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Galapagos/Ecuador 2 of 2

MONDAY, 11/4/91: Wake at 10:30PM, 12:15, 2:30, and buffeting is pretty bad but not the WORST. Wake at last at 5:10 after CRAZY dream (see below), and we're nowhere NEAR land. Get up at 5:35 and shit humongously and find J Marie slept in STEERING cabin: "I didn't displace ANYONE because they were ALL up steering all night," And at 5:50 she asks Captain when we arrive, and he says, "Ten minutes," and when I put on shoes for purchase and protection on deck wet and slippery from FIRST rain of trip, I see PALM trees on far left, which must be those they imported to give Villamil, a village of 600-700, the "most beautiful look of any town of the four in the Galapagos," though the work on the airport THERE has stopped "for various factional reasons." Now that I write this at 5:57AM, everyone's looking for rocks at the entrance to the harbor. Now the dream: a combination of Susan M. and Delores F. (they're close physically ANYWAY, I should recall) is with me on a trip to what may be Paris. We stay in what HAD been an inexpensive hotel for which I BELIEVE I've reserved for $40 per night, but it LOOKS redone and VERY elegant and she's worried it'll be too expensive. PREVIOUS bit had me riding on TOP of a two-passenger elevator going up and down in an office building in which I wanted to reach floor 8, but kept getting on EXPRESS elevator that went to a fashion photographer's penthouse on 28. At the hotel I ASK about a famous restaurant and get TAXIED to it: it, too, is VERY elegantly redone, and a My Fair Lady-type production number has elegant couples in evening clothes promenading down grand staircases to the "Luxury Dining Room" to symphonic strings, which shifts to a jazzier sound as the LOWER passengers descend on an ESCALATOR to a cafeteria that's STILL trying to be very elegant. At the entrance to a shop I give an odd SPASM of a jerk and knock over an amethyst crystal with a barnacle (from the top of the turtle yesterday) on a wand, breaking it into three pieces. I'm aghast, but say it was an ACCIDENT as the doorman holds up the three pieces to me REPEATEDLY, and I say, "Well, what can I DO, REPAIR it?" Jerk about suddenly waiting on line, and again in a lobby, and these elegant old women look at me with withering disdain. When I waken, tossed in bed by the boat's rocking, I realize my DREAM body is experiencing the shocks my PHYSICAL body is undergoing---not a FIRST (like feeling cold when I'm cold, having to pee when I have to pee), but surely the most DRASTIC. Ship has now STOPPED at 6:05 and I go back up on deck. Stops raining for a bit: ships are anchored way OUT from town, so it's a dry landing from the PANGA. I collect my rain-damp snorkeling clothing and snorkel and mask, put things out to dry, and fill my wallet for tips and beer and excursion to Villamil. Everyone's up but Dick for early breakfast-start at 6:25. Breakfast OVER at 6:55, just after Dick arrives, and everyone in cabins 3 and 4 complains of the NOISE, the "stinkiness" of cabin 5, and the bounciness of cabins 1 and 2. I guess I pretty much lucked out. Everyone torpid after eating, except Mary bouncing about, asking the Captain, "Was it hard for you last night?" "No," simple response. Sun tries to break through, but there are DARK clouds in the east. "It's a pretty little village, like a postcard," she crows. 7AM: I'll be off this ship in twelve hours, after dinner. Another phase of the trip over---where's the NEXT "boat on water" piracy threat? Juan Carlos, exiting to talk to Captain, sits momentarily ABOVE him on railing, his feet on the same level as the Captain's seat, and I see him in this pose OFTEN: on the top of a rock, STANDING on the bowsprit rail looking for whales, STANDING in the Panga, front and back---his GREAT ALTITUDE! Did I mention that Juan Carlos gave me the great (outdated) Quasar Nautica GUIDEBOOK last night? Best "get" of trip! Start packing, a good thing because my Park Entrance Tax paper is buried in my other papers, found at 7:40AM. Off at 7:45 and land at "picturesque" Villamil at 8, but it's embarrassingly poor to photo (Blue Whale is new ITALIAN hotel to RIGHT of beach for 3500 sucres per night and 1500 sucres for food!) (with hot showers and hot TUBS!). Two dreary flamingos in dreary pool and it's rumored it's "one mile" to 1915-1918 convict-built stone wall 300 meters long and 10 meters thick at the base. It's 10 KILOMETERS round trip! Leave for there 8:45, arrive and climb by 10:15, and EXHAUSTED back along mangrove, woods, beach track by 11:50, and back to ship for colorful lunch at 12:05. I photo it, have a liter of Coke, and conk out at 12:30 as I almost complete packing and lie down. Lie and then go to photograph from porthole, and think, and up at 5:35 to find we're not even there by 6PM! Finish ALL packing, and find Videocam instructions on dining table! Write this to 6PM, sweating like crazy but "fresh" in never-worn Van Gogh Movers T-shirt. How HUMID it is; RAINED all day on and off, NOT in Villamil, thank God. No one seems to know how this will END! Everyone's in upper cabin, waiting, and at 5:45 Captain says, "Fifteen minutes." Dark closes in and we can't see ANYTHING. Enter harbor at 6:30, but no one answers radio calls from Captain or Juan Carlos. Crew mutters and works at anchor. Juan Carlos says he'll take "all baggage" to hotel and be sure to check Delores into the biggest room. COOL outside, enough for jacket. I bring up shoulder bag, loaded with everything, and write this by 6:45. Kali and Eric going home Saturday. Shoes on, this written, anchor down, ship rocking, all due in for pizza as Delores's treat (recall Mary's comment on Michael's statement: "As long as she brings in the money," and her "I was determined to get a job that brings in at least a quarter of a million a year"). At last Kali goes below to get a pair of socks! Boat rocks to a halt and people talk of trivia. LAST Panga ride---loaded with luggage and in the dark! Juan Carlos is 26 years old, J Marie "older," Mary is a few years older than Dick, so she's oldest. They're now totaling our BAR bills, at 7:07, and Juan Carlos STILL can't raise the office or the hotel! Total inane madness, as we rock in Puerto Ayora swells. My beer bill is 21 beers plus $10 T-shirt, but they SAY they're missing three CASES of beer, or 72 bottles! I accept an extra five, making 26, practically two per day, ridiculous. Juan Carlos keeps calling HOGA, HOGA for Hotel Galapagos, and no answer! It was $10 per WEEK for soft drinks, so it's $15 for our stay, for a total of $51 bar bill. Off at 7:15, through DARK bay and DARK streets to "Las 4 Lanternas" for "4 Lanterns" pizza and two bottles of wine for $19 and $18! I give $20 toward bill, and I don't think anyone else paid anything else. I gave $50 to Captain for him and the crew, and slipped Juan Carlos $50 at the table, as directed by the ground rules. To Hotel Galapagos at 9:20PM. Rules: 1) electricity only on from 6-7AM to midnight, 2) spiders are endemic and safe, 3) desalinated water for cleaning and cooking is perfectly safe, 4) laundry is outside my room: no machines, all by hand, on stones; fill out laundry slip; take in morning, it's washed and dried and put on a line, take it off "if climate permits, there'll be no water, only sun." 5) bar and soft drinks absolutely self-service honor system. The good water comes from the valve in the FAR corner of the bar; 6) keys always in office, 7) meals: check what you want: breakfast at 7:30, lunch at noon, dinner at 7PM. Wednesday we get a chartered bus to the highlands, Tuesday do we want to charter a boat? Juan Carlos Naranjo gives his address to Michael and Delores. End orientation at 9:40PM. Into room at 9:45, GREAT! Room is listed at $38, breakfast at $5.50, lunch at $6.50, and dinner at $10, plus 10% tax and 10% service = $72 per day! I'm EXHAUSTED and RIGHT to bed. RIGHT away, my house spider in the bathroom is three inches across legs. One below front door is only one inch. Swell. ALL clothes off but right sock for moleskin, earplugs in, lights off 9:55. Up again to take RIGHT sock off---my FEET REALLY feel in BAD shape!

