Sea Lion. Bigfoot. You can see it all in the Galapagos.
Back again. As many of you know, I was in the Galapagos last week, and each and every great thing you hear about them, well, is absolutely true. I haven’t been writing about them yet because I had to focus on getting back to work a bit, and I think it would be very easy to have allowed myself to drift off into a dream world, thinking of the celestial colors of the Pacific, face to face encounters with a sea lion, or the chuckles I was forced to stifle each and every time I saw a blue-footed booby! Ha! BOOBY! Seriously, to say the trip was fantastic would not be giving it its due. It was not an easy trip in any sense. We had at least 3 wakeups at 2:45 AM to get back on the boat in order to sail to the next island. When we got to sleep in, it was until the terribly late hour of 06h30. I had two students who got sunburned and dehydrated from a combination of sun, booze, and a virus, which caused each of them to receive a needle in the nalga (for those of you keeping a running dictionary at home, nalga means buttcheek). Though I am no fan of needles, I had the pleasure of accompanying them to the emergency room. The emergency room in the Galapagos consisted of a stretcher under a palm tree, no less, as they were re-doing the hospital. Our guides were not so spectacular, either. The first day, when we boarded the boat at 2:45, the guide got on first and bounded over to the best sleeping spot on the boat, not allowing ANY of his clients this spot. His attitude caused my non-confrontational ass to be a bit more confrontational, and I lit into him and his partner after two days of idiotic behavior.
But, despite these few little glitches, I maintain that this was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited, and it only strengthens my view that Ecuador is pretty much the most beautiful place in the world. Snow-capped volcanoes, mountains covered with every shade of green ever imagined (and even those which have yet to be imagined), and now I am seeing blue-footed boobies (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and giant tortoises hanging out on islands in the middle of the Pacific? Actually, I have to admit, the giant tortoises were a bit of a letdown. After walking around for a week with animals walking among us, sea lions snuggling up to our legs, lizards crawling all over us, and snorkeling with white-tipped sharks, we were suddenly checking out these giant tortoises that were being held captive in the Darwin Research Center. These guys were huge, but I suddenly felt like I was at the National Zoo. Which reminds me, one time I was at the National Zoo, and I happened to see two giant tortoises attempting to procreate. Let’s just say that tortoises even make babies slowly. Truly fascinating stuff, and undoubtedly one of the funniest things to which I’ve ever been witness!
I am thinking that I’d like to get a boat together with many of my friends next year. So, if you are interested, let me know. It’d be a lot of work and take some doing, but I would absolutely be willing to do so. Start saving your pennies, that’s for sure! Just one picture is here right now, and I will show the rest later, as it will take quite some time to upload roughly 300 pictures to flickr.com.
Anyway, on one other note, I went and saw Crash tonight. I liked the movie quite a bit, but I am amazed that it won Best Picture. Totally not a ‘Best Picture’ type film. Really cool movie, though, with subtitles, even!
Have a great weekend, and keep in touch!
March 21st, 2006 09:29
How is the 300 picture flickr upload coming? I want to see some boobies.