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Family and Friends Letters 2007.
November 26
Dear Friend’s and Family,
The national and local news are the only things
worth watching on the television here with the
exception of soccer games. The announcers of the
soccer games, the John Maddens of professional
soccer here call the ball a melon. “Cesar
Andrade kicked the be-jesus out of that melon!”
Eco-carpetbaggers. Our version works for a
non-profit making 300K a year and is more
concerned with continuing his “work” than with
the work itself or the local people. A smooth
talking, name dropping, educated man, he once
squeezed into a conversation that he was on the
stage with Al Gore when “Al received his Nobel”.
He also has no qualms about people not getting
paid for the work they contract to do with him
or stealing and selling proprietary information.
He has managed to develop quite a reputation
here. Too many times, because Bere used to work
for him and me being the only resident gringo on
the island, the local people with problems with
him, sometimes grave, come to us for answers
about his misdeeds. What do you tell them? We,
meaning the inhabitants of this island are in
reality receiving from his work things like wind
turbines and solar electricity for schools
completely for free. I suppose he sleeps at
night thinking he is doing the greater good, but
tell that to someone who signed on for a pay
check to feed his family and never received it.
I have no idea if our carpetbagger was anywhere
near “Al” or if “Al” would remember his name and
I’m not sure if I should hope so or not.
Most parents are allowed the challenge of
watching and listening to their freshly arrived
sons and daughters grapple with all kinds of
challenges, tooth aches, diaper rash, etc., but
the worst and most difficult challenges for kids
I believe are dealing with stupid parental
decisions, “Let’s see what happens when we put
him in the net mesh hammock.”, “Don’t worry, he
won’t put THAT in his mouth.”, “Do you suppose
he floats?”
There’s been a rash of people this month asking
us to be the Godparents of their kids (the
church has a mass godparent making ceremony
coming up), all of them mere acquaintances or
even people who have given us problems. If we
accepted them all I’d have eight god kids and am
sure once the news spread there’d be a bunch
more. I could get me a dark office and practice
my Marlon Brando imitation.
Speaking of offices, we just got a new one,
right on the beach, below the newest, nicest
restaurant on the island. The sea lions
literally sleep on its steps. There is a bench
outside I’m looking forward to spending some
time on watching sunsets.
Life in paradise is not anything like what many
people believe. It definitely is not for
everyone. Extended vacations are one thing.
Permanently living and working here is another.
Everyone knows about small town peculiarities,
but put that same small town on an island and
watch the fun. There’s something about living on
an island that can turn the ordinarily sensible
into the extraordinarily loopy. Petty jealousies
and gossip become sporting events. Third world
screw ups are the norm. we get our news from
dial up internet. There are no movie theatres.
There is a limited variety of food. The
restaurants all serve the same things and most
of it not all that good. And still…
Yesterday I paddled across the bay for exercise,
Bere walked our kid in his “Cuatro por Cuatro”
(all terrain) stroller and we met on a deserted
beach (except for the sea lions) at the end of
town. Some friends of ours happened to also be
there. We watched the sun set and then headed
home. Carlos, the fisherman brings fresh fish
twice a week to the house. Gaby, the farmer’s
wife brings bags of vegetables. Carmen is the
gal who cooks and cleans the house, handles the
garden and takes care of Erey when we get busy
or need to leave the house. She’s an Indian gal
from the mountains outside Quito. She brings me
a bowl of fruit and cereal every morning as I
work at the computer or I find it waiting for me
if I’ve gone surfing. She’s a great cook. We’re
using our green house to grow vegetables for
both our families. She manages the whole thing
and she’s teaching our kid quechuaaz (her native
language). We go to bed early, get up earlier,
are in the ocean daily. It’s pretty tough to
complain, though a good Mexican restaurant and
the ability to watch or play a baseball game
would really put this place over the top. It
goes without saying that I could have never
imagined myself living here, but I was thinking
back and I can’t remember a time in my life when
I didn’t feel that way.
Siempre Amor,
Rick, Bere and Erey |
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October 15
Dear Friends and Family,
We have a date for the second annual
Flying Tortoise Marathon thru 10k event,
Aug. 6, 2008 and an economy tour package
for the dates Aug. 2 thru Aug. 10.
