Puerto "Oh my head"
For those of you familiar with the condition known as post-cruise inebriation disorder, this entry needs no explanation. For the rest of you, PCID is what happens to people their first night back in port after spending extended amounts of time aboard a "dry" ship. It's where the affected person re-learns the debilitating/humiliating effect of excessive alcohol intake. And if any of you reading were unfortunate enough to witness me at the Wood's Hole P-Party this past September... it was the return of Poncho.
As par for me, I got a late start to the first day back in port. I was up late the night before finishing up some things for work. I didn't catch the water shuttle until about 11:20. Once ashore, it was off to my favorite bar for that all important first Brahma. OH GOD HOW GOOD WAS THAT BRAHMA!!!
Now here's my theory when it comes to the first beer back on shore. It's all just math really:
Taste of Beer = (# of days since previous beer) * (outside temperature in degrees C/temperature of beer in degrees C) - taste of previous beer on a 1 to 10 scale.
So in our case... Taste of beer = 40 * (32/7) - 7.5 = ~175 which is equivalent to one of the best beers I ever had in my life. Everyone around me agreed with this conclusion but no one could believe that the same beer we gorged ourselves on in the beginning of December could now taste this incredible.
After relishing in these fermented beverages of delight, it was back down to satisfying the lowest level of Maslow's triangle: shelter. The swank B&B I stayed at prior to the cruise was unfortunately booked solid so I reluctantly had to look elsewhere. Luckily procrastination paid off (again). By catching the last shuttle off the R/V Thompson I gave everyone else time to scour the island for all the available rooms. It took the better part of 30 seconds to find out from Kayla, Stacy and Grace what my options were. Ten minutes later I was lying on a bed that was only costing me $10 dollars a night, sawheat!!!
Next level of Maslow's triangle... food. Ah Puerto Ayora, where an empanyata is no more then 100 feet away. Oh how I missed that chicken, beef or cheese-filled delight. At $2.00 a piece I ordered two... and a Brahma. Another thing about Puerto Ayora, it's real easy to find your blokes. At this particular establishment I ran into about a dozen of my fellow science party and crew. Then out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw someone else I knew. It took about a minute but I finally realized who it was. It was Kris, one of the able-bodies seamen from the NOAA Ship Ron Brown. I went to sea with Kris on two research expeditions during 2004. Kris was here in the Galapagos just on vacation... small world. A reunion like this called for only one thing... a Brahma. The crowd at this bar quickly tired of just Brahmas and that's when the hard stuff came out. A word of advice when drinking in the Galapagos, stick to Brahma. The alcohol that makes it's way to the Galapagos isn't exactly top-shelf stuff and as I later found out, is only good at creating headaches.
Next stop, the beach. After a month of looking at the ocean but being unable to touch it, a bunch of decided it was of utmost priority to take a swim now versus trying to later when we would be incapable of walking straight much less swimming. The swimming hole of choice was the beach at Darwin Station. What is it about salt water that feels so good? In true Galapagos style, some sea lions and marine iguanas joined us in the water.
By now it was 15:00, time for a nap before a night of debauchery. I awoke three hours later, grabbed a quick shower and then made my way down to the Red Mangrove Inn. Dr. Haymon invited a group of us to her hotel room for drinks and a mini-celebration for a successful cruise. Her room at the hotel was quite spectacular. Simply put, it was on the roof of the hotel. The entire room was made of teak and had an unobstructed view of Academy Bay. Pretty choice spot. After about an hour of drinking tequila, a group of us made our way down to the Bongo bar.
From here the night gets kinda fuzzy. I remember lots of drinking, dancing, falling and smoking. Luckily my camera has no loyalty to me as it seems several people used it to capture many of my less-than-graceful moments. At least I wasn't the only one having too much fun. I remember at least two occasions where people dropped full beers on to the floor causing them to shatter and cover the floor with beer and glass. I knew I was dancing around barefoot but didn't care at the time.
When I awoke the next day I took stock of my life (because I was hanging on to it by a thread). In total I discovered three shards of glass in my bloodied feet, one pair of broken sunglasses and about fifty random photos on my camera. What a night!!!
one comment:
Hey Webb:
Hope you and Todd have a great trip. I hope to party when we get back. I also look forward to getting the video footage back at the studio at IFE.
Good luck on your trip.
Jared
Jared Ford (email) (link) - 20 03 06 - 19:50