Today was a special day for the Polaris crew. They had been preparing for this all week, the teams were carefully made up, and ready to dispute the much-coveted “Polaris Cup”.
Every Friday, we visit the spectacular island of Santiago, the one Darwin spent over half his time on (nine days!), and home to an abundance of wildlife living in harmony, side by side, amongst a unique geological setting: a complex mixture of tuff stone and basaltic lava.
Puerto Egas was home to a small salt-mining industry from 1962 to 1964, and some evidence of this settlement is still apparent to this day, including a small soccer field. This is one of the visitor sites where the National Park rules are slightly relaxed, and the park service allows crew members of different vessels to leave their ships and earn some well-deserved rest and exercise. Every Friday our crew leaves the ship to play some soccer, and in the meantime our guests visit the spectacular beach of black sand for some swimming and snorkeling. Often guests join in the frenetic matches, but today many of us were just content to watch this important play-off, which had started as an idle bet, and ended in the most important match this season!
The “Orange Team”, in the main photo, won three to one, and you can meet here some of the wonderful people who make our trips so special. Some of our unique Zodiac drivers are here, Chicken Wilson, Eduardo, Henry and Jinsop, playing side by side with our waiters Julio, Chester and Felipe, our store-keeper John, our carpenter Ramon and one of our engineers, Pablo. They beat the “White Team”, who were the Polaris favorites, and who have challenged them for a re-match next week.
All these guys, and the rest of the 56 officers, crew and staff, are the players of the greater team that makes every one of our trips in these enchanted islands such a great success. Working with them all is such a pleasure, that I consider them my second family, and the Polaris my home away from home.
