Day 7 - Romance is in the air!!!

Today,we wake up to the island of Floreana, and of course today is also the big wedding day. Who has time for excursions when we have so much to do? Oh dear, im forgetting myself... we are in the Galapagos after all, wedding or no wedding! So the morning brings us to Post Office Bay, an interesting site which was originally set up (over a hundred years ago or more) for traveling sailors to leave notes for friends and family to let them know they were safe. Nowadays, the tradition is for those cruising the Galapagos to leave their hand written notes or postcards, and to pick up one that is close to them in their home country and to hand deliver it to them! I found one from a Paul Simon (dont think its the famous one but who knows!) who lives in Arlington, MA, so when i get back to Boston, I´ll need to look him up and bring his postcard to him in person!

Had a beautiful walk around the island - see the beach team below - and then back to the boat for our daily snorkel. We sailed to Devil´s Crown, saw beautiful fish, amazing starfish in so many different colors and sizes, and some more sea lions,but really strong current and really cold here so an hour was definitely enough for once!

Afer lunch and before our afternoon adventure (yes, so much packed into one day!), we helped the bride and groom pick out their wedding wardrobes (Laura decided on a beautiful two piece, black lace ensemble, and Alejandro would be ship shape casual in a gorgeous deep blue shirt and blue shorts!) and get all the decorations ready! Carolynn did a fab job of creating a beautiful bouquet from toilet paper, straws and some plastic bags.. also made a lovely flower for Laura´s hair. And we cant forget Ruth who ironed Alejandro´s shirt just perfectly! I know it sounds mad, but everything looked just perfect! So the bell rang (the sound used to alert us (AKA produce a Pavlov-dog type reaction from us) to either a) a meal being served b) time to get on the dinghy for an excursion or c) an alarm that we were sinking (thank goodness we never heard it for c)!

We headed off for Punta Cormorant for our afternoon trek. The weather was scorching, we visited a land locked lake that was very swamp-like where flamingos lived and bred, we walked along yet another incredibly beautiful beach with lots of sea lions and babies, silver holy stick and frankincense trees grew up the sides of the hills. It may sound trite but these islands continue to be gorgeous and wonderful and different- its amazing. Love them all! And speaking about love, thought it best to introduce you to the soon to be happily married couple!! I found a heart shaped rock to give to Laura and Alejandro as a substitute wedding pressie (of course they couldnt take it off the island as that would be a $1,000 fine... a rather large and not so fun wedding gift!) so they posed beautifully with it and then did the "right" thing, and left it right there on Floreana!!!

Before (to the left)









After (the right of course!)



Got back on board and everyone rushed to get ready! When Laura walked up the stairs to be met by the crew (all in their official dress whites!)she looked so beautiful. Paul, the best man, walked her up to the middle deck where Alejandro was patiently and a little nervously waiting! (along with the rest of the ship!). Ole had the music set up, i think it was Wagner.. (did i mention he was also the official musical co-ordinator!). So Capitan Jimmy read the vows in Spanish, Dominique and Paul gave incredible speeches in English (I totally choked up at Paul´s - he was quite delighted later, that he had made me cry!). And we all celebrated together - in the language of LOVE!!! Yes, I know I am a complete romantic but i dont care!

We celebrated with lots of photos on the top deck as the sun was setting... so beautiful. Dinner was a grand and happy affair, as we made the happy couple kiss evey few minutes (teaching them a new tradition that when you clink your glasses, they have to kiss - they were very obliging of course!), and the crew had made a beautiful wedding cake for them. We all sat upstairs after the sun had set, listening to great music, and reminiscing over a perfect and wonderful day! Three cheers for the happy couple!! Hip hip hooray.. hip hip hooray.. hip hip hooray!!!!!!!!!