For a few days I felt like this:
Then, when I looked at the list of all this things I needed to do, I felt like this:
And now? I'm picking up the pieces, reconnecting with friends and family, running my fingers along my (dusty) bookshelves, deciding what to cook for supper. Within days the Galapagos feels a million miles away.
Except I can't stop talking about it. About being somewhere so geologically new. About being so close to birds and animals that I'd expect to run away from me. About swimming in a sea that really is turquoise. About being so close to a snake constricting and eating an iguana. About seeing two huge tortoises squaring up for a fight. About watching a baby frigate bird feed from its mother - putting its entire head down the mother's gullet. About watching sea turtles have sex (which has its comic side as she has to come up for air from time to time, and then he falls off ...).
It is as astonishing as everyone says it is. But, as each island is different, it's hard to write about it as a unified experience.
So will there be a book?
I'm thinking about it. I need to find the story. Woman has great time Ecuador and the Galapagos isn't a story. Let's preserve the fragile environments isn't anything new.
And while I'm thinking I'll leave you one last picture: this is the boat was on, travelling round the islands.
Oh Jo, I can well imagine it will take time to assimilate it all into any kind of coherence, and even then, maybe not something you even want to write about. I can only being to imagine how special it was. How I'd love to go there... What an amazing trip!
ReplyDeleteI can't stop talking about it, Val, so sometime I'll try to organise all those words into something coherent!
Deleteclear, concise, evocative as usual Jo
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tone.
DeleteGlad you are back..as we all missed you..but I feel you want not to be! Lovely pics, and I'm sure you will be blogging about your adventures shortly.!
ReplyDeleteYou're right - I'd go back today if I could!
DeleteI can't wait to go!
ReplyDeleteIt's an amazing experience - I look forward to seeing how you put it into words!
DeleteSounds like an amazing trip, Jo. What were the logistics like for getting to/from there? And how long were you there? I've been traveling myself so have been out of the loop and not online much so I didn't even know you'd gone away again!
ReplyDeleteI was away from home for over six weeks, just eight days in the Galapagos - easy to organise from Quito but if you want a single room, not paying a supplement, best to research and book in advance as they are few and far between. You fly from Quito to Baltra via Guayaquil, and pick up the boat over there. Shorter tours are available. Do DM me if you need to know more, can recommend an agent if you need one.
DeleteMarvellous. And that last photo says it all. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Great photos, especially the one of the boat.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that the place is staying with you - what an impression it has obviously made and that adds to my conviction that the galapagos is one place I'd not regret pulling out the stops to visit. It seems so far away and inaccessible I had almost forgotten my desire to do it. At least you have shown it's possible....
ReplyDelete