TUESDAY, 11/5/91: Wake at 6:15, room bright with light, birds calling, ocean surf audible, and funny drips that may be rain or someone's showering. Dream: I'm watching an elaborate opera with viewers on enormous vertical walls of seats that move up and down. It's very modern music, and some predict it'll be great, some that it'll be awful, and some say it's a kind of elaborate hoax or ruse just to get publicity for author or composer or the Arts Center that's putting it on. Then there's a mysterious segment in which a painting or manuscript is completed or verified by superimposing two pieces and getting a photographic negative of the solution, in tripartite sections. More to it, and it seemed wonderful and rich when I woke in the dark, but had no energy to transcribe it then. What a WONDERFUL hotel to WAKE in! Unpack and separate MORE than $10 in laundry out and shower and curse Kali for singing "Star-Spangled Banner" in the shower next door. Delores said that our Captain was the captain of the Solitude when it sank, and Juan Carlos was the guide on the Merak when it smashed into the rocks. Shower and get things away and out to breakfast at 7:30, having to RESERVE my two slices of bacon before the others take them, and have a good talk with Jack Nelson, the owner/iguana. Delores and Michael charter a boat for South Plaza Island for today for $120, first for four since Kali isn't going, then just us three when Eric checks out (and supposedly not for money [though he says he HAS no money], since Michael offers him FREE passage if he wants it; hm). I lounge in hammock and boatman comes at 9:03AM. Guide arrives at 9:05, with pickup truck. Delores, of course, then has to go to the john! To boat at 9:35, to island by 11:45, onto beach, photo; I return to boat at 12:30 for lunch, back at 12:45, around trail, lots of birds, seals, iguanas, and Michael gets "light-headed" at 3:30 and we're back on board at 3:45 for LONG ride, tranquil and physically rocky, back to bay at 6:15 and hotel at 6:35 by "carro" paid by Michael, with whom I must square. To room at 6:45 to wash and put things away, to dinner at 7 to fruit with whiskey. Buy $14 AWFUL red wine for Michael and me and dine from 7:15 to 7:45, when I'm DYING to sleep---odd chocolate dessert. To bed at 7:55! Wake at 11:25 with odd dream, pee, brush imaginary spider from left ankle, and open day-bag to find that water from the boat made this BOOK wet! Hope not MUCH is lost and it DRIES OK! (And it did, perfectly preserved!) Write day till 11:30 and then dream, odd since BOTH main characters are dead: Bruce L. is somehow John Lennon's BROTHER, and they're staying upstairs from us (Mom, Rita, and I in about 1957, though Rita isn't 10 but about 14), and I've wanted to get Rita a DATE with John Lennon through Bruce L., for her birthday, which is now LONG past. I think I've had a dream LIKE this before, because there's a FAMILIAR sense of "If I can just do THIS, THEN I can ask Bruce L. for a date with John Lennon for Rita." GET "this" done this time, but I have something ELSE to do, but get the angry report from Mom that Rita's CRYING about it, and I'd better do SOMETHING FAST. I feel TERRIBLY guilty and start upstairs to FIND Bruce L. when I wake up.

WEDNESDAY, 11/6/91: Wake at 5:50, MUST have been tired, and laze till 6:45, put things away, shower, and get to breakfast of eggs and bologna and Delores tries to toast bread, incinerating a slice she can't get out in order to toast ANOTHER slice for herself. I stay outside from 7:50 to 8:50, watching waves and thinking of my last full day in the Galapagos. Lots of tiny marine iguanas in front of hotel. Back to restaurant to glance through Tanaka's book from 1971, and on the bus it turns out he's ARRIVING today. Also look at Salwen's better Galapagos book. To room for jacket and sunscreen and bus is BOARDING at 9:35, early! Up to three HUGE holes of lava collapse, then to SAME farm (see notes in back of Wild Seed: garrapata: bird that eats ticks off cattle, but ALSO (they think) eats FINCHES, so FARMERS want them SAVED for cattle and ECOLOGISTS want to get RID of them. They're SCALESIA trees, not EScalesia. It's BABACO fruit. 10/29, 2:15PM: smoke and engine off! "Mary's tears" is another name for "lantern flowers." Light yellow Ecuadorean fruit juice is naranjillo. We went twice to Steve Divine's farm in the highlands. The "deadly" fish was a scorpionfish. The blossoms the iguanas like so much are muyuyo. The red candle-flowers are guyavillo. For our rental, my share of the boat was $100, the highlands was $25, and the transfer from the hotel to the plane is $16, for a total of $141. List of books glanced through at Hotel Galapagos: 1) Tanaka, Kojo: Wild Life in Latin America (Japanese), 1971; 2) Salwen, Peter: Galapagos, The Lost Paradise, 1989; 3) National Geographic: Majestic Island Worlds (Galapagos first), 1987; 4) Moore, Tui de Roy: Galapagos, Islands Lost in Time, 1980; 5) Cribb, James: Subtidal Galapagos, 1986; 6) Steadman, David: Galapagos, Discovery on Darwin's Islands, 1988 (mine); 7) Farb, Nathan: Galapagos (photos), 1981; 8) Rogers, Barbara Radcliffe: Galapagos, 1990; 9) Time-Life Books: Dangerous Sea Creatures, 1976; 10) Earle, Sylvia: Exploring the Deep Frontiers, 1980; 11) Rowell, Galen: Mountain Light, 1986 (only photos, no Galapagos))from 11:30-2:15, with ALMOST same pictures, except a vaquero herding cows, some horses, and an abruptly ended turtle-fuck. Back to Lava Tunnel and Delores INSISTS on returning to town to shop, "And I'm HUNGRY." Only later do I recall she's CLAUSTROPHOBIC! Off at 2:20 at tube-entrance, long hot bumpy core I'm DELIGHTED to have TV of, and back out at 2:50 JUST as bus pulls up. Back to "Henri's" in town, "guide's friend," but he only has Rosti Potatoes with eggs or cheese, which I choose with a $2.20 Budweiser. Eat quickly and back to Hotel to get traveler's checks, and walk WAY into Fundacion Charles Darwin for three extra-large (everyone INSISTS) T-shirts for $33, she giving me $17 US in change! Back to hotel, tired, to write this to 4:50, planning to take Southern Comfort over to lounge to look at books. Delores and Michael come in at 5PM and say they're going to dinner! I say, "5PM?" They say, "Yes." So I read till 6:30 (see above list), and manager gives me 1) comment cards for all five of us, 2) asks how we want our bills, and 3) presents ME with break for a) $330 for boat, b) 5 x $25 for Highlands, and c) $80 for five transfers tomorrow. I get out for 4 Lanternas, finding Michael and Delores RETURNING, but they come BACK with me to find I owe $141 of extra-hotel bill, and he gets beer and Delores gets Coke while I get two glasses of wine (marked up from 1500 to 2000 sucres) and Lomo (sirloin) scallopine, not so great, and so-so chocolate dessert, for TOTAL bill of 10,000 sucres, of which I pay $10,600 and Michael contributes 500 to even out the tip. I'm GRATEFUL for their JOINING me. Some CUTE guys at next tables, and we leave at 8PM for hotel. Eric comes in and we all talk MORE, and I leave at 8:15 and brush teeth and write this to 8:30, doling out last pills and getting ready for 8AM bus tomorrow, which means packing, paying bills, and breakfast before then. Take a Buspar, just in case. Get to bed, prepared to do lightwork, at 8:40PM.

