A 3 Night Tour

The past weekend was a great experience.  I had the pleasure of being treated to an amazing 4 day 3 night Galapagos cruise and the only thing that made it better was that my parents made it.  I would have also been nice if my sister had made it but according to reports I have heard she is recovering from a crippling morphine addiction.  The downward spiral continues…

I showed up at the airport Friday morning at around 11 when the itinerary I had been sent told me the plane would land.  Judging by the lack of other people waiting for arrivals no one had much confidence in the integrity of Ecuadorian flight schedules.  I didn’t either but I figured I should be there early just in case. 

I do know that he ruined my plans to publish “Turtle Sex for Dummies.”

When the plane finally touched down and a group of mostly pale travelers straggled in I saw my parents in the first half of the line for customs.  Of course there were some quick smiles and waves which then devolved into random eye contact and slightly less enthusiastic smiles as the line crawled on.  There is only so much you can say with hand signals when you are separated by 37 feet and Ecuadorian customs officials. 

Finally my parents broke through and it was great to see them.  They filled me in on their day in Quito. They had visited the Mitad Del Mundo which they thought was a mix of interesting and a tourist trap.  Then they had a horrific taxi ride back to Quito, although I think at this point I wouldn’t recognize it as much out of the norm. 

Anyways we boarded a bus directly to our boat, briefly passing by my school.  On the ride to the boat and once on it my folks filled me in on some of the characters they had scouted.  What follows is a few samplings of the characters we met, with some names changed either to preserve the nicknames or to protect the innocent.

Oscar (as in the Grouch) - A white mustachioed guy from Oregon he would not have looked out of place in a lineup of the U.S. presidents who served between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.  He also was prone to taking three cameras (“$5000 worth of equipment) on each excursion.  It is possible to justify taking a video camera and a still camera... but what was the third one for?

  I was shocked by the infinite amount of clothes that this guy wore.  Everyday he sported at least three outfits but on Sunday we counted four outfits before 2:30.  He added another one for dinner and hopefully he slept in something besides just his mustache.  One day when he looked like he had just returned from a trip to the Serengeti my dad asked him “Shoot any big game out there?”  My parents told me he yelled at a local Ecuadorian family on the plane.  He might have been Mr. Howell

Norm- This guy presented some real problems.  First of all he is Oscar’s brother.  But where Oscar was dickish Norm was absent minded.  If we weren’t in a fragile environment this could have been more endearing.  Here it was not.  He smuggled peanuts onto the island and when yelled at by the guides he insisted that he wouldn’t drop any.  After specifically being told not to cross a stretch of beach where iguanas had laid their eggs he did anyway.  And then lingered.  He vied for the role of Gilligan.

KC- Originally named TP, short for “The Player” it became clear that he was not.  He was an affable, eccentric guy from Kansas City and he rocked spiked hair and sunglasses indoors.  But he was genuinely a good guy I think.  Also, a possible Gilligan.

The other most remarkable part of the tour was a 4:30 wake up call advising us to go out to the deck to see the erupting volcano on Fernandina Island.  Lest you sign up for a trip to see this sometime next year I should point out that we were very lucky to see this as it is not a constant attraction.  I believe our original itinerary was changed to accommodate it. 

Our last night of our short tour we got to see “Captain Tequila” bust out some wicked jams on his guitar.  Truthfully the guy was pretty good, belting out tunes in both Spanish and English, and getting a crew of happy Mexicans to sing right along with him.  My mom even had to get out of her chair and bust a move, although this move-busting nearly knocked over the captain and his guitar.

The next day we got an early start to see two Galapagos legends, giant turtles.  The first, Lonesome George, is the last of his species and scientists have been trying to get him to mate with other, genetically close turtles.  The guy is about 80-100 years old and is truly the last of a dying breed. 

The other turtle, Diego, “taught” other turtles of his species how to mate.  I did not understand much of what that meant in terms of animal psychology.  I do know that he ruined my plans to publish “Turtle Sex for Dummies.” 

4 days, 6 islands and lots of unforgettable times and amazing sites.  Not a bad early birthday present, eh?