Arrive Ecuador Sat. Aug. 2nd and depart
Ecuador Sun. Aug. 10th (8 maximum per
group) as low as $1,595 per person,
double occupancy. If anyone’s interested
see the marathon page on our web site.
August, September and October is the
“cold” season here. It varies year to
year in intensity and dates, but
basically it means that about half the
time it’s overcast, there is a constant
breeze and the low and high air temps
are 65 and 72, the ocean temperature
varies between 65 and 68. The reason for
this is the Humbolt current. At this
time of year all of the ocean animals
are feasting on the riches of this
current. It also brings the “garua”
(misty) season in the highlands and
every plant and animal there are also
feasting. The people wear long pants and
sweaters because for them, this is
serious winter. I just walk around in
shorts and slaps and never break a
sweat.
We had a string of over cast days during
which time we all had colds. I didn’t
leave the house for almost a week.
Finally we had a glorious sunshiny day.
With the airport closed and this being a
slow time of year anyway, there’s no one
around. So I hiked out to Las Tijeretas
and had myself a long swim with a sea
lion pup. I’d forgotten where we live,
how beautiful it is. From the rocks
where I let the sun and breeze dry me, I
watched the parrot fish swimming around
in the swimming pool clear water, while
the frigate birds circled in the air and
a single Blue Footed Boobie dove for
bait fish.
Erey (our four month old son) is growing
so fast, Bere cut the feet out of a set
of pijamas he had, giving him the look
of some kind of impoverished elf. His
mom, is a really happy mom, patient,
attentive. I had no idea that having a
kid would make her so happy. I’d like to
complain about how difficult it is to do
our work with a new born constantly in
our midst, but how foolish. How many
fathers get to be present 24/7 to watch
their kid grow?
The other day, I’d been out to the far
point of La Loberia with a group of four
“older” adults and a newly hired guide,
in reality checking up on the guide.
They were all going to go for a swim
back at the beach. I wanted to let the
guide handle it. I’d already been
surfing a few hours early that morning.
I let them head on and took a moment,
just sat down on a nice warm rock and
looked out to sea, one of those
existential moments that slid into
wondering about the future of the world
or rather OUR world. We’re voting for
the new asemblia (the new congress)
they’re like ten different groups
running and they all have their
platforms, keep the dollar, abortion
illegal, assasines get jail for life,
autonomy not centralization, no more
taxes, your usual stuff, but that wasn’t
what I was wondering about. I was
wondering about the future of our kid
and as I was a marine iguana crawled up
to me and proceeded to grapple his way
right over my legs. They’re heavy!
The naturalists say the animals and
plants here fall within four catagories:
Endemic, meaning they’re native and
unique in the world to this area.
Native, meaning they’re indigenous, but
exist else where in the world.
Introduced, meaning someone brought them
here on purpose or otherwise and
invasive, meaning not only did they not
get here on their own, but that they’re
having a negative impact on the species
that already existed here. So where does
man fit in? Native? Introduced?
Invasive? The GIA theory would say we’re
natural, our cruise ships are natural,
our decimation of species for economic
reasons natural. Sometimes I think the
best evidence in favor of the GIA theory
is that we’re too stupid to be anything
but natural. Of course there are those
other theories having to do with extra
terrestrials. They stopped by island
earth a few thousand years ago and a
couple of feisty monkeys escaped from
their ship. That then would clearly put
us in the invasive category.
Siempre Amor,
Rick, Bere and Erey |
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September 9
Dear Friends and Family
Thanks for all of your concern regarding
the 7.9 quake that hit off the coast of
Lima. The phone calls really might have
saved our lives had there been a
tsunami. As it was we (my sister in law
and nephews were visiting) were probably
the first on the island to know about it
and the first to have it dialed that if
there were a tsunami it would first hit
the coasts of Peru and Ecuador and from
that we would also learn how big it was.