THURSDAY, 11/7/91: 2:20AM: Frustration dream: I'm riding on a crosstown bus on West 100th Street in northern Manhattan, when "last stop" is announced. On getting off, I see conductor handing out transfers to Second Avenue, Third Avenue, and Fourth Avenue lines. It occurs to me I could go UP Second Avenue line to do one errand at East 220th Street, so I ask for a transfer. "I'm all out," she says shortly. "But I NEED one," I protest. "I'll go get one," she lies, and leaves. I wait and wait, and complain to local newsstand operator, who can't do anything. Well, maybe I can walk to 121 West 100th Street, where Bernice C. HAD been moving OUT, but now I can check on---what WAS it? And in this DOUBLE frustration I wake to pee and take a second Buspar, hoping the light I turned on THREE times will NOT light at 6AM! Better pull plug! 2:35AM, recall SECOND dream fragment: I'm having a VERY late lunch in the IBM cafeteria (like at Henri's, yesterday?) and my "moral supervisor" says, "Remember, you have duty July 4, I have duty December 25, and we have to find someone for January 1." I agree, though puzzled as to what I DO, as this is my first time as some sort of supervisory "watchman," and hope I can get off by the 9PM FIREWORKS so I can watch them without shirking my duty. Also, he mentions to Sherryl that he has to know her HOURLY whereabouts! We both think this is rather stringent for a mere TEACHER at IBM, but it seems to be becoming a kind of esoteric, important, SCHOOL. She stumbles, saying, "Well, I was maybe going to see my Mother this weekend, or my brother upstate---," and the dream ends in unresolved problematic frustration. 5:40AM Dream 3: Some guy and I are trying to take a 5-6-year-old boy away from his parents and home to develop into some kind of seer or prophet, but the parents want him with them and have taught him to say, "Please don't take me away. I want to stay home with my parents." We try toys and tricks and games, but still he refuses. We don't want to try force. We ask anyone we can: how can we best do this? It shifts slightly when I ask some sexy guy, "How can I get someone to think of ONE WORD I want him to say. Call it thought transference." The task seems to be of great difficulty. It shifts again to trying to get some authoritarian WOMEN to approve a PROJECT we want to do, and getting Juan Carlos's advice on how best to do it: bribery, good food, sex with Juan Carlos? Wake and note this THIRD dream and take a third Buspar and shit to 6AM. Back to brood and up reluctantly at 6:25. Don't shower for first "day" in ages (probably will before dinner tonight to get humid smell off body), and put everything into two packs at 7:05. Over to pay hotel bill of $205 in traveler's checks, mad because they don't take credit cards. Look at more books to 7:30, breakfast of flapjacks and wieners till 7:50, and then MAIN manager takes MasterCard and I blurt, "But I already paid in traveler's checks!" And he makes the exchange. Bus WAS to be at 8, but I get my passport and flight tickets back from Eric and note this at 8:10, late. Into bus with Eric and Kali at 8:25, and Michael and Delores join at 8:30, my duffel packed on TOP of the bus! So much for last of Southern Comfort! Start off at 8:30 to airport, Eric and Kali jabbering FOREVER! VERY dusty road, and bumpy, stalled behind bulldozer for bit, Denis (the manager) jabbering. Land at wharf at 9:50, SCHOOLS of grunts. 10:10 onto ferry, over at 10:17, and onto bus at 10:25 on Baltra. Baltra is total ugliness, into barracks-style airport at 10:40. Line for tickets, told "get passport stamp from Galapagos." Line forms at 11:30, but stewardess says, "No boarding for an hour." I stand and read, Delores joins me and talks, we DO start on at 12:30. Then note in notes: this is at start of Wild Seed: Get into line with US group at 11:30 as plane taxis in. Delores comes and talks with others and we start boarding at 12:25, getting glorious right window. Michael EXPLODES at Delores for getting no-pack-forward seats and she wheedles him into putting camera bag overhead and sitting next to her in front of me. I set watch ahead to 1:33PM, only 3.5 hours to fly? Off at 1:45, said to be 90 minutes. Some bumps going up and some during flight, and I'm HYPER, so I take another Buspar, then two beers with lunch, only 1000 sucres. Awful chicken and veggies and rice, clouds mostly below, except strip of coast, then roads and villages and industrial zones, then CIRCLE Guayaquil and land exactly 90 minutes later, though she says it's only 3:10? Lounge AGAIN CLOSED to shopping. To quote Eric: "Bummer." Announce boarding at 3:45. Board 4:10--great? Move at 4:25, off at 4:30, land at 5. Clouds mostly, nice to land LOCAL, without immigration or x-raying film. Luggage comes quickly, but my duffel has a WET streak across the top that smells of SOUTHERN COMFORT! All but a SIP lost. NOT many clothes VERY wet, thankfully. Delay going to hotel while Delores and Michael and Kali and Eric stop at American Airlines office two blocks from hotel (which office closes at 6PM) to get their tickets all changed to SATURDAY, so I tell Sulaikah I want tours for Saturday through Wednesday and she says I should try at the Metropolitan office near our hotel. To room to find my pants HAVEN'T been done because of the INK stain. I labor and labor with soap, gasping in high air, to get MOST of it off by 7:15, when I dress in AWFUL old dirty white pants and down to meet the four to go to Rincon de Francia for $98 drinks and $50 food that Delores and Michael pay for when they WON'T separate check into three different plastic-paid parts. My cream of mushroom soup tasty (Michael DUMPED pepper into it) but not NEARLY creamy enough; my paté not very rich, and I eat pickles wishing they were gherkins; Kali is allergic to cheese but practically finishes his French onion soup; Delores loves her ravioli; Michael finishes all but the huge pieces of fat of his Tournedos Marchand de Vins; and my Chateaubriand is dry, since I'm having NO wine but they graciously open and serve me Guitig mineral water without my asking. Leave at 10:30, EXHAUSTED, but not quite as put out as the French couple next to us: he in PARIS T-shirt and jacket, she in skinny black silk sharing his cigar, rolling their eyes at Delores's INCESSANT, LOUD prattle. To bed and INSTANTLY to sleep at 10:50.

