwood floors were perfect for early morning yoga before breakfast and it felt good to stretch out after all the traveling of yesterday.

“I smell sea-lions!” announced Billy as he came down for his breakfast. “Get your good walking shoes, camera, water and sun cream and I'll see you at the dinghy station at 8am.”

I had breakfast with the quiet, elderly, Swedish couple. I had watched them walking around and had loved how he would take her hand in such a caring way. Curious about them, I asked what business he had retired from. Christo's face lit up as he described his work world as an election protocol supervisor for the European Union, mostly in South and Central America. He explained in detail how Venezuela has the most efficient and fool proof voting system in the world, all electronic, with finger print recognition and sound tallying systems. Who knew?

This is what I love about traveling. Everyone has a story and I get to meet fascinating people who would not normally cross my path at home. Listening to Christo's tales of third world travel attempting to supervise elections in backwaters of the world was truly intriguing.

Most of the couples on the boat were traveling extensively for three months or more, visiting other countries like Colombia or Peru. They inspired me to broaden my own travel horizons and whetted my appetite to see some of these countries that had not even been on my radar. Pat and Greg had loved Botswana in Africa and some of the others had recently been to Kenya and enjoyed safaris there too.

8am sharp saw us gathered by the dinghy station for our first foray onto National Park land. Vivienne, our pregnant Dutch princess, still had her dance shoes on together with a different tight-fitting dress. She and Patrick had not slept well and looked a little out of sorts. Their last vacation had been at an exclusive hotel in the Caribbean favored by movie stars. She'd packed for a five star cruise ship, not an intimate, casual boat trip with hiking excursions on lava rock!

As we landed at the sea-lion colony the strong smell of Galapagos perfume assaulted our nostrils...guara (seabird poop) mixed with sea lion urine. Billy was right – you certainly could smell the sea-lions, in fact you could have smelled them from Texas! As we walked up the trail, I almost stepped on an iguana. They were everywhere...land iguanas plus marine iguanas that swim in the sea. They eat the red sesuvium plants that look a bit like crimson ice plants. Tall prickly pear cactus trees dotted the otherwise barren landscape. Lava rocks glistened in the sun from years of sea-lion bodies rubbing them smooth.
The contrast of green cactus trees, red sesuvium plants, and turquoise sea was startlingly beautiful.

“Oh my God!” Billy sounded excited. “So many sea-lions! Be careful not to get too close to the large males. A sea-lion bite will get infected and is a fast way to ruin your holiday.”
He didn't have to tell me twice. The males make a loud barking sound and bare their teeth when they are defending their territory, which they did when we walked too close.

When they retired, Pat and Greg, the Norwich couple, had both taken up bird-watching as a hobby they could share and were really knowledgeable about the local birds. Ornithology and photography is now their focus for travel and has taken them around the world, on a quest for great photographs of our feathered friends. They are also hilarious. The archetypal married-for-ever couple, she digs at him and he takes it all in his stride, giving it strongly back on occasion. They obviously adore each other....and make a great team.

Pat saw a cactus finch land on a tree and start to probe its beak deep inside the yellow flower.
“That's a Darwin finch, you know. Darwin collected specimens from a few different islands and saw the slight variations in beak, each adapted to the particular flora of their own island. That's how he came to his Theory of Evolution. Now where's Greg with my camera? He's always running off with it like I don't exist. Greg!”
Greg dutifully back-tracked to find his wife, good-natured as ever.

We walked on to the cliff tops and saw giant frigate birds circling above us, gulls with bright red eyes (swallow-tailed gull) and red-billed tropic birds, which are sleek, white gulls with long, wispy tails. The island was small and narrow and I could see the wisdom in limiting the number of tourists on this fragile ecosystem. We were only three groups that morning on the whole island.. about 16 people in each.. and that was plenty.

The Ecuadorean government declared most of the Galapagos islands a national park in 1959 and UNESCO has made it a World Heritage Site. Conservation efforts have been made to return the islands as much as possible to their natural state, restoring habitats, culling imported pests like the black rat or wild donkeys and limiting the amount of human impact on these precious islands.

Something else was evident; a peacefulness on the island, bereft of electro-magnetic frequencies, microwaves and other invisible pollutants of our modern world. The air itself felt at peace, soothing to the soul, with a calming effect on the mind, I felt privileged to be here in this pristine place, so far from madding crowds and the rest of civilization.

While we were walking, I took the opportunity to chat to Billy.

“How many months a year do you travel with groups, Billy?”
“About 4 -5,” he replied.
“And what do you like most about your job?”
“I like meeting the people, and for me it's a rest and I get to play my guitar and read and snorkel and have fun.”
“Well, can't you do that at home?”
“No, because at home I watch a lot of television and then I go to the bar and have drinks with my friends and I don't read. I play football a lot too.
“Do you have a wife?”
“No. I'm too old and ugly and I have no money.”

I am not sure if this was meant as tongue in cheek because Billy was a good looking man in my estimation. And only 51, which is by no means OLD!
“So do you see yourself living here the rest of your life?”
“Yes, why not? I have my own house. I have my friends here. I like it. I go to the mainland once a year to visit my Mother. You know, when I was growing up, we were very poor and did not have enough to eat. My step-father would drink all day and my Mother had to do laundry to feed us kids. When I was 25, a friend suggested I go to Galapagos where people were making good money. I had to study very hard and learn English and very few people passed the test to be a naturalist guide. It took me a year, but I did it! In those days most guides were foreigners and I was one of the only Ecuadorean guides. Since then I have supported my Mother. She left her husband and has a good life now.”

How admirable. What a reminder of how privileged we are, if we were lucky enough to come from a family where there was always enough food on the table. Billy told me, too, that he still dreamed of finding the right woman and even being a Dad. I wish him well.