In Salinas Ecuador precisely at the
predicted time there was a small 3”
tsunami recorded. The same hit
Esmeraldes an hour later and what ever
was coming this way we knew we were to
receive an hour after that at 8:42 PM.
Apparently there had been a panic in
Esmeraldes, traffic jams, crashes,
people running for high ground. We just
watched an “I Love Lucy” rerun in
Spanish.
The Tsunami keeps making news: The
fishermen believe there is a bleeding
volcano where the earthquake was
centered and the Humbolt current is
bringing the “cloud” this way. This is
the reason there are so few fish and the
water is so dark. The small enter island
airline has been very busy while they
are resurfacing and extending the runway
here. They leave enough intact for the
small planes to land and take off. After
the earthquake, business has picked up
even more as the local populace who are
not fishermen, have a greater fear of
the sea and prefer not to use the
cheaper inter-island boat rides.
Sock-a-medias (Sacamedias), sounds like
a Greek philosopher’s name. It’s what
I’m calling our three month old,
“sock-remover”, he kicks around so hard,
no sock has a chance.
One of our “hearts” (visitors) asked me
about how we were handling our water
needs with a new born. Her concern was
about the purity of the water we have
here. We recommend not to use the tap
water even to brush your teeth. I didn’t
blink, just responded, “We’re bathing
him in bottled water”. It’s true and it
struck me, we have more or less a
Perrier baby. The other night two
mothers, very good friends of ours
showed up for bath time/end of the day,
mostly I’m sure to check up on us. This
was precipitated by the visit of one of
the maids of these mothers that morning.
She arrived when our kid was having a
shit conniption, Bere was away and I was
in charge. We know when someone is
coming to visit. Our kid is like a guard
dog. If he’s screaming, someone is about
to show up. The maid gave me the evil
eye, ‘what kind of father was I?’ Hell,
a normal one with a screaming kid in his
arms. Finally we are settling into a
schedule. We go to bed at Seven PM every
night. We trade off nights on who gets
up with the kid, this way every other
night one of us gets a good night’s
sleep. One of the greatest joys of
fatherhood, a good poo from your kid,
means he’ll be happier. He just turned
three months today, the longest three
months of my life.
The cockroaches here are the size of
mice and they fly. You don’t dare squish
one for the mess it’ll make. You can
hear their feet clicking around on the
tiles. If you leave a cookie out for
them, you’ll find what’s left of it by
following the cockroach poo.
They forgot to ship the propane again,
second time in four years. The town has
no gas for cooking or heating water
until next Saturday. The fore sighted
restaurants who keep themselves well
stocked are doing a brisk business.
We’re micro-waving our son’s Perrier
bath water.
I saw a sea lion pup the other day with
a fish. They kind of slap the fish on
the surface of the water to chew through
them better. Frigate birds are pretty
big birds, known for tossing around
Boobies to make them throw up so they
can eat what the Boobies had caught.
Well this Frigate came swooping down and
caught part of the fish the pup had in
his mouth and began to fly away with it
and the pup! lifted him half out of the
water before the frigate let go.
Siempre Amor,
Rick, Bere and Erey |
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August 5
Our Dear Family and Friends,
I put on my nicest shirt the other day
and peddled on over to the bank. I was
sitting at the desk in front Jose while
we were filling out the wire transfer
papers and I felt something crawling on
my chest under my shirt, some kind of
bug or something. I stood and shook it
out the bottom of my shirt onto Jose’s
desk, a baby gecko, about an inch long.
Jose opened a desk drawer and then
swooped the gecko from his desk top into
the drawer and closed it with a smile as
if he’d just hit a basketball shot or
sunk a long putt. “Geckos good”, he
said.
My wife’s computer has a screen saver
program that uses the photos we have,
changes them every couple seconds.
Living where we do you can imagine the
photos we have of the animals etc., but
more often it’s the photos of the
“hearts” that catch you. You remember
this person or that, with a smile
always, sometimes a nod, sometimes a
shake of your head. I could watch it for
hours.
In the US, the times when I lived in a
city, early in the mornings I could know
what time it was by the amount of
traffic. In San Cristobal the roosters
start at four, the birds at five. The
sun comes up at six. So, if there’s
birds and roosters and no light, it’s
just a little after five. Now if the
kid’s crying it could be any hour.