FRIDAY, 11/8/91: Wake at 6:05 and lie till 6:50 to make it eight hours. Up to shower, taking the moleskin off and scraping off all the smelly dead skin and putting on a simple Band-Aid---also taking off the second-toe protector. Put ALL stuff away by 8AM, and AGAIN hassle pants: put them into TWO bags, they'll do one FREE, sorry. Down to non-eating Eric and small-eating Michael for breakfast, me with $6 buffet, and we meet at 8:50 with Kali and Eric to grab cab to Colonial Quito for 600 sucres (I would have paid what I thought was 6000 sucres on the meter!) to Plaza del Teatro. Walk short way to San Agustin, across to Santo Domingo, getting San Francisco (which I thought was La Compania), then to Museo de Arte Colonial, where they leave me and I tour it all and can't video polychromed wood, only the patio, then to another church turned into an Infant's School, down to La Merced, to reconstructing-now Plaza Mejor, Cathedral, and CLOSED La Compania. It's only open in the early morning. Back to Theatre at 11:55, EXHAUSTED, to hotel for 1500 sucres, up to room to collapse. Decide I MUST have lunch, so after watching GOOD TV I'm down, around three blocks, and eat at downstairs Tavelli for 1200 soup (awful vegetable with grease and bones thrown in free), arroz con pollo, GOOD, and papaya juice (I HOPE with good water) at 2:30, for which I pay 1500 she bills me, returning 500 bill I can hardly tip with, so I guess it included tax and tip. Call Delores when I look at the Galapagos Travel sheets and see La Terraza del Tartaro only two blocks from here. She says, "Fine for 6PM, since we have to be up at 5AM for flight tomorrow." I'm out to Terraza, up to ninth floor, see side elevator, and down and up to tenth floor to see good menu, but they only open at 7PM. Back to phone Delores and Eric, getting Kali, and it sounds fine with them. To Metropolitan at 3:30, getting $34 Otavalo tour for Saturday but NOTHING for Sunday through Wednesday. ALL FULL! Check at Ecuadoreana and find same news. Back to hotel at 4 to doze till 5, then watch TV to 5:45, having phoned Sulaikah to say, "No tours, do YOU have any?" She calls me at 5:50 to say, "Your flight is Sunday; American Airlines is open till 6:30 tonight. Check." I dash out with ticket and itinerary that DOES say Sunday, November 10! I'm SAVED! Back to hotel, ecstatic, and take key down to say I'm here TWO more nights and that's ALL! Meet Eric and tell HIM the joke! Back up, energized, to finish this and my pants return AT LAST looking great. Finish this by 6:45, then dress and down to meet them as planned at 6:50PM. When I unpack pants I think they're $16.56, but a later look proves they're only $1.65! They're waiting for me and Delores PRAISES my white pants! To top at 6:59 and door's still closed, to open at 7:01, and we're seated by the fireplace until 7:10. AWFUL thin cream of mushroom soup worries me, but the REST is all good, my Lomo al Verano excellent and TOO much to finish (my Salteandro drink mostly creme de menthe), and the flaming bananas prepared AT the table are wonderful, topped by a Pinot Undurraga for 12,000, a total of 82,884 that Kali and Eric SHARE with me, disgusting Michael who throws in an extra 5000 sucres tip. Back over crowded Friday night streets, and I zip out of clothes and gulp down pills and put in earplugs for VERY noisy streets, and get to bed feeling STUFFED but pleased at 9:25PM. Can't sleep and don't turn on TV for relief.

SATURDAY, 11/9/91: (from Wild Seed notes): Wake at 4:20, look at watch at 4:55, doze, think, feel tired, and suddenly it's not 5:40 but 6:40! Up and dress and gather stuff and chocolate. Down at 7. Four others from our hotel and we're picked up at 7:20. To three other hotels: Colon, Oro Verde, and Quito, waiting at each, going through the "middle class" north side of Quito, SAYING, "We're fifteen minutes late," some Otavalo markets closing at 11. Delays due to road construction. GREY cloud over city, military guards at some rich enclaves or embassies, and stop in Calderon at 8:15 for "Figuras de Masapan," with other stuff, and I feel TOTALLY "tranquilized out." Disgusting tourists outside smoking. I don't feel INTEREST IN, or a PART of, this, KNOWING if I were on a comparable tour in France, Italy, or Germany, I'd be up. Read. Leave at 8:45! 9:35 stop at VERY touristy "Equator Line." Jabber to 9:45. 9:55 stop at Casa de Fernando to piss and eat cheese to---oops, CLOSED, as was El Rancho a minute later! Stop at 10 at Las Cabanas de Napoles. "Did you like it?" asks driver. "Yeah," I snap. What: rolls of bland cow and goat cheese with even more bland biscuits? The sad zoo with two coati-monkey types, birds, and geese? Piss in urinal while women use men's john. Leave at 10:25! Otavalos are Japanese and Jews of Ecuador: all over WORLD! Stop above Otavalo 10:45-10:50. In at 11:05, corner of Sucre and Quito, and I take three circle-vistas, despairing of anything else. Couldn't buy a thing! Faces: old, young, suckling, mad, pleading, happy, handsome, distressed, ethnic, touristic, selling, buying, calculating, aloof, friendly, desperate---impossible to begin to try to capture, and I'm among last to bus at 12:30, wet from rain and sweat, sorry not to have caught "free" music from "Idealism" that I should PAY for it if I record it. Cotacachi main street for leather from 12:50-1:32 (kids singing and selling). Feel just mentally AWFUL! Lunch at pretty (cloudy) Puerto Lago from 1:55-3:40! BEST of three cream of mushroom soups. GOOD shrimp and bacon, and bananas flambe WITHOUT ice cream. Raining ALL THROUGH lunch---this is El Nino for SURE. Road back is long: dramatic sweep over muddy river, built by oil company to get oil out, and I'm just EXHAUSTED. Still gray over the city; would I rather have it sunny and over-hot or cloudy and not much view? To hotel JUST at 6PM, no tip as she averts her face distastefully as I leave bus, and to room feeling exhausted and CHILLED, like I'm coming DOWN with something. Watch TV for a bit, but the RECEPTION goes, and I feel feverish, so I FORGET free drink and dinner and take ten vitamin C pills and a Buspar and sleeping pills at 7:10 and try to sleep. Toss and turn. At 7:40, before I drop off to doze, Sulaikah phones to say she has two BAGS she must take from hotel to airport, so she CAN transfer me for $8! I feel GREAT: if I'm coming down with the flu, cholera, or diarrhea, I'll have someone to TEND me on the way to the airport! Look at watch at 10:30, then at 11:55, hoping it would be at LEAST 2, and then thankfully to sleep after peeing and wake at 4:05 to record three dreams to 4:40 (below), when I can RIGHTFULLY start my long return-home day!

