Life on board m/v Beluga

On two of the afternoons of our week, we 'cruised' from place to place (most of the between island travelling was at night). During that time, we amused ourselves: some by dozing or sunbathing, some by reading or playing board games and others kept a lookout for birds and cetaceans.