In Ecuador we have a card, like a
driver’s license in the US. Everyone has
one. On the back it says to whom you are
married and they punch a hole in it if
you’ve been divorced.
My Ecuadorian family has ways of
talking/doing things. EVERY weekend,
EVERYONE gets together for at least one
day. There’ll be like twenty people in
the house, kids everywhere. The same
twenty people you saw last week. The
more people talking at once the better,
throw in a Soccer game on TV and a
crying baby, still better. The more
times you can change the subject of a
conversation the better. They prefer to
group, prefer to be busy talking. The
fact that they are all together is what
is important. That they have many things
to talk about is good and takes
preference over finishing a
conversation. It’s actually frowned
upon, finishing a conversation, bad
manners. They have no problem with
talking about the same thing five times
without coming to a conclusion.
Conclusions are also bad manners. I love
them all and they drive me crazy.
I know how long it’s been since I’ve
written one of these by the age of Erey.
There’s suddenly no time, seems we have
to make time to brush our teeth. Last
night I tried writing a little, it went
like this:
Am up now, 12:30 AM, having just fed the
kid. He's pretty awake, because I gagged
and woke at 11:45, rather than 11:00 so
he got all miffed about being hungry and
then about a dirty diaper. For these
sins I'm gonna pay with an hour, two or
three less sleep. The air looks musty.
The light smells. I am certain I must be
dreaming. I’ve realized, suddenly,
miraculously that somehow what passes
for intelligent conversation with me are
things like comments on brands of baby
wipes, debates over baby formula. 2:20
AM now, just changed a big shitty diaper
that didn’t leak because the first one
god granted me the light to apply
expertly. That's two changes in less
than two hours. I can't wait to tell his
mom!
What I did tell his mom the other day
was that she was running like a headless
cookie. What I meant was “running around
like a chicken with its head cut off”.
My brother and sister in law are here
now, so today I took them out to see the
sea turtle clouds. They were skeptical,
then amazed. There’s a spot you can go,
year round at the right tide and you’ll
literally be swimming/snorkeling in
clouds of sea turtles.
Siempre Amor,
Rick, Bere and Erey |
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June 15
Dear Friends and Family,
They put up our second traffic light
(see our blog if you missed the story of
the first,
livinggalapagos.blogspot.com). We still
don’t have any traffic, however unlike
the first light, there was no party.
What had happened was as proud as the
mayor was about the first traffic light,
he soon started hearing the jokes about
a one traffic light town, how a town
could have a worse reputation with one
rather than no traffic lights. So now
this is a two traffic light town on an
island with no highways and few paved
streets and the mayor is content.
My wife, Bere is a Willy Nelson fan.
Some days you can hear his twang,
carried on the trade wind to the
fishermen repairing their skiffs on the
beach.
Bere had been in Quito for the last five
months of her pregnancy and I’d been
flying back and forth to visit as
business would allow. Finally we were
together to wait for her to “give the
light” (have the child). The family
lives about a half hour outside Quito
and one day
I was in Colonial Quito scouting out
hotels when I received a call from Bere,
she said we had a doctor’s appointment
at 3:30. We'd just been there the day
before. Not to worry, she said. So I
finished up my list of hotels and met
her in time to make the appointment. I
figured we go and the doctor would say,
“Yeah, all is normal. Call me when
something is really up.” The information
we’d received in our course about babies
was that before you have them the water
breaks or you get contractions at
intervals that grow closer. Bere didn't
have any of those indications. So we're
in the doctor's office and he's doing
his invasive investigations, a
cardiogram for the kid. I'm there with
my mom and sister in-law. The Doctor
looks at me and says, "Looks like you're
gonna be a father today. I want to do a
caesarian within the next ninety
minutes."
This is the land of caesarians. Almost
half of all hospital births are
caesarian. There's the conspiracy
theory, the doctors make more money and
it takes less time. There's the “anenyado”
theory, the rich who can afford
hospitals don't have the patience or the
guts to go through the normal birthing
process. Our kid, wasn't "slotted" (incojado)
right. Something to do with his head not
being in the birthing canal and Bere was
now having very painful, though
irregular contractions.