SUNDAY, 11/10/91: 4:10AM: Three sets of dream summaries: 1) slicing, molding, and measuring male sexual performance, 2) spiders at party, and 3) outrageous opera. To start with 3): AGAIN I have a reserved seat HIGH in an old opera house, but I go downstairs through a side entrance and into a "lower orchestra," where sightlines are SO bad that many seats are empty: a) in the CENTER front, where seating is on sofas turned perpendicular to the stage, so you have to crane your head and neck sideways, b) on the sides, where construction girders, set outcroppings, TV camera ramps and emplacements, and arrays of microphones totally obstruct the view, and c) farther back, where screens and elements of the set block a view meant to be seen from ABOVE. I look at some single seats, but the opera's already started and the number of people I'd have to step in front of in the narrow row is too formidable, so when I see a woman seated on the step in an AISLE, I notice cushions on a section divider that do NOT obstruct the view from behind because the aisle stretches behind, so I sit on a cushion and turn to the stage to see the end of what I hope is the FIRST spectacular effect, as a huge aluminum balloon with streamers hanging down, representing a ZEPPELIN taking off, is ascending into the flies with such SPECTACULAR effect that I expect to hear audience applause, but I don't. This is followed by a TRAIN and a bus, coming from opposite sides of the stage, meeting in the center and both roaring into the audience on special ramps built over it, and the SOUND effects (like the helicopter in Miss Saigon) are truly convincing of size, weight, and power. Then two SPEEDBOATS start from the stage, obviously miniature, and roar audiovisually in rivers along each side of the train/bus ramp, and I think, "Oh, Boats, Trains, and Planes, like the movie comedy with John Candy." The sounds of the boats go Doppler JUST as they pass MY seat, and I wonder if it's chance, or they can somehow arrange it for EVERY seat in the house. But AS these effects culminate, MY seat starts rolling BACKWARD and UPWARD as each main stage-effect widens and deepens the view, until I'm pulled back JUST about to where my original subscription seat was! The opera is an old Korngold or Friml antiquated piece with set songs and a stupid plot, and as a duet finishes and the curtains close for intermission, the two old women next to me say to me, "You could become pregnant here, because, as you know, the plot device here is that HE is pregnant!" I don't remember that, OR the women, but they remember ME, because the nearer one asks, "How was your trip to Greece?" "My trip to GREECE! Well, SINCE then, I can ALSO tell you about my trips by train from London to Hong Kong, my trip to China, my trip to the Antarctic, and my RECENT trip to the Galapagos!" My talk is interrupted by well-dressed, volunteer, society usherettes handing out a contest/lottery/opera-support brochure that involves paying money to solve an illustrated mystery in the pages of a brochure you'd buy, with a large cash prize for the first correct solution. I debate contributing and trying to solve the puzzle when I wake and find, gratefully, that it's 4:05 and I can start my day! 2) About the spiders: starts with my going from the dining room at 1221 Dietz into the kitchen, and being stopped by Mom's shocked glance to (her) upper right, and in (my) upper LEFT of the doorway is an ENORMOUS spider whose legs and body seem to be made from bent BANANAS (so it MUST be a tarantula?). I react rather calmly, and I'm suddenly sitting in a living room at a party and, on the coffee table in front of me, a fat BLACK spider has been pinioned by a hand-barbell, and a remark LATER says he was permanently deformed "like an arm numbed from having been slept upon." It's my and Mom's apartment, and a long, lobster-like creature scuttles across the coffee table and we apologize to our guests, saying we've NEVER had such a problem with spiders. There are also FLIES, in clouds, in places, and we're both spraying furiously, and I go into her bedroom at 1221 Dietz and she's spraying and I suggest it might be more effective if we SHUT her DOOR after we spray, so all the flies can't escape the spray by leaving the room. Afterward, in the kitchen, there were two large SPLOTCHES of blood or catsup on the white tile floor, alongside an array of long-to-short catsup LINES, and I remark that it's QUITE unusual to have TWO adjoining catsup accidents, too. 1) In some sort of medical experiment the psychologist is sucking off the HUGE veined cock of an older male patient, who is in such a frenzy to cum that he's plunging his cock in and out of an inexperienced mouth so that the saliva and precum is mixed with BLOOD from cock-lacerations and the mouth of the doctor. We exclaim over the oddity of this experiment, and at the moment of orgasm the cock is cut off by an enormous cleaver that takes off the front part of the legs in a huge half-wedge, and a similar cleaver from the back cuts through the buttocks and the prostate, leaving an anatomical SECTION of the desired physiology at the moment of orgasm. It's very CLEANLY done, no blood, and the wedge-surfaces are clapped with wax or varnish to keep them intact. This wedge is later somehow made into a mold for a series of sex machines that can be fitted onto various bodies and legs for MOTION studies like in Masters and Johnson. Somehow sexy and medical, prurient and scientific, all at the same time. Shower by 5:05AM, and watch Norman Mailer on TV and brush teeth till 5:25. Then start packing, faster and faster, and call bellman at 5:55 to pick up two bags, give him 2000 sucres, and leave with him, hoping I have everything. Down to lobby and Sulaikah isn't there yet, but after I pay my bill for $371,000 sucres (I hope) and cash in 17,000 sucres for $15, there she is with two women---and I thought she said two BAGS! Out about 6:05 to small car she drives, and I give her $20 for $8 transfer and the rest a tip, and she seems genuinely pleased. She sees Cotopaxi and I film it; "In fifteen minutes it's clouded," she says. Madhouse airport at 6:20 made easy by her directions: this line for checking in luggage, then SHE holds my carry-on while I check ticket and get boarding pass for 33F (smoking, she cautions), but 11A back from MIA-NYC, which means LEFT side for continent! Great! All kinds of baggage transfers, and I have to go through customs at Miami. Then to window for $25 cash departure tax, and through immigration line to get exit stamp in my passport. Through x-rays, film out, key setting off personal alarm, and buy B&B for $16 and try a last time for pipes for Stephanie, but what was $3.50 at Figuras is $12 here, so souvenirs are NO bargain at the airport. Have to check B&B prices in NYC. Through to American Airlines lounge---English at last!---at 7:15 and get body-frisk at door and seating-ticket taken as well. They serve tiny cookies and orange juice and coffee! I take glass of juice and as they announce DOUBLE passport exit-check, I step down unseen step and spill half of orange juice (maybe Southern Comfort and orange juice are my water disasters?) on my bag, thankfully waterproof, and surprisingly roomy, even WITH B&B inside. Back to catch up with this by 7:25, feeling fairly GOOD, though left foot hurts on top and I'll be GLAD to get home. No, darn, ticket says seat on next flight is 11F, NOT 11A, so I'm STILL on right over ocean! Drat! Fill out customs form. Miami 1:50 to 4:40 in New York City, 8:20 Quito to Miami 10:50, three whole hours in Miami AGAIN, though maybe TWO hours with TIME change? Check hotel bill for ERROR in Friday-night meal! At 7:35 call for seats in BACK of plane---me! Settled by 7:50, having OPENED my "AM" pillbox in my BIG bag, which I put overhead, while keeping camera and this and my book under my seat. Plane seems VERY EMPTY for my having to take a window in SMOKING. [Notes in Wild Seed followed by Queen of Angels] [Watch end of Jill Kinmont story, Wind on the Mountain (?) with Beau Bridges, and High Noon with LLOYD Bridges.] 11/11: Wake at 2:30 for Buspar and vitamin C and a piss. THAT FINISHES NOTES FROM YELLOW PAD. FROM Wild Seed: 8AM: baggage loaders ONTO plane have stickers they remove to put on "boarded" sheet! 8-5: nine hours to go! 8:15 LOTS of people board, and LOTS of luggage outside! At 8:25 my ticket is changed AGAIN. Take Buspar. Luggage taken OFF and RECHECKED. Military guy checks guy seated in front of me. Wow! Plane nearly full; flight three hours 38 minutes, 39,000 feet. 8:35 they're working on air-conditioning problem! 8:50: Air conditioning NOT fixed: maintenance delay of thirty minutes. 8:55: Thirty- to sixty-minute problem, but we must LEAVE plane. 9AM off: body temperature outside. 9:20 in comes more orange juice, and nuts. 9:50 make reservations on 4:30 flight 574 to LaGuardia at 7:10. Still no air-conditioning fix, BUT still no luggage OFF-loaded onto waiting trucks. I may be here to 11/14 after all! 10:15 get cheese sandwich and juice; this I consider breakfast and take pills. 10:25 they're sending a plane from Miami, here by 2PM? BUT---STILL no luggage on trucks! 10:28 plane from Dallas! At 10:35 take off carry-on luggage---damn, no sleeping pills! 11:10 pick up immigration tickets and luggage and MAKE RESERVATIONS for tomorrow! 11:30 name called; get old ticket, stand in line for new reservation. Finish reading Butler's Wild Seed and dig into bag for Queen of Angels. Line for re-reservations is endless. At 12:20 Sulaikah shows up and commiserates, verifying we'll stay at Hotel Quito, "Where you have a beautiful pool to spend the afternoon, if it doesn't rain." SUPPOSEDLY a plane will pick us up tomorrow, BUT if that's the case, why re-reserve SEPARATELY? 12:50 BACK to desk and hand in my tickets: "No, no flight tonight." To hotel about 2PM, driven by Sulaikah, taxi to Alameda Real and get NEW charge-card slip MINUS Schurmann's dinner. Lunch in coffee shop at 2:30, after seeing that Techo del Mundo is closed, but taking photos from it. Watch TV all day: the end of Other Side of the Mountain (1975) about Jill Kinmont, and High Noon, which sure is slow! Don't feel like going out, but feel I MUST get in something to eat before breakfast on the plane tomorrow, so phone down for room service, who gives me a big story about not packing a box lunch in the evening, or having it on a plate, but I say I want it in BAGS and order sandwiches, and THEN he agrees to a box lunch, and to two beers. Watch more junk TV (How Smart Is Your Dog? on Family TV, for example), drink beers and eat food, including an unknown fruit that I hope doesn't make me sick, and finish just before 9, getting a phone call that I owe more money: "The prices on your Room Service list are wrong." "Send up the manager," I shout, and hang up. Get into bed about 10. Phone rings at 10:45 to ask for my NAME! I determine to write a letter of complaint to Intercontinental Hotels. I wake and look at clock just before midnight.

