Amazing scenes aboard the Golondrina.
Day 2 at The Galapagos Islands began with the announcement from one of our colleagues, Bert, that $150 was missing from his safety deposit box, apparently locked in his cabin.
After lunch Bert called a meeting asking us to check our belongings to see if anyone else had lost anything. The Captain, a fairly miserable character, took a considerable amount of offence to this and addressed us via an interpreter - our tour guide Fabrizio. At this point the tension intensified as the Captain announced that we, as a group, had ten minutes to find the money or we turn back to the port to file a police report. There was also a lot of bleating about his crew being impeccable, trustworthy etc., that no one else could have boarded the boat, and that he held the only other key to the safety deposit boxes in our cabins.
This didn't go down well. Furthermore, Bert wasn't keen to go back. He wasn't going to disrupt everyones trip but they put this form in front of him which if he signed said that none of the crew had stolen anything and if he didn't sign it we went back. Cue a tug of war between Bert and the crew. It was a crazy period that was finally brought to a swift end when another member of our group realised he had lost $600.
We headed back.
An hour later we hear sirens from the Navy Police as they saddle up against the Golondrina. Incredible moments as the officer gathered us together. At this point I got as close to realising my dream of being in an episode of Inspector Morse as is ever likely. It was amazing. The officer had a list of all our names, and then something incredible happened. "Who is Mercado? Mercado? Where is Mercado?". Could Chloe be the number one suspect in this crime? I have to confess, she had been displaying some pretty eratic behaviour. "That's me" came the vulnerable response, "That is my name too!" said the officer. And so she survives another day.
The officer made some pretty scary comments. "This boat will not continue if we cannot find an outcome to this crime" being one of them. An hour or two of cabin searches and interviews and the officer conceded that it would be bad for Galapagos tourism if we didn't get underway. Then Fabrizio stunned us all by saying that the owner of the boat had decided that the victims would be reinbursed and, wait for it, every member of the crew fired.
Imagine that, 5 days on a boat with crew that were on their final voyage. The banter between us at this stage reached fever pitch. I for one for throwing out conspiracy theories left, right and centre. I was in my element. There was definetely something fishy going on and it wasn't that nights tuna salad. Earlier in the day we had gone ashore and on our return a few guys noticed a boat was pulling away from the Golondrina. For some reason or another, none of the crew were interested in this bit of evidence. The crew weren't exactly showing symptoms of people who had lost their jobs.
On the other hand, Bert had been pretty badly scarred by the experience. All trust was gone. He was displaying tell tail signs of paranoia. From this point on he didn't go anywhere without his rucksack, which contained anything of value. At dinner the bag sat between his legs, on walking tours he would take it with him. He even found a waterproof bag that allowed him to snorkle with it. Bert was an outstanding character.
The whole escapade added to our experience. The members of our party were like-minded in that it wasn't going to affect our Galapagos trip and I for one was $750 better off. Joke.