So I get all scrubbed up wondering what
kind of third world botch job I'm about
to witness, wondering if we're being
robbed and feeling you can imagine,
powerless. Bere's on the table all doped
up, but conscious and they're cutting
her open like an autopsy on a beached
whale. They end up wrestling/ripping
this thing out of her stomach. I'm
watching it all. It's a little purple
head and upper body with this half inch
thick cord wrapped around its neck. "Ah,
here's our problem," the doctor says as
he unwraps it once and then gasps as he
has to unwrap a second turn of it and
then a third which was around the
abdomen. I was suddenly grateful for
their predilections to cesareans.
In total Bere's labor lasted less than
an hour. Our son was born two hours and
twenty-eight minutes after our "Doctor's
appointment". Rowland Robert Schleicher
Norris. 9 lbs. 20 and one half inches
long. The biggest new born they've seen
at the hospital. Born at 5:58 on May
thirty-sixth (June Fifth), 2007. The
family's calling him Rony or Robby, I'm
calling him Erey (“R”) or Senor Babas
(Mr. Spittle).
At the US Embassy, in order to get
travel documents for Erey I needed to
prove that I’d been in the US. My
current passport was not enough. I had
brought with me, just for this occasion:
the title to our house in the US, the
truck, the LLC papers for our company,
personal and company bank statements,
health insurance papers, an original
copy of my birth certificate and (the
big gun in my mind) a current credit
report with a 768 average. Not good
enough. What I needed, what this gal
wanted was school transcripts or tax
returns. Nothing else mattered. One very
busy day and night later I had a book of
scanned and e-mailed documents, starting
with my grade school transcripts. I
passed the first leaf through the
slotted window, I was gonna bury this
gal in paper. She looked at my first
grade report card and said, “Pay over
there, then sit down and wait.
The US immigration sent us a letter
saying they wanted to meet Bere in three
weeks on July 9, so we are suddenly all
going to the US, July 5 through 29 and
after that we can settle back into our
lives here ‘cept now we’ll be living
with Senor Babas and I think we’re going
to get a dog or two.
Siempre Amor,
Rick, Bere and Erey |
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May 10
Dear Friends and Family,
As some of you may remember I was asked
if our company could be used as an
example and if I would make a
presentation at this conference about
eco/responsible tourism here in San
Cristobal. I chose to decline both
ideas. Having been to a number of these
affairs in the past… If Bere (my wife
who’s pregnant in Quito) were here maybe
it’d be different. I’m a gringo, been
here only a few years. The people that
want to know, that are interested in
what we’re doing have already talked to
us, are likely working for us or waiting
for the opportunity as our business
grows. With the rest, I would just be
fomenting jealousies. These
symposiums/conferences are about talking
and people like to hear themselves talk,
particularly here and even more so if
they’re at a conference. We were all on
the local news. The place was loaded
with cameras. I/we prefer to walk the
walk over talk the talk and we got
pudding, meaning we are actually doing
things like promoting local agriculture,
enter-cultural exchanges, actually
bringing tourists here to the Galapagos,
who actually spend most of their time
with these very amiable people, eat the
food grown here, leave their money here
and see/know/have a better feel for the
reality that exists here than few “boat”
tourists even have the idea they might
be missing. As always, these conferences
are hard on my patience, Spanish and
sanity. The conference went fine without
much of my input, by the way. I insured
this by making my first comment a
suggestion that we should limit the
number of visitors that are allowed to
come here. “Who the hell is that crazy
gringo again and how stupid is he?”
About half of them were of that mind,
the other half didn't think it prudent
to make that point (The National park
people and the Charles Darwin Foundation
people). It's like "the third rail",
crazy, what would happen to us all? They
should limit the number of visitors and
they should phase out the floating
hotels for the future of, if nothing
else, the goose that's laying the golden
tourist egg. It makes good long term
economic sense. I dare you to hold your
breath.