MONDAY, 11/11/91: Wake at 1:45, 2:10, 4:10, 5:10, and up at 5:15, drugged, disgusted, depressed. Dress slowly, move slowly. Phone for porter at 5:55, 300 sucres tip. Guy at the "Caja" gives up on the person in front of me and just passes me out with a slip to the bellboy from my room number. To NICE eight-passenger bus, off at 6:10, to OUTRAGEOUS 6:25AM line to the END of the BUILDING. 7:25 I'm tired standing; half of standees vanish to make their OWN connections. Rumor of $300 certificate to take Ecuatoriana. 7:45 my CHECKED bag is ticketed for flight 932! Good sign? 8:10 a guy says, "Come to Ecuatoriana, American Airlines flight is FULL!" Twenty minutes of chaos, shouting, and a supervisor got me on the earlier American Airlines flight, thanks to the shouts of a guy just behind me. The Ecuadoriana flight got to Miami at 1:30, so I wouldn't have left Miami AGAIN until 4:30PM! And I'm in seat 35F, GREAT right window in rear, settling in by 8:35AM. Going? Leave at 9AM, STILL empty seats showing (Alison later says that the LUGGAGE made the plane overweight, so they had to cut down on passengers). GREAT mountains, Otavalo, and guy who works with Ecuadorean turkeys sits next to me and names all the peaks. Good breakfast in BUMPY clouds before the Pacific clears, then more bumps, then the San Blas (?) Islands southwest of Panama City, the narrow Panamanian isthmus, lots of atoll-like islands off coast, and LOTS of pleading with cloud-devas (for 74 and 86 seconds of bumpy mid-cloud flying, particularly), and then a GREAT Atlantic Ocean, clear off Miami, landing at 12:40. DASH through customs and immigration, sky-cap baggage trustingly, and onto plane at 1:45 to get to the guy in seat 35E who wants to sit next to his sister and give me seat 28A into the bargain! Perfect! Sit next to Alison and we chat till 2PM, when a standby guy sits between us, and we're GLAD to be aboard! Move back at 2:02PM, and take off at 2:24, stated to be two hours and 38 minutes. Long flight over the interior of Florida, then straight out from the coast, then sharp left turn up the coast, then off into the ocean. Got glasses of soda to quench our thirsts, but the lunch isn't that good. Rather quickly overland, looking like a great sunset, but they say it's raining over New York, and we dip below clouds at 4:25 to almost total darkness and clouds, though thankfully it isn't windy or raining at the moment. Scary two minutes in clouds, a glimpse of the airport that I film, then into clouds again and land just before 5. Sigh with endless relief, and wait for most of the people to leave the plane before getting off and walking endless lines to the luggage-claim, with my bag right there, and refuse a limousine to take a taxi, taking just about 45 minutes to get home for $16, and I have money left over. Phone lots of people and take notes well into the next week, what with my throat infection and cast on my leg and crutches. Say to some that the boat-trip was a bit too long, but it was simply a chance I couldn't pass up, and the 14 hours of videotape will be a priceless souvenir of a trip that came out of nowhere and was MUCH more difficult than it NEEDED be! Couldn't place this fragment on an index-card: at 11PM, I take sleeping pills. Pee at 3AM, as engines start. Stop at 4:53AM, after dream of being MUGGED in a California park!

