Final off shore note
29 Aug - 2 Sep, Ian
So in the last few days we saw several new
islands and many more birds and animals. Since many of our friends seem
especially interested in the Galapagos - and as they're so photogenic - I'm
putting a batch of photos up just from this week, which you can access as usual
from our homepage.
There are a couple of snaps taken under water, which don't capture the quality of the later snorkelling trips. As well as many shoals of colourful fish, exotic sea urchins, sea stars and cucumbers, some of our cruise-mates found themselves swimming over a reef shark. Paula's best water moment was swimming alone with a penguin in a little cove; mine was seeing a sea lion dart past me under water, - extremely gracefully and apparently slightly curious.
Besides the fauna, the landscapes were often dramatic and beautiful, ranging from arid lunar volcanoes to lush vegetation reminiscent of rainforests. Yesterday, for example, we had lunch in an inland restaurant with views reaching across lush fields dotted with stands of banana trees - as we took our lemon-grass tea the children scared themselves in a dense and tall copse of bamboo just by the entrance. (This was our only lunch off the boat in the entire week.) Then after lunch, only a short drive away, we walked along a tunnel maybe 4 metres in diameter formed when hot lava drilled through the mountainside.
Out of the new gang that joined us for the last four days there were many people whom we would have been happy to befriend. Compared to the first few days there seemed to be a higher proportion of people with English as their first language - no Japanese, no obvious Italians. There was also one family, but only one, from Ecuador - we're observing a kind of global "Tower of London" effect, in which the most notable attractions in each country seem to be of interest only to people from elsewhere. We spent most of our time with two other parties. The first was the couple from Queens - Richard and Nancy - who joined at the same time that we did. The second was an actual English family (Nigel and Anne-Marie) - the first English people we've spoken to in quite a while now; Zoe and Heidi enjoyed playing with their girls (Emer and Lydia) who are of similar age. For this family the cruise marked the end of an intensive two month round-the-world trip with many stations - maybe 30 different hotels; while it sounds very exciting I'm glad that we're not moving around so quickly.
In the second part of our cruise as well as new fellow passengers we also had new crew. While the operator advertises it as one continuous journey it just isn't. I browsed through Lonely Planet for the first time in a few weeks the other day and saw that they recommend that at least ten days is needed to do the Galapagos islands. I don't agree with this: it's a vacation, not a geographical survey. Also we had some fairly serious wave motion over the last few days - as I write now, at the airport on the way out, the ground still seems to be moving and I'm looking forward to an extended period on stable land.
At the same time, a trip of only three of four days would risk missing a lot of good stuff. The people who experienced only the second half of our journey missed the stunning start they we had, kicking off instead with a trip up a volcano, which didn't have the immersive enchantment that boosted us into the most receptive frame of mind for the cruise. And those passengers who left after the first few days missed the red-footed boobies, the magnificent frigates with the puffed up gullic sacs and the best of the snorkelling.
But if you want to come here - for however long - come soon. There are currently 80 boats working the islands and the Galapagos provides a net inflow of cash to Ecuador. It's hard to see how this number wont creep up over the next few years, and our guides say that they're already starting to notice it. While this is, of course, tourism and not primary exploration and so it's unrealistic to expect the place to be deserted, there wouldn't need to be too many more tour groups moving through before the still-special character of the place is lost. So if you are coming borrow for the trip rather than save.
As I said, I'm planning to post a pile of photos on line when I do this blog so there's no need for any more animal snaps here. On the subject of photos, Richard was very interested in what we've seen and I said last night that I'd give him a disk of images. When I came to prepare it I realised that I hadn't done this before, previously only selecting images that can be viewed on-line (with degraded image quality) and larger selections that go in books to our family. I find myself inexplicably uncomfortable stacking up and shipping out large quantities of untreated JPG's. So last night I did what I could for Richard and Nancy in the narrow slice of time I could squeeze between packing and sleeping, but I wont be doing any more of this, at least until I've had therapy.
Since there are more fauna snaps than you're likely to want on the web, here's a picture of the tapestry that we bought yesterday to hang over our bed at home:
It's our first real extravagance since we've been away - our second will probably be shipping it back to England.
I'm afraid that if you want finch photos you'll need to buy a book.
