the Laughing Boomer

Hi:  Here is our story of the Galapagos.  I'll post more pictures separately.  Please email me at laughingboomer.com if you want contact names. etc.

Mahara

Memories of our Galapagos trip include snorkelling with sea lions in clear turquoise waters, watching blue-footed boobies dance and call out their mating rituals, and having little Galapagos mockingbirds and lava lizards so close I could touch them. The Galapagos Island was high on our wish list and it’s a treasured place.  An archipelago of islands about 600 miles off the Ecuadorean coast, the Galapagos Islands contains unique species not found elsewhere in the world. Blue and red footed boobies, and the Galapagos hawks, gulls, doves, and mockingbirds are some variations of the species found nowhere else on earth.  We saw a sea lion with her pup still attached by the umbilical cord, marvelled also at the mating rituals of magnificent frigate birds and blue-footed boobies, and learned about sea-lion life.

We arrived in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, the major town in the Galapagos, without a boat cruise or hotel reservations booked. I had imaged the Galapagos to be a desolate place, so imagine my surprise to find a town of about 12,000 people. There are airline offices, plenty of restaurants and even a small department store. The main tourist street, winding along the sea is around a mile long and is lined with souvenir shops selling t-shirts and beads, dive shops and travel agencies selling last-minute cruise deals, as well as many cabinas, which provide internet and telephone booths. Internet service can be called euphemistically “not great”, and the telephone lines aren’t much better.  As well, all shops close down from 12 to 3, so planning is necessary to access the world. At one end of the main street, nearer to Charles Darwin Island, are the more exclusive hotels and restaurants and high-end jewellery and art shops.  Plenty of hostals and less expensive hotels are available as well.

The turquoise blue sea, palm trees and thick heat felt wonderful so we decided to stay for a few days on shore and explore our options.  We awoke in our small seaside hotel to the sea-loins barking out their territory and went to sleep with the sea waves pounding. Every morning we’d stroll down to El Chocolate for espressos, the type not made with instant coffee, as is common in Ecuador. In front of the cafe was a fish cleaning and selling spot: fishermen back with their morning catch of gigantic tuna, smaller, yellow-finned tuna, and other fish with bulging eyes. The fishermen worked on their daily haul: cutting off heads, hosing the blood out the gutted fish, and selling to the various restaurant owners, housewives, and tour-boat operators, who took the fish away in large black plastic bags. Surrounding the fishermen cleaning their catch were about 30 huge pelicans, a couple of seals, and some miscellaneous seabirds, all busily watching the men and fighting over any scraps. It was quite a scene. During our stay we enjoyed wahoo and fresh tuna several times at local restaurants.

The Charles Darwin Research Centre is very close to town. Many countries such as Sweden, Britain and Japan have sponsored research and have buildings on site. As well, the Sea Shepherd Society and Western Wilderness Foundation have offices in town.  In a large park by the ocean, the Research Centre, houses iguanas and turtles. This includes the famous turtle Lonesome George, without a mate for seventy years. The focus of the Research Center is conservation, research and training, with somewhere between 300 and 400 guides who focus on the Galapagos. These highly trained guides are extremely knowledgeable and passionately interested in new developments and conservation efforts in the Galapagos.

On the Islands, animals have a different sense of living with others – they seemed to have no fear of humans and we were often within feet of birds and wild animals that would normally flee. Don’t get the impression that we could go anywhere.  The Ecuadorian Government has extremely strict rules to preserve this natural wonder. People can only visit parts of the islands with guides and in small groups of 16 people. The Islands are 97% protected, so most areas are restricted and tourists must stay within the marked pathways. Strangely enough, the animals didn’t observe the rules so, for example when a sea lion gave birth on the footpath that day, the guides improvise.

