Ok - so here we are, many days into a trip that is just absolutely amazing. We have seen so much, learned so much, seen birds and animals, views and vistas that I only ever thought we would see on tv........ and again, I am sitting in my bed with the ocean spread outside my window, cruising along at a good old clip back up on our way to re-cross over the equator - twice tonight.
For many days we have seen amazing things and yet the more mundane and sometimes equally amazing things are the people we have shared this journey with so far. I dont intend to be mean to anyone at all, just writing down how I see things from my sometimes weird and always whacky perspective......... so here goes.
When the old passengers left the boat and the new got on, we were much more comfortable with our surroundings and could spend more time seeing things other than the blue footed boobies and frigates flying by and we started noticing the other wild life - the people. In our group of the last passenger load, we had a good many younger people - not the flippy young folks of the late teens and really early twenties, but those that were still in the, what I will call, the 'flippy butt' years. There was one rather well built guy of about 30 years old that wore the tightest of white shirts with the tightest of short shorts - yes he had an incredible tan and we always found him draped languidly over a bar stool somewhere on the ship. No, not drunk, but apparently heavily involved with his cell phone that never seemed to have a signal. His dark mop of curly hair gave him a cap to peer out of at the flippy butt girls that would miraculously be positioned somewhere in front of him, either stretching up or down to pick up something or simply being louder than at other times. He, the real cool cucumber dude, always kept this very slight smile on his face, not encouraging and not quite dismissing - and it was interesting to see that neither he nor the girls ever actually approaced each other and the girls seemed to leave the area with a slightly miffed expression.
Two of the new women on board have earned the title of Estranged Mermaids.....they wander the decks restlessly in long sleeve shirts and loose fitting long pants, one looking a bit like a very tired Farrah Fawcett with her long curly blond hair. They dont seem to be totally at home out of the water and seem to try to get as much liquid inside as possible, in the form of beers, which just adds to the vagueness of their expressions. They have huge floppy hats and kinda float around, not talking to anyone really at all, but wearing weak smiles that seem to float right by your ear as one gets closer.. Then we have the Sri Lankans who are in our group - the Albatros group. All the passengers are divided up into different groups, as I think I told you earlier, and we are the Albatros group. Anyway - we were the only 'survivors' of the last group and so we have all new members.....all very nice people again. But the Sri Lankan group are very very enthusiastic.. Two of the ladies have a way of walking that is like a penguin - feet slightly turned out and a clomp-clomp style of walking with the knees also slightly pointed outwards, which helps the feet connect with each and every rock and stone that is higher than 2mm - each and every one! This, in turn, makes for a stumbling action and some very fast and fancy penguin-like footwork to maintain balance, and then back to the standard clomp-clomp for the next few steps. It's not easy walking behind this type of walker as I am constantly expecting the crash - especially when they walk like this with their video camera held out in fully extended arms with ever so slightly outward bent elbows,' in front of them being waved from left to right rather like a metal detector capturing each and every leaf and stone around. I often catch something they say that is not in english and I wonder how bad a cuss word it is.
They are full of wonder and enthusiasm which is just great and again, I am not knocking them but heck, this morning got a bit much....both Frank and I had a hard time stifling our giggles.. Here we all are, walking in single file down this rocky path - fully expecting at least one of them to fall flat, (there are 6 of them in our group) when a mocking bird is spotted. Again, For the 5th time today:
There's a mocking bird!
Rrrreaaallly
Where?!
There!
Ooooh- thats a mocking bird?
yes, yes........ its a mocking bird
its a mocking bird.....aaaaaah.
Where's the mocking bird? I cant see it!
There's the mocking bird - in the tree.....
oooooh, a mocking bird!
Really?
Yes yes! Its a mocking bird!!!
Vy is a mocking bird called a mocking bird?
And so it goes, up and down the line - until the whole issue is complicated by a yellow warbler flying into the same tree.......
Is that also a mocking bird?
No no - dats a little yellow bird
A little yellow bird?
Where??
there, there, next to the mocking bird...
Oh there.
Its not a mocking bird?
no no - the mocking bird is........vell, he vent avay!
He did? Vere?
and boy, you should have heard it when a nest was found! It's totally hilarious listening to the talk going up and down the line of us and the video cameras are all zoomed into full zoom. And yes, it all starts over again at the next mocking bird! I just love the enthusiasm, but after a hike of two hours it gets to a point where I find myself praying that all mocking birds as well as LYB's (little yellow birds) disappear for good! Maybe thats why our guide is almost bald...
And then there was a guy from the UK who wore a hat with pointy ears. The only reason I think he did this was because he could. He wandered around telling everyone that he could get to stand still for longer than 3 seconds, how impressed he was with something or other totally irrelevant to what we had seen for the day. He wore bright pink shorts had a perpetual smile with lovely round chubby cheeks. He was a total hoot - one of those guys who was obviously kind and a softie, but who was straightforward as an arrow too. One evening at the briefing for the next day, the guide asked our very tired group why we thought an albatross would want to come back to land if it could fly and glide for days at a time..... there was this fog of silence as everyone cranked their brains to remember what we had been told earlier - and into this silence he yells very loudly 'sex!' Oh boy - talk about drinks squirting out of mouths, and screaming laughter - the meeting nearly ended right there as everyone packed up laughing. Of course he was right and no one else had dared to say it as straightforwardly as he had. But the best was the surprise on his face as he saw what a stir he had caused. And another beer was ordered in celebration.
There are the people that talk endlessly about themselves and you always find them with new people at their table, for one meal, and then those people find somewhere else to go... and then you find a group like we did when we first came on board... a group of eight who have done a lot of travelling together and have a wonderful sense of humor and a lovely way of looking at life. They gave us many tips and tricks of the boat and were a great group to share out meals with. Now we are at a different and much smaller table - only four of us. The other couple are not in a tour group either and we get along very well. They are also off to Macchu Picchu after this, but not on the same schedule as we are.
It's like a whole world on this little ship - people of all different cultures, languages, habits and most of them very well travelled. Some seem to be on the ship just to be able to say they have been here, as they show little enthusiasm for anything much at all apart from the food. Others want to be in the front of every line, and stay there, which stops the others from getting a good view at times of whatever it is we are all stopped for. I dont think they do this on purpose, its just that they want to soak up as much of what is here, which is what its really all about.
And then there are the other two ladies that, for me, stand out in this group of people.... one is an exact duplicate of a friend of mine, Tilda..... everything! She walks like Tilda, has the same facial expressions, the same elegance, hand movements and all - its very spooky in a way, but at least she reminds me of someone I like! And then there is a lady who just finished her last chemo treatment on Monday and joined the ship on Wednesday - she carries the biggest smile of everyone, the quickest to hold out a hand to help someone from falling, she laughs with a laugh that comes from her toes and the twinkle in her eye is better than the glorious sunset we had tonight.
It amazes us that some people did not know what a manatee is, have never seen a pelican, literally jump up and down in absolute ecstacy at the sight of a tortoise - I am serious........but it makes me so incredibly grateful for the things I have been able to see, the things I have grown up knowing, learning about and experiencing.
So, the wild life viewing is not just about the birds and animals of the Galapagos at all, its all happening right here on board too. I wonder how others see Frank and I?
And now - with a pitch black night outside, the stars very bright in the sky and the gentle rocking of the boat as we head off into the northern hemisphere again, I am going to end the day.
Love and light
Annie
Annie
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