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Published: March 4th 2013
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Well folks,
On March 1st at sunset, on the ship Yolita 2, with a school of dolfins jumping beside the ship, and the sun setting over the equator, Rosalyn and I tied the knot!
Now here´s the story.
We were at a travel agency looking into taking a cruise to the more remote areas of Galapagos not reachable any other way when I asked the agent, Betty "I heard that you can be married here by a ships captain at sea, do you think we could do this?". Betty almost fainted, then screamed with excitment! She said she had never done this before, but thought it was possible. She quickly got on the phone, made several calls to the boat owner, captain, govenment, etc, and before you know it she had it arranged. She took our passports and set about arranging the proper paperwork to make it official, and getting it to the ship. We then had to decide when to get married. Betty suggested that we get married near the equator, which sounded like a fantastic idea to us, so we agreed that would be the place, which also determined the date and time, due to the
ships schedule. She then asked us what we were going to do about rings? We told her we had rings already that we bought to wear in South America, as it is easier to say we are married here when you can´t speak spanish. She was very excited, and had another great suggestion. She said why don´t you have rings made with Tagua, an endemic Galapagos palm tree which is very hard and they use to make rings and other jewlery. Betty told us where to go to get these rings and told us to find a guy named Tito, and that he could engrave what we wanted into the rings. Armed with all of this infomation we set out to make some arrangements. We had to find a dress for Rosalyn, shirt for me, the rings, get some money, and get to another island, Isabela to catch the cruise in 2 days. We first set out to find Tito and get the rings. While searching we found out a few things. First, businesses down here open and close whenever they feel like it very randomly, and second, Tito was apparently a Galapagos hippie, who had no phone, no schedule,
lived in a hammock, and was apparently sick. We continued on our hunt, booking ferry tickets to Isabela, and finding a cute dress for Rosalyn, but no luck with a shirt for me, or the rings. We kept going the artisans market where Tito apparently had a booth, but some shops would be opened, some closed, no one spoke english, and no one knew where Tito was. We searched all over the island, and the only Tagua rings we could find didn´t quite fit and were not what we wanted, but we picked them up as a back up just in case. Finally, our last night before leaving, on a hunch that night, we decided to go back to the market for one last try. Amazingly, there was Tito. He looked like a combination of John Lennon and Bob Marley, with Lennon glasses and crazy hair. With a notepad, and some difficult communication, and at the very last minute we got rings with the date engraved inside the bands. The next morning at 6AM, we set out to the dock to take the 2.5 hour ferry to Isabela with the thought that we would just pick up a shirt for
me there. The ferry was more of a speedboat and very bumpy, and for the first time in my life, I was seasick. What a strange and horrible thing, but it eventually passed, and we arrived at Isabela. We did not know what to expect, but Isabela while being the largest island in the Galapgos, had much less infrastructure, with just a handful of restaurants and places to stay. We had three days to spend there before our cruise ship arrived and found a room at a place called The Jungle, right on a beautiful sandy beach. We settled in and had three great days there, doing a 16km hike into the largest active volcano in the world, snorkling in amazing lava tunnels with sea turtles, rays, and countless fish, going to a tortoise breeding center, and walking and swimming on the beach in front of our room. There were even sea turtles laying eggs on the beach at night under the full moon, right in front of our room. Several times we went looking for a shirt for me for the wedding, but it was apparent right this would not be easy. There were very few shops and most only sold t-shirts. On the second day, finally, after looking around the entire town, we found a shop that had seemed to not be open before and had a perfect shirt. It was around supper time, we were exhausted, and had no money with us, so we asked the lady when she would be open tomorrow. She told us 4 pm, so we left with plans to return the next day. For our last day on Isabela, we planned to do a 16km hike to a volcano which ended up being extremely hot and returned exhausted and a bit sunburned to wait for the store to open so we could get my shirt, and go the the boat to start our cruise. We waited on what we thought was the front steps of the shop which just happened to be right across the street from the tour company where our guide from the previous day noticed us and asked what we were doing. We told him we were waiting for the store to open so we could get my wedding shirt. He looked at us and said there was no store there. He took us up and down the Main Street in his truck, but we couldn't find the store. Joseph, our guide and new friend was awesome, he said that there was only one place in town where we would find a shirt like we described and took us there. A sweet old lady, who looked to be 80 found and sold us my shirt, and Joseph took us to the dock, called our ship for us, and even waited around to make sure we got on the correct boat as he knew we couldn't speak Spanish. What a great guy, and single for any of our friends who want to move to Galapagos.
We were finally on our cruise and a bit unsure of what to find. Our room was large, but not the cleanest, and the other passengers where all back packers and amazing people with amazing stories of travel all over the world. One couple had even cycled 22500km around the world for the last two years. We spent the next couple of days travelling to amazing places reached only by large ship and hiking, swimming, and snorkling with more wildlife then either of us could have ever dreamed. There was lots of good food and great conversation and card games, and it was now the night of our wedding.
What an amazing night, the ships captain married us on the top deck of the boat with 14 awesome people from Germany, England, U.S., and Netherlands. The crew decorated the top deck, using white table cloths and napkins tied up to blow in the wind. The cook made a wedding cake from scratch with limited supplies, and the bartender made jugs of sangria out of some wine we had brought with us for everyone. The captain got dressed in his best uniform, and our new friends took photos and video for us. The captain was on a radio with the first mate getting exact location data for the official documents, and as we were filling up the paper he radioed up that a school of dolphins were jumping where we were getting married. We finished signing the official documents with our witnesses and then presented our rings to each other. Many photos, laughs, and cheers followed with the most amazing sunset of our trip. It was magical.
We will try to post photos and unedited video for our family, and just want to let you all know about our special surprise.
Adios,
Mr. And Mrs. G and R
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Karen Langevin
non-member comment
Congratulations newly weds
Oh my gosh, congratulations you two. James and I are very happy for you and wish you a wonderful "extended" honey moon. Don't forget to use the "We're on a honeymoon" line when checking in at hotels.