¨Survivor¨ -- Galapagos Island - 1/28/07

Greetings from the “Darwin yacht,” somewhere amidst the Galapagos Islands.

Annette and I are two of twenty-three on this boat for eight days (sixteen passengers, six crew and a naturalist guide). What is striking about those numbers is that the Darwin is almost the exact size and shape as the Maggie (the houseboat we’d been living on in Sausalito). In short, twenty-three of us are squeezed into the space that two of us used to have. Still, it is surprisingly comfortable and we don’t feel particularly cramped. And it’s a great, if surprisingly young, group on the boat (I’m the fourth oldest).

But on our two major passages between the islands we have learned of the serious advantage that bigger boats have: a more stable ride. I woke up about half an hour after the first of those journeys started, and could not believe the way the boat bobbed up and down as it summited and then came off of the swells, or the sound of the ocean crashing against the hull. I tried to assure myself that everything was normal, took a second dose of seasickness medication and went back to sleep. Others did not fair quite so well.

So far, we’ve had about three days in the islands and it is pretty much what we’ve all heard about Galapagos: the animals are so tame that you can, for example, lose a staring contest with a sea lion. And you have to be careful not to step on the giant iguanas which refuse to move when you approach (we call that game “dodge the iguana”), or to come too close to mother birds with their young. The animals are all so close that we don’t even bother to carry our binoculars. But the highlight has probably been the snorkeling – we swim amongst sea turtles, sea lions, stingrays, moray eels, sea snakes and tropical fish. But that’s not all – today we were exceedingly close to eight large “white tip” sharks, and then not far above a battalion of five “hammerhead” sharks. (We’ve asked our guide why it is that we’re not supposed to be afraid of these swimming companions, but haven’t really gotten a good explanation. We are assuming it is because there is so much more readily digestible food available.) As for the funniest things we’ve seen, there have been two. The first was the back patio of a fairly large boat – maybe a 40-footer – into which three sea lions had climbed. They seemed to very much enjoy relaxing on the cushioned benches, and I wish we could have seen what happened when the owner returned home. The other was the famous Blue-Footed Boobies – they are birds with bright, light blue feet and a surprised expression on their face that always causes us to smile. But, no, I will not be getting one of the t-shirts that has the phrase “I Like Boobies” printed over a pair of webbed blue feet.

Okay, now to get you up to speed on what’s been going on. The big news nationally is that Ecuador’s new Defense Minister died in a helicopter crash only ten days after she was appointed by the new leftist president. Though the Defense Minister, she was notably anti-military (she’d talked about using the power of the military on public work projects), and some wonder if the military might have wanted to get rid of her. All this happened the night before we left for the islands, so you may know more about subsequent developments than we.

Otherwise, there isn’t much to report. But here are some random items:

-- Annette read in a local paper that “Washington Stalin Valdez” won a car in a local cell phone company’s sweepstakes. But such names may not impress those who saw the recent NY Times’ article on the crazy names that Venezuelans are giving their kids – they’re even more bizarre.

-- When we paid the admission to do a hike in southern Ecuador, we had to fill out a form. I’d heard that some sections of the trail were precarious, but was still surprised that the form asked for our blood type. Everything went smoothly, although we did about 30 yards very slowly on our butts.

-- Hand-painted political advertisements from the recent presidential election are EVERYWHERE – building walls, the curbs of streets and bridges, almost anything with a flat surface. Clearly, defacing public property is not considered a crime here.

-- Also everywhere in the south are giant ficuses. A note to all of you with those pathetic little trees that sit amongst a pile of yellow leaves in your office: here, ficuses grow outside like weeds. They do so well that we‘ve seen them used as hedges. The massive one from our dining room on the Maggie would impress no one down here.

-- Other than fast food, we’ve seen only two exports of American culture to Ecuador: Payless Shoe Stores and the women’s fitness chain, Curves. How do these things happen?