On a lighter note, it is Mother’s day
today. Here in Ecuador this is, for sons
and fathers the premier weekend to
drink. It gives their mothers something
to worry about and look after and as
this is a Latin culture there is no
greater gift.
I’m lucky enough to receive the female
side of this. You take care of your man
no matter what. “I got a bug bite.” “Oh
my life, I’m so sorry! What can I do to
make you feel better?” She’s like that,
really and then she’ll ask me to please,
before she gives me a massage, can I
take the trash out and please never
again leave the toilet seat up. I’ll
have to think a moment and then be sure;
yes the trash is already out, the toilet
seat down and is that all you have to do
to be treated like a king? Apparently.
The power of the toilet seat and the
trash conquers worlds, opens hearts,
even creates kids.
Coal-gaw-TAY is a brand of toothpaste
(Colgate).
For some reason when I look at the night
sky here, I think the United States is
in the opposite direction than it is.
North seems like south. My guess is
after a lifetime of living on a
perpendicular coast, living on an island
where there’s great expanses of ocean on
all sides, I get disoriented.
Bere is in Quito now, eight months
pregnant and we talk on the phone
morning and nights. At nights when we
are signing off we say, “I’ll see you in
my dreams” and we sometimes do.
Somehow fire ants were introduced to
these islands. They’re tiny. They give
you a bite the wells up and itches like
a mosquito bite. They’re locally called
“gringas” after the broken hearts the
local boys have received.
There is a betting pool on when Bere
will “give the light” (have the kid). I
have May 32nd. February has February
29th every four years, but if our son is
born on May 32nd, it will be the only
May 32nd in the entire millennium and
that will have happened in the year
2007.
Siempre Amor,
Rick and Bere |
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April 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Below you’ll find a letter forwarded to
me from one of our “hearts” (clients) to
one of our potential “hearts”. We get a
lot of nice letters. This one
practically made me cry.
But first some scribbles.
I was surfing just this mid day in some
very, very pretty, good sized waves,
completely alone save for a sea lion
friend who would catch/surf the same
waves with me, follow me back out. I
paddled way too slow for his tastes so
for fun, he’d fly out of the water one
side of me and land on the other. While
waiting for waves he’d surface right
next to the board and splash water in my
face with his flippers. We were at it
for almost three hours during which time
I engineered in my mind the floating
play pen I plan on anchoring outside the
break for our impending son, complete
with a hole for the seals to enter. I
imagined checking in our kid between
waves, to find him in the loving embrace
of a seal pup, a flipper splayed gently
over his belly, his head tucked neatly
below the seal’s whiskered muzzle. There
is no doubt in my mind this kid will
want to live in New York City when he
grows up, be an attorney or god knows
what.
The other day when the surf was down,
for exercise I swam out to the yachts
and back a couple times, snorkeled
around with the fish, rays, turtles and
seals… ah what a life this New York City
bound kid will have and us too watching
him grow. When I got out of the water
with the snot dribbling out of my
previously masked nose, there was a
woman waiting for me on the beach.
There is an international
organization/cooperation of people whose
goal it is to help the local people of
various tourist locations develop their
own small businesses. They are opposed
to the large tourism companies who make
money from places their business are
doing nothing short of ruining. They’ve
scheduled a symposium/presentation here
in San Cristobal next week. It was on my
calendar to attend. The town right now
is also full of politicals, people with
agendas (not tourists) as our country is
in the process of redefining itself and
the islands of the Galapagos are both a
state and an important asset of our
country. It’s odd to see all these types
of people here, particularly with the
airport closed for repairs. Apparently
this symposium is a big deal, even
bigger with the extra political stuff.
This gal (Italian) is the chief
administrator of this organization and
wanted to ask me two things: could they
use our company as an example of how to
do what they’re trying to promote and
would I be willing to make a
presentation at this symposium?
Here’s the thing. Bere should be making
the presentation. She started and
developed the bed and breakfast movement
here before anyone had any idea. She
developed all the relationships which
have/are helping us now and really, this
is her island, her pueblo. Even after
the last five years I often feel I’m
only a… the word beneficiary comes to
mind.