TUESDAY, 11/12/91: The evening before, I phoned Maya, Dorothy K., Dorothy H., Susan, Brad, and Carolyn; that is, after Dennis, Spartacus, Pope, and Sherryl. Went to bed at 12:05AM and woke at 5:30 sweaty and sore throat, took temperature of 97.9°. Took two aspirins and hot-salt gargle; sneezed three times; woke at 6:30 to shit and shower before going to HIP. Turns out I MISSED calling Sherryl BACK after I got my cast this morning, so she wondered why Dennis was running so many errands for me! Then I took the following notes in the front of Queen of Angels about my morning: Sign in at triage as #8 at 8:05AM. 9:05 in; 9:15 to Dr. Chow. 9:30 in. Had a list of eight questions for him: 1) Left foot---broken fifth metatarsal? X-ray: FRACTURE; 2) Right foot a) blisters healing OK? OK; b) second-little toe STUBBED? "Ordinary pain from PREVIOUS fracture that we HAVE x-rayed before"; 3) BITES on upper left and right thighs? Contact dermatitis, NOT insects; 4) Sore throat? Infection, two weeks Ceclor antibiotic; 5) Stool exam for cholera, giardiasis, E. coli? Not if no diarrhea; 6) 5PM and last-two-days blahs? Throat infection; 7) GET old blood test; 8) Flu shot? NOT with throat infection. 9:40 to x-ray: OVER 1/2-hour wait. 9:45 sign blood-list: OVER an hour's wait. Out for groceries (restricted since I have only $16 cash with me before withdrawing $300 when I get my bank card from home), and book and other errands. 10:45 blood-list gone, sign the NEW, shorter, one. 10:45 x-ray: "She'll be calling you next." In at 11:05, out at 11:10, having taken three angles. Refer to orthopedist, whose secretary says to "Go for blood" at 11:20. 11:30 enter blood, out at 11:40 after four ampules taken. [Dr. Chin calls with results on 11/22: Cholesterol 214, triglycerides 263; no diabetes or liver or kidney problems. "Watch your diet, or we may give you very mild anti-cholesterol medication."] 11:48 in to orthopedist, and out just after noon with a CAST. Hobble over to deposit checks and get checking balance, but take a CAB three blocks home for $4! Telephone in my prescription when Dr. Chow won't do it (though he gives his telephone number if Pathmark needs him to verify it), and Spartacus picks it up with his credit card because it's $82! Dennis goes for my vitamin C later and they give me a special price because they'd asked me how much I'd paid for it and I told them! The rest of the day was a pain getting used to crutches, and probably talking with the rest of the people on my list: Rolf, Stephanie, Louise, Tony, Terry K. (who was on vacation, and I had to call back Monday), Bob R., John S., Mom, George P., Shelley, Marj, cancel my dental appointment, and call Chin for my blood results.

WEDNESDAY, 11/13/91: Bed at 11:30PM and woke at 5:30 AGAIN with sore throat; took salt gargle and antibiotic and got up at 7:45AM. Phoned Dr. M. about how to handle cast, but when he didn't call back, I decided to walk on the foot when I wanted, but it ended up sore in the evening, so I decided THAT was a bad idea. Made a list of questions. Dennis gets groceries; John agrees to bring up my mail and continue watering my plants and get groceries.

THURSDAY, 11/14/91: Bed 1AM and up at 9AM. Realize they STOLE little "Olympia and York" carry-bag at the airport 11/11! Still catching up with junk.

FRIDAY, 11/15/91: Bed at 12:50AM and up at 9:35AM, settling a PATTERN of about nine hours. Asked Dr. M.'s secretary about standing on it while doing dishes, walking on it in apartment, and got the orders: NO weight-bearing and if it's not swollen, there's no need to elevate it. I omit asking other questions.

SATURDAY, 11/16/91: Bed at midnight, gargle at 4:30AM, up at 9AM.

SUNDAY, 11/17/91: Bed at 1:30AM, up at 8:30.

MONDAY, 11/18/91: Bed midnight, up 9:25AM. Call Russ T.: "Dreadful year; copy-editing for HIM only." Larry G.: "Will have nothing." Terry: "Next!"

TUESDAY, 11/19/91: Bed 12, Pope calls 12:05-12:40, up 9:40; Larry G.: JOB!

WEDNESDAY, 11/20/91: Bed 1AM, 8:45 buzzer with package. END of recordings!

GALAPAGOS TRIP SUMMARY PAGE
SUN,OCT.20: 12:50 New York-3:20 Miami; 5:15 Miami-8:57 Quito: Alameda Real Hotel.
MON,OCT.21: Repack, leave laundry, breakfast buffet in Alameda Real Hotel; 11:05 Quito - 11:37 Guayaquil; 90 minutes to Galapagos island of San Cristobal; bus to Lago Junco: wild horses, frigatebirds, finches; Seal Beach:seals and crabs.
TUE,OCT.22: Sunrise on Grand Hotel beach: blue-footed boobies and flowers; to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno for Pepe the Turtle at Museum; Seal Beach; Grand Hotel.
WED,OCT.23: Resting Cloud not ready; Vertigo 6AM to Hood Island by 10:30; seals and marine iguanas; snorkel off Gardner Island; Punta Suarez: masked boobies, birds and iguanas, seals and albatrosses; board Resting Cloud for dinner and sleep.
THU,OCT.24: Night-sail to Floreana. Punta Ayora: anemones, sea urchins, seals, flamingos; snorkel at Crown of Thorns; Punta Cormorant for "Galapagos Mailbox"; sail to Santa Cruz and Puerto Ayora: dolphins, turtles, and rays. Bed at 9PM.
FRI,OCT.25: Charles Darwin Research Center tours; I twist left ankle; Highlands tour for tortoises and crimson flycatchers; Halloween Party in Disco to 12PM.
SAT,OCT.26: Santa Fe Island for land iguanas and lava lizards; snorkel; South Plaza Island for seals, land iguanas, yellow warblers, mockingbirds, frigatebirds and tropicbirds; phosphorescent flashes around ship in darkest night!
SUN,OCT.27: All-night sail to Tower (north of Equator) for red-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, frigatebirds, doves; snorkel; lava trails to nesting boobies; marine iguanas---all reached by Prince Phillip's stairs. Early bed.
MON,OCT.28: South of Equator to North Seymour Island's Black Turtle Cove for sea turtles, manta rays, white-tipped sharks; lava herons and pelicans. Wet landing for blue-footed booby hatchery and puffed-up frigatebirds; seals and rays.
TUE,OCT.29: Daphne Major: climb to caldera rim; boobies and chicks; oil-fire on Resting Cloud.
WED,OCT.30: Bartolomeo: lava, plank stairs, lighthouses; Panga (Zodiac) ride to Galapagos penguins, more iguanas, herons, crabs. Rabida: snorkel (starfish, surgeonfish, parrotfish), penguins, Galapagos hawk; St.James Bay snorkel; pack.
THU,OCT.31: Isabela Island for 6AM-1PM climb of Alcedo Volcano; enormous turtles on rim; spectacular sun-haloed sunset from 11,000-foot rim; damp sleep.
FRI,NOV.1: 6:50AM begin descent to 11:45AM. Flightless cormorants at Point.
SAT,NOV.2: Circle Isabela north of Equator, see Roca Redonda, spinner dolphins, sei whales; Fernandina Island: iguanas, lava, and snorkeling with sea lions. Wonderful sunset over tidal pools with seals, crabs, herons, fish, and snails.
SUN,NOV.3: Isabela: Urvina Bay for lava and one land iguana; Elizabeth Bay for sea turtles and hawksbills; Bird Rock for many penguins and boobies at sunset.
MON,NOV.4: Night sail to Puerto Villamil; wander village; ten-kilometer round trip to convicts' lava-wall; afternoon cruise to Santa Cruz's Puerto Ayora; left Resting Cloud for Hotel Galapagos; dinner at "4 Lanternas"; and farewell crew!
TUE,NOV.5: Breakfast and dinner at Hotel Galapagos; charter boat for three people to South Plaza Island for land and marine iguanas and birds, birds, birds.
WED,NOV.6: Tour Santa Cruz: lava craters, Highland giant tortoises, lava tubes; shop for T-shirts at Charles Darwin Foundation; lunch at Henri's; dinner at "4 Lanternas"; final packing for departure from Galapagos Islands tomorrow.
THU,NOV.7: Bus to ferry to Baltra. Galapagos-Guayaquil 1:45-3:15; Guayaquil-Quito 4:30-5; stop at American Airlines for tickets; dine at Rincon de Francia.
FRI,NOV.8: Alameda Real to Colonial Quito: Plaza del Teatro, San Agustin, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Museo de Arte Colonial, La Merced, Plaza Mejor, Cathedral; lunch at Tavelli; Saturday-tour purchase; dine at La Terraza del Tartaro.
SAT,NOV.9: Otavalo tour 7:20-6 (there 11:05-12:30 only); shopping in Calderone "Figuras de Masapan," touristy Equator Line, Las Cabanas de Napoles, Cotacachi leather street; lunch at Puerto Lago; feeling tired and ill in Alameda Real room.
SUN,NOV.10: On American Airlines plane 7:40-8:55 before we disembark because air conditioning can't be fixed. Chaos until reaching Hotel Quito at 2PM, lunch in coffee shop. Watch Other Side of the Mountain and High Noon on TV, get room service for dinner because I feel sick and just want to get to New York!
MON,NOV.11: Up at 5:15; plane leaves Quito 9AM, to Miami at 12:40; Miami 2:24, to New York at 5PM in DARK; taxi home by 6:15, phoning lots of people, proudest of 14 hours of videotape which will undoubtedly be my BEST memory of Galapagos!
TUE,NOV.12: Cast put on left leg for broken fifth metatarsal; on for 4-6 weeks!