We booked a five day cruise on a first-class vessel, the “Eden”. As with the Amazon trip, we had an interesting group of fourteen adventurous people from all over the world: England, Switzerland, Germany, American and Canada. We had great discussions on all matter of things, heard about people’s current journeys and just enjoyed being with each other. Our evening debriefs from our guide Jorge were about an hour long and covered our next day’s activities and also what birds and animals we would encounter and some detail about their behaviour. The food was excellent and plentiful, even for a vegetarian.  We traveled at night sometimes for four or six hours to start the day at another island.  It was wonderful to just sit on the lounge chairs, socializing, moving through the water enjoying the experience. Our boat traveled the southern route, visiting Espanola, Floreana, North Seymour and Santa Cruz.

We docked with about five other boats in a specific area by each Island and loaded onto small dinghies every day for either wet or dry landings. Each island has animals endemic to it so it is necessary to visit different areas. Once on land, we walked with our guide who explained the behaviour and habits of the sea lions, blue-footed boobies, magnificent frigate birds, etc. We went snorkelling once or twice daily, either from the shore or from the dinghies. The snorkelling off Floreana was the best I’ve ever done – an absolutely amazing variety of dozens of types of fish, hammerhead sharks, and baby sea lions swimming about and playing with us by grabbing our fins or swimming between our legs.

Our guide, Jorge, said about 180,000 people visit the Galapagos each year. I found that an amazing number, as there were not that many people when we were there, but we were at the low season. A number of boats were in or going into dry-dock within the next few weeks.  A great number of these people arrive at the airport, are transported directly to their boat, cruise the islands and then leave.

Four levels of cruises exist:  Luxury, First Class, Tourist Superior and Tourist class. We were pitched for a number of cruises and a variety of prices; all had “last 2” spaces, but also met people whose cruises were cancelled because of empty boats. I’m just not clear about the “low supply-high demand” equation. Galapagos cruises are quite expensive: a first-class cruise costs around $200 to $400 per person per day. Add to that the per person  flight costs of around $400 and nature park fees of $110 plus a long taxi cab ride and the money disappears. Besides that, the airline didn’t accept credit cards, and the cruise must be paid in cash or else a credit card fee of 6 to 10% is added on – a lot for a several thousand dollar purchase.  We hit our debit cards for several days for maximum withdrawals to pay for all this.  I did check on line afterwards and prices were also high, with one out of Seattle for $6,000 per person for the week, including flight.  As well, Celebrity Cruises stops there.

You could get cheaper “tourist” class, but we were warned against them.  Guides are ranked by the government, and tourist class cruises have less knowledgeable guides that primarily speak Spanish. The young backpackers mostly went “tourist class”, with five days or a week being around $800 or $1,000. One person described the tourist boat as having cramped quarters, no hot water, no deckchairs, not-good food and a funny Spanish-speaking-only guide who didn’t know much. However, they could rightly argue, they see the same animals we see, and what’s five days of roughing it? Another option is to simply stay on Santa Cruz Island and take day trips to some of the other islands; these day trips don’t visit the outer islands however.  Many people went out on daily dives, where the boats don’t go to any islands at all but simply focus on dive spots.

We met a group of 20 Washington University students– taking a five-credit course and having the time of their lives. As usual, we met all sorts of other young adults – many just finished their degree, and many Israelis who had just finished their mandatory two or three year military training and were off for several months before they went to university.  We are absolutely amazed at the number of people traveling for five to eight to ten months at the end of university or military service. We traveled both to and from the Islands and had dinner with a young Israeli woman and it was fascinating to hear her world perspective as twenty-two year old ex-officer.

In the end, for us, it came down to the animals, the people and the scenery. We saw albatrosses, land and marine iguanas, lava lizards, blue-footed boobies, nascar boobies, red crabs, sea lions, giant sea turtles, penguins, magnificent frigate birds, tropicbirds, and many other bird species. Our guide was very thorough, indeed anthropomorphic in his descriptions of mating behaviour, but we appreciated everything more because we had detailed understanding of their behaviour and living habits.  We went to the legendary Post Office, where people leave post cards that must be delivered by other people that live in their area.  I found a postcard addressed to North Vancouver but since I probably won’t be coming back for a year I thought I’d let someone else deliver it. We met a few ex-pats who lived and worked on Santa Cruz – from Russia, Tasmania and Nebraska.

Everything ended quite quickly – off the boat, a taxi to the airport, where, strangely enough, we saw the largest land iguana during our whole trip, sunning on the runway. And so, we experienced the Galapagos.

We flew back to Quito and stayed there for another couple of weeks. We finalized our round-the world tickets. Our trip itinerary is Quito-Rio-Buenos Aires-Melbourne-Hong Kong- New Delhi-Istanbul –Madrid and back to Quito. We have several months in some places so we will visit other countries, for example Greece and Morocco while in the area.

We socialized with some new friends, Ruth and Ron, from Victoria, on the road for six years, with a French woman and just generally hung-out. Since we almost missed our plane twice, we also took about twenty hours of Spanish lessons.  We truly love Quito and would base ourselves there for a few months, but for one thing –there is no seashore at 3,000 metres above sea level. It’s an absolutely gorgeous mountain city, and if you can, go visit. Ecuador is definitely a gem. We left with wonderful memories, friends and a commitment to arrive back there next August.

 

Hi:

 Retirement means stopping what you may have been doing for dozens of years and doing something new.  Some people ease into it by working four days, then three, and then stopping work altogether.  Others have such a busy life outside of work that they can hardly fit their work into their life and welcome the extra time.  Yet many people are reluctant to stop work because it means moving out of their comfort zone.  They are used to their activities and don't know or want to do anything else.

Hi:

With the explosion of globalization and technology, the varied paths of retirement lead to many roads. According to a Merrill Lynch survey, only ten percent of retirees want to sit around in a slow paced lifestyle.  Sure, many may want to do that for a couple of months, but then it's off to the races. 

Hi:

Well, we have a youth "culture", that started decades ago with the baby boomers.  Youth was idolized, focused as the ideal state of freedom and exploration.  Youth tossed old norms out the window  into the wind.

Without the social pressure of what others might think, what responsibilities you have, not working can be a great freedom.  I heard a story once of a man who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Although he was quite young, in his forties, he had perhaps a year to live.

He determined what was important, who he really wanted to spend time with. He divorced his wife. I guess mortality focuses us on the important things, and if he was somewhat happy, but not really, well, when would he get the time to meet his needs.

It seemed outrageous, but it was not.  Do you need to do something outrageous?  If not now, when?

Hi:

 According to Money magazine, August,2006, 40% of the homes sold in 2005 were sold to people who already own one home.  That is a record, reports the National Association of Realtors.

 Well, although the column does not say how many of these homes are for rental purposes or for recreational purposes, it is safe to assume that many are second homes in small outlying areas.  These homes may indeed be rented now, but will later transition into retirement homes.  Planning for retirement includes buying the property in your dream location well before the retirement date.  Given the current rise in real estate prices, this seems wise on the surface.

Hi:

Well, here it is the end of February. In Vancouver a pink haze surrounds some trees, an early promise of blossoms to come. The tulips are half up in the back yard, and daffodil stalks are standing tall.

Spring seems a long time coming. We had a long spell of rain, 29 of 31 days in January and the last two weeks of December. I think I'm growing moss.

The last few days have been very cold and windy. Fireplace logs going, heavy clothes.

Did you know there is an ideal climate? It's somewhere around 20 degrees centagrade, with relatively small changes in barometric pressure. That's the change in air pressure that gives some people headaches or sore bones.

Hi:

One of the biggest ways you can save money when you travel is by judicious use of your time and airline costs.

The flight costs are often a major factor in a trip, especially if you are going to a country with lower costs than major western nations.

One of the great points of retirement is that now you can take much longer trips, and so make better use of your airline costs.

If you fly to a region and then take full advantage of your time to fully explore that part of the world, it becomes a wonderful adventure. You become a traveller, not a tourist.

Pete McMartin from the Vancouver Sun, October 10, 2005 talks about a new genre in literature "for those who feel they haven't lived enough, done enough, seen enough". He seems to feel that it's about "the feel of death's breath", and "our appetite to consume". He's talking about baby boomers, of course.