Bere for her part, stuck in Quito is
developing our other child (the business
being the older brother) and what we do
is talk on the phone morning and night.
We’re both missing out on things I wish
we were doing together, but the time is
short with the kid due in June. I’ll be
leaving in a couple of weeks to be with
her and by the end of that month, we’ll
all three be together here again and I
can show Bere my design for the floating
play pen. She’ll slap me silly, not be
sure whether I’m joking or not, but it
was a wonderful day dream.
Siempre Amor,
Rick and Bere
Rick and Bere,
FYI - my thoughts on our trip. Wishing
we were there! How big is that belly now
Bere?
Miss you guys!
Dawn
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Dawn and T.J. Demas
<demasmail@yahoo.com>
To: MONTGOMERY LAWRENCE
<dandylizard@msn.com>
Sent: Friday, May 4, 2007 10:49:17 AM
Subject: Re: Come to Galapagos
Hi Andy,
Glad you're considering a trip to the
Galapagos - it was the most fun trip
we've had as a family. The Come to
Galapagos tour was absolutely the best
choice for us and probably a great
choice for you considering the similar
ages of your children (ours are both
10).
So here's the scoop as we experienced
it, hope it answers all your questions:
-The Come to Galapagos tour is great for
families because you are not trapped in
a group agenda that may not suit you.
The tour and schedule are completely
flexible and suited to the daily needs
of the family (Ex. One day our kids were
just exhausted so Rick quickly changed
the agenda to include an afternoon nap
and free time on the beach, by dinner
everyone was back on track). If there is
something that is not turning out to be
enjoyable, you leave. If there's
something that is super fun, you stay
longer or do it again.
-This trip was also well suited to our
family as we prefer activity and
adventure over luxury or fine dining.
Our accommodations were clean, lovely and
simple. The meals were tasty and
plentiful and well suited to our likes
and dislikes, but you will not find four
star accommodations and dining on the
island (and we liked it that way!)
-With our kids, snorkeling was a big hit.
We were glad we waited until they were
pretty strong swimmers before making a
trip like this. We wished we had
invested in spring wet suits for them as
they were not able to tolerate the water
for as long as they would have liked to
snorkel.
-Another big hit with our kids was the
art lessons. When we go back, they
requested that they do art every
afternoon. Senora Jackie and Senor Pabo
are both lovely and gentle souls. The
art was a great wind-down activity
toward the end of the day after big
adventures in the morning.
-We wished we had known more Spanish!
The people of San Cristobal are so
friendly, welcoming and interesting - it
was frustrating not to be able to chat
more with them. On the other hand,
having a guide around helped us enjoy a
great deal of interaction, despite the
language barrier.
-We wondered if we would enjoy having a
"guided" trip with a stranger there with
you for much of your family vacation. We
found that Rick has an incredible
insight into this dynamic and has set up
these trips and trained his guides
beautifully. We loved having someone
plan everything and just tell us where,
when and what to wear. At the same time,
he was never intrusive and just seemed
to appear when we needed something. This
was a great help when travelling with
kids. It really allowed me as "Mom" to
relax and not feel responsible for every
detail.
-Don't miss the farm or the fishing
trip. They provided fun activities that
were also educational and enriching for
us all. We had the children journal
during the trip and make scrapbooks when
they got back. They each gave
presentations to their classes at school
and their teachers were blown away by
the insights they had into the people,
animals and history of the islands - all
without cracking a book!
-Lastly, Rick and Bere are truly
incredible and visionary. The heart with
which they established Come to Galapagos
is so evident in everything they do.
They are truly committed to bringing the
islands and tourists together in a new
way that benefits both. We were so
touched by our interactions with the
people of San Cristobal. But what really
blew us away was that they were touched
that we came and spent time on their
island and were interested in their
lives and stories.
I can sum our experiences up with this -
by the end of the trip, Rick had so
accommodated our every wish and
anticipated our every need that we truly
considered having Come to Galapagos
t-shirts made that said "Thank God for
Rick!" on the back!
Please let me know if you have any other
questions - I hope you get to go!
Sincerely,
Dawn Demas |
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