    

VIDEOTAPE #1 (90 minutes) to
Home experimentation 10:09
San Cristobal Hill (Lago Junco) 20.08
Seal Beach #1 30:44
  34:00
  37.39
Grand Hotel room 38:38
Booby rock 45:55
Flowers/lizards 48:51
blank
49:00
Lizards/walk 53:04
Museum/Pepe the Tortoise 61:04
Seal Beach #2 82:01
Vertigo 83:22
Hood Island (seals) 86:42
(end)
 

 

VIDEOTAPE #2 (120 minutes) to
Home experimentation 9:04
Hood Island (seals) 17:50
(marine iguanas)
23:16
(crabs)
25:21
(marine iguanas)
25:50
(bird/seal hump)
30:58
(seals)
35:22
(boobies/lizards)
42:37
(marine iguanas)
44:02
(boobies)
46:00
goof
46:32
(iguanas)
49:50
(boobies)
55:12
goof
56:14
(boobies/beach/birds)
1:00:15
(blowhole/albatrosses)
1:00:22
DAY #2 Floreana(crabs/beach/anemones) 1:06:20
(flamingos #1) 1:13:57
(flowers/beach/ghostcrab) 1:20:00
(flamingos #2) 1:24:34
(flowers/seals/pelicans) 1:25:38
here for MORE!
 

 

VIDEOTAPE #3 (90 minutes)

to

Dolphins 9:07
Darwin Station (AM) 37:16
Darwin Station (PM) 54:15
Highlands turtles 1:09:56
Halloween 1:26:18
Boat ride 1:27:54
Santa Fe 1:29:15
END ("Bob look out!") 1:31:15

 

VIDEOTAPE #4 (120 minutes) (notebook page 42) to
Small ground Darwin finch [02:50] (male, black), on Santa Fe, after grasshopper  
Scalecia moss-covered plant[03:44] 00:00 Lava lizards
Sea-lion coccyx and pelvis [04:41] 00:46 Snake
Fossilized white coral  [04:48] 02:18 Grasshopper
FEMALE lava lizard, blushing[09:40]  10/26 10:15AM: 05:21 Snake in hands
Iguana: tail up: anger  [14:48] 06:17 Iguana eats flwr
Iguana: head-bob: I'm pissed off, this is MY territory 08:35 " eats cactus
Swallow-tail gull [21:28] preening: only NOCTURNAL gull; also has a RED foot  
Black and white birds are Audubon's shearwaters [22:38] 09:59 Sea lions
Red-Billed Tropicbird 10/26 2:46PM: 12:21 Iguanas
[SOUTH Lava gull, after afterbirth 15:14 Yellow Warbler PLAZA]
Plovers at afterbirth? to 1:03-55 19:28 Susuvium
About 9-9:40PM to 1:13:39, WHAT?? 19:55 Waves/26:05SPLASH

VIDEOTAPE #5            to
10/28, 8:42AM Black Turtle Cove            20:06
PM, start back at 000

(From notebook page 43A, last in "forward" direction:
End film #1, 10/20, south of Miami, clouds, Cuba
10/21: two shots from Alameda Real Hotel window
Film #2, leaving Quito, over Guayaquil, landing on San Cristobal, Junco Lake, Seal Beach.
#21, 10/22, "Grand Hotel" beach at 5:45AM. Frigatebird too?
#22, 6:50AM, Grand Hotel in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
#23, 8:05AM, natural COTTON and yellow-sponge FRUIT

Santa Fe: Iguana; #8 Palo Santo (sandalwood) and opuntia (cactus)
IN rocks after blowhole: Red-Billed Tropicbird, RARE. Next, Wavy Albatross,
only 40-50 of them on this island ONLY.

 

VIDEOTAPE #7 (90 minutes) (old page 1.6)  

11/2 8:40AM Whales; good at 1:54, 2:59, 3:31, 4:31

 

5:30 Iguanas at Punta Espinosa at 10:52AM: head-bobbing and swimming  
20:00 Lizards ON iguanas; 21:21 Flightless cormorants
22:55 Seal/cormorant/iguana 24:30 Seals playing
25:00 Seal blinded by flies 26:56 Lava walk – cactus
32:00 Fly-eye cove 34:00 Great "walk toward me" by iguana
37:10 Iguana fight 41:50 Sally Lightfoot crab
42:25 Seals playing 48:16 Crab feeding
49:58 Lava heron 54:00 Seals calling
56:00 Bird flights 57:19 11/3 8:40AM 57:25 Map/Hermit crabs
1:00:40 Coral uplifted 1:01:10 Cormorant and chick
1:04:12 Coral 1:08:28 Land iguana
1:11:10 Blue heron 1:14:40 Ship-tour
1:20:15 Panga/Mangroves 1:21:50 Seal and octopus!
 1:24:02 Sea turtle 1:26:12 Mangrove oysters
1:27:20 Panga and PENGUINS HERE 1:32:00 Booby-rock
1:33:14 End of tape