-- The buses here, though neither beautiful nor fast, are amazingly efficient and cheap. They run incredibly frequently, you pay only $1 for every hour of travel, and the bus will stop anywhere to let you get on or off. But be ready to move quickly when getting on or off: the bus will be moving again the moment after you step on or off. It can be quite a challenge when toting a large backpack. And earplugs are never a bad idea – though even with them it can be tough to ignore the blaring TV, especially when it is showing videos of drunk amateurs who have climbed into bullrings to test their skill against El Toro. Think of it as “Ecuador’s Funniest Home Videos,” only with a sadistic twist. But they’ll need to lose the dimwit clown who serves as the host if the show is ever going to make it big time.

-- We are continually amazed by how many young, long-term “budget travelers” are in the fancier hostels and in the Galapagos. Back when I was young . . .

-- More on the whole lack of coins in this country. In one town, I gave an internet café $0.60 for a $0.54 bill. I thought I was being pretty helpful, but the clerk looked at me somewhat incredulously and asked if I didn’t have a nickel. When I told him that I didn’t, he indicated his belief that I therefore had to pay $0.60. But feeling it was his responsibility to have change, and confident in the knowledge that $0.54 is closer to $0.50 than it is to $0.60, I took the dime out of his hand. Days later, he may still not be over the shock. As for the cause of The Great Change Shortage, I still haven’t gotten an answer. All I can guess is that people are so afraid of being ripped-off, that they hide or spend any money the moment they get it.

-- Speaking of rip-offs, Quito is notorious for pickpockets and they finally tried to get me and Annette. It was around 11 a.m., and we were going to a museum with the work of Ecuador’s most famous painter: Oswaldo Guayasamin. We took a bus that dropped us near the museum, and were checking our map when a nicely dressed middle-aged woman asked us where we were going. She gave us very detailed directions on how to go, seeming very intent on making sure that we got there. Per her instructions, we crossed the street and began walking. After we’d gone about 30 yards, Annette noticed a thick, colored liquid on her hand. Just then, a small man passed on her right; he seemed to have a small ice cream or yogurt container in his hand. I then noticed that Annette had a good amount of the colored liquid on the back of her jacket and pants, and she noticed that I had even more of it on the back of my jacket and pants. Just as we were making this discovery, a man pointed to the mess on our backs. He quickly took out a roll of toilet paper, and indicated that he could help us clean up the mess. But savvy travelers that we are, we immediately recognized it all for the relatively common set-up that it was – that he would come over and wipe off the mess (conveniently located around our wallet pockets) and help himself to what he could find while our attention was distracted by the cleaning process. I gestured that he should stay where he was, turned to Annette and said “Let’s get out of here.” He didn’t follow, and our only loss was to cleanliness. Thinking about it later, I realized how lucky I’ve been. In travels to over 40 countries, only three have tried to steal from me. In an ice cream shop in southern China, a young boy grabbed my wallet as I put it into my backpack. He got $0.50 and a $2 bus ticket. In a hotel in Singapore, the hotel receptionist helped himself to the last few traveler’s cheques in the packet I’d left with him for safekeeping; they were replaced by the bank. And now this. As I said, very lucky.

-- Attention all Danes: Reliable sources tell us that Peru has 400 varieties of potatoes. Book your plane tickets now!

-- If you’ve spent any time in Latin America, you know that nobody likes a pained Jesus on a crucifix like the Latinos. But the Quito art movement from colonial times took things to a new height. If you see a Jesus with sores that are truly repulsive and the body is drenched in blood, you know he’s from Quito. Some even have gaping wounds in the chest cavity. It all makes for a very pleasant museum experience.

-- Ecuadorians from the highlands refer to Ecuadorians from the coast as “monkeys.” We’re told that at times it isn’t even meant in that negative a way. And we thought tensions between San Francisco and Los Angeles were high . . .

-- Lastly, an update on my book proposal. In brief, the book-buying public is apparently more selective than all of you, and aren’t simply sitting home waiting for the drivel like this. My friend’s wife, a book editor, read my proposal and was very complementary (she feels I have both the story and ability to make a book), but also realistic (she feels that I cannot simply convert my e-mails into a book, and that a lot of work will be needed to make the book a reality). So now I have to decide whether I am sufficiently interested in getting published to put in the effort that it would take. Perhaps the fates will make the decision for me: if I soon get a long-term international job, the book will not happen or not for a while; if I do not get a job soon and need to find something else to do, perhaps I will re-work the proposal.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Next stop: Cambodia.

Best,
Neil