We leave in a couple of hours for the Quito airport for a flight to Guayaquil where the plane will be refueled for the 500-mile trip to the Galapagos Islands. I will probably not be posting here until we return to Quito on October 3rd. Paper and rollerball will be my main tools for capturing words about what we see in the islands, along with photos and video on the iPhone.
I read a terrific chapter about the Galapagos in Annie Dillard’s essay collection, Teaching a Stone to Talk. She waxes poetic about a certain kind of tree. Here is the quote I’d like to bring along as my guide:
I would like to come back as a palo santo tree on the weather side of an island, so that I could be, myself, a perfect witness, and look, mute, and wave my arms.
She doesn’t say anything about blogging or Facebook there. I, too, hope to spend more time than usual looking and remaining mute before the stark beauty of the islands and the friendly creatures.
Vamos!
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