For me at this moment I can think of nothing more appealing than a period of isolation within a remote and alien culture, an unknown language, poor telecoms and an extreme topography - which is just the plan.
There are a couple of snaps taken under water, which don't capture the quality of the later snorkelling trips. As well as many shoals of colourful fish, exotic sea urchins, sea stars and cucumbers, some of our cruise-mates found themselves swimming over a reef shark. Paula's best water moment was swimming alone with a penguin in a little cove; mine was seeing a sea lion dart past me under water, - extremely gracefully and apparently slightly curious.
Besides the fauna, the landscapes were often dramatic and beautiful, ranging from arid lunar volcanoes to lush vegetation reminiscent of rainforests. Yesterday, for example, we had lunch in an inland restaurant with views reaching across lush fields dotted with stands of banana trees - as we took our lemon-grass tea the children scared themselves in a dense and tall copse of bamboo just by the entrance. (This was our only lunch off the boat in the entire week.) Then after lunch, only a short drive away, we walked along a tunnel maybe 4 metres in diameter formed when hot lava drilled through the mountainside.
Out of the new gang that joined us for the last four days there were many people whom we would have been happy to befriend. Compared to the first few days there seemed to be a higher proportion of people with English as their first language - no Japanese, no obvious Italians. There was also one family, but only one, from Ecuador - we're observing a kind of global "Tower of London" effect, in which the most notable attractions in each country seem to be of interest only to people from elsewhere. We spent most of our time with two other parties. The first was the couple from Queens - Richard and Nancy - who joined at the same time that we did. The second was an actual English family (Nigel and Anne-Marie) - the first English people we've spoken to in quite a while now; Zoe and Heidi enjoyed playing with their girls (Emer and Lydia) who are of similar age. For this family the cruise marked the end of an intensive two month round-the-world trip with many stations - maybe 30 different hotels; while it sounds very exciting I'm glad that we're not moving around so quickly.
In the second part of our cruise as well as new fellow passengers we also had new crew. While the operator advertises it as one continuous journey it just isn't. I browsed through Lonely Planet for the first time in a few weeks the other day and saw that they recommend that at least ten days is needed to do the Galapagos islands. I don't agree with this: it's a vacation, not a geographical survey. Also we had some fairly serious wave motion over the last few days - as I write now, at the airport on the way out, the ground still seems to be moving and I'm looking forward to an extended period on stable land.
At the same time, a trip of only three of four days would risk missing a lot of good stuff. The people who experienced only the second half of our journey missed the stunning start they we had, kicking off instead with a trip up a volcano, which didn't have the immersive enchantment that boosted us into the most receptive frame of mind for the cruise. And those passengers who left after the first few days missed the red-footed boobies, the magnificent frigates with the puffed up gullic sacs and the best of the snorkelling.
But if you want to come here - for however long - come soon. There are currently 80 boats working the islands and the Galapagos provides a net inflow of cash to Ecuador. It's hard to see how this number wont creep up over the next few years, and our guides say that they're already starting to notice it. While this is, of course, tourism and not primary exploration and so it's unrealistic to expect the place to be deserted, there wouldn't need to be too many more tour groups moving through before the still-special character of the place is lost. So if you are coming borrow for the trip rather than save.
As I said, I'm planning to post a pile of photos on line when I do this blog so there's no need for any more animal snaps here. On the subject of photos, Richard was very interested in what we've seen and I said last night that I'd give him a disk of images. When I came to prepare it I realised that I hadn't done this before, previously only selecting images that can be viewed on-line (with degraded image quality) and larger selections that go in books to our family. I find myself inexplicably uncomfortable stacking up and shipping out large quantities of untreated JPG's. So last night I did what I could for Richard and Nancy in the narrow slice of time I could squeeze between packing and sleeping, but I wont be doing any more of this, at least until I've had therapy.
Since there are more fauna snaps than you're likely to want on the web, here's a picture of the tapestry that we bought yesterday to hang over our bed at home:
It's our first real extravagance since we've been away - our second will probably be shipping it back to England.
I'm afraid that if you want finch photos you'll need to buy a book.
For me at this moment I can think of nothing more appealing than a period of isolation within a remote and alien culture, an unknown language, poor telecoms and an extreme topography - which is just the plan.
Posted: Fri - September 2, 2005 at 09:52 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM
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Published On: Feb 08, 2006 06:20 PM