eight months ahead of me, staying in hostels. Right now I’m enjoying every little luxury I can.
12/07
Boobies and other star attractions …
Carrots. It’s always the carrots. Even if you haven’t eaten any carrots, they always seem to show up first when you’re retching over the toilet bowl, wondering when the hell your stomach will settle and leave you free to roll into a self-pitying fetal ball on the floor. This is at least what Farzana told me after a night chucking her guts up out on the deck, and in the metre-wide closet that constitutes the bathroom in our five-star yacht.
Of course, it could have been papaya, I reasoned, the fruity orange Ecuadorean cousin that also chooses to surface first during terrible bouts of seasickness. But anyway, beginning our highly anticipated Galápagos cruise the other day, we sailed overnight from Cerro Dragon on Isla Santa Cruz, to Post Office Bay on Isla Floreana and realised that poor Farzana had left her sea legs somewhere on a pristine beach surrounded by sea lions. After a while I had no choice but to leave her lying in a crumpled heap on the five-star navy pinstriped sun lounge, while I prayed to the dimpled face of a seriously oversized moon for her recovery.
Ah, the moon! What a sight to behold here on the equator: the way it hangs in its Milky Way hammock between a squillion stars. You won’t see as many stars as you will here anywhere else on this planet, trust me, not even if you go to every Oscars after-party ever thrown by Elton John.
The Tip Top II cruise ship (one of the Galápagos’s original fleet vessels) swayed like Beyonce’s hips in a concert arena as I studied the black pin-pricked blanket of the Galápagos sky, and I was left in no doubt whatsoever that we, as humans sailing though this life, are not alone. We simply can’t be. Leaning over the railings that first night, I got lost in the majesty, the romantic possibility of galaxies stretching light years into infinity, until Farzana brought me back to earth by releasing another batch of vegetables.
The reason for such a spectacular display of stars above the Galápagos, according to our knowledgeable guide Andreas, is that on the equator you’re looking at twice the number of constellations. The stars you can see from both the Southern and the Northern Hemisphere are all spread out before you in the centre of the world, crisscrossing in the night like lonesome gypsy travellers wandering at last into each other’s paths. Some little stars are so bright and alive, they actually do twinkle.
Our guide Andreas loves nature like you wouldn’t believe. He told me on our second night, as a group of us lay out on the sun lounges counting constellations, that when he drank ayahuasca in the Amazon rainforest he communicated with ‘the spirit of the vine’ herself. Ever since then, he’s been able to communicate almost psychically with the animals.
You might laugh, but I swear, as we continue to walk together through some of the most insanely beautiful landscapes on our various island excursions, the animals we encounter don’t bat an eyelid. Not just that, but Andreas can point out every single animal and bird he promises we’ll see, usually within moments of promising it. It’s almost like he calls them and they appear.
Fascinated, we wandered around huddled groups of charcoal-coloured marine iguanas on our first day, their red underbellies glowing like embers. We saw albatrosses with humongous yellow beaks eyeing us idly from their grassy nests as we passed, just inches away. Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttled in their scarlet droves over the rocks. Sea lions were everywhere. In fact, while most people who visit the Galápagos might ask ‘will I definitely get to see the sea lions?’ before they book their tickets (like we did), the truth is that you’ll be hard-pressed not to see one here. You’ll see thousands of sea lions and, yes, you can swim with them and, yes, they actually want you to
12/07
Boobies and other star attractions …
Carrots. It’s always the carrots. Even if you haven’t eaten any carrots, they always seem to show up first when you’re retching over the toilet bowl, wondering when the hell your stomach will settle and leave you free to roll into a self-pitying fetal ball on the floor. This is at least what Farzana told me after a night chucking her guts up out on the deck, and in the metre-wide closet that constitutes the bathroom in our five-star yacht.
Of course, it could have been papaya, I reasoned, the fruity orange Ecuadorean cousin that also chooses to surface first during terrible bouts of seasickness. But anyway, beginning our highly anticipated Galápagos cruise the other day, we sailed overnight from Cerro Dragon on Isla Santa Cruz, to Post Office Bay on Isla Floreana and realised that poor Farzana had left her sea legs somewhere on a pristine beach surrounded by sea lions. After a while I had no choice but to leave her lying in a crumpled heap on the five-star navy pinstriped sun lounge, while I prayed to the dimpled face of a seriously oversized moon for her recovery.
Ah, the moon! What a sight to behold here on the equator: the way it hangs in its Milky Way hammock between a squillion stars. You won’t see as many stars as you will here anywhere else on this planet, trust me, not even if you go to every Oscars after-party ever thrown by Elton John.
The Tip Top II cruise ship (one of the Galápagos’s original fleet vessels) swayed like Beyonce’s hips in a concert arena as I studied the black pin-pricked blanket of the Galápagos sky, and I was left in no doubt whatsoever that we, as humans sailing though this life, are not alone. We simply can’t be. Leaning over the railings that first night, I got lost in the majesty, the romantic possibility of galaxies stretching light years into infinity, until Farzana brought me back to earth by releasing another batch of vegetables.
The reason for such a spectacular display of stars above the Galápagos, according to our knowledgeable guide Andreas, is that on the equator you’re looking at twice the number of constellations. The stars you can see from both the Southern and the Northern Hemisphere are all spread out before you in the centre of the world, crisscrossing in the night like lonesome gypsy travellers wandering at last into each other’s paths. Some little stars are so bright and alive, they actually do twinkle.
Our guide Andreas loves nature like you wouldn’t believe. He told me on our second night, as a group of us lay out on the sun lounges counting constellations, that when he drank ayahuasca in the Amazon rainforest he communicated with ‘the spirit of the vine’ herself. Ever since then, he’s been able to communicate almost psychically with the animals.
You might laugh, but I swear, as we continue to walk together through some of the most insanely beautiful landscapes on our various island excursions, the animals we encounter don’t bat an eyelid. Not just that, but Andreas can point out every single animal and bird he promises we’ll see, usually within moments of promising it. It’s almost like he calls them and they appear.
Fascinated, we wandered around huddled groups of charcoal-coloured marine iguanas on our first day, their red underbellies glowing like embers. We saw albatrosses with humongous yellow beaks eyeing us idly from their grassy nests as we passed, just inches away. Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttled in their scarlet droves over the rocks. Sea lions were everywhere. In fact, while most people who visit the Galápagos might ask ‘will I definitely get to see the sea lions?’ before they book their tickets (like we did), the truth is that you’ll be hard-pressed not to see one here. You’ll see thousands of sea lions and, yes, you can swim with them and, yes, they actually want you to
Similar Books
A Date with Fate
Cathy Cole
The Dr Pepper Prophecies
Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Full Moon Feral
Jackie Nacht
In Death 17 - Imitation in Death
authors_sort
Between the Alps and a Hard Place
Angelo M. Codevilla
Matt Archer: Monster Summer
Kendra C. Highley
Wild Orchids
Karen Robards
TYCE 3
Shareef Jaudon
LOVING ELLIE
Lindsey Brookes
Target: Rabaul
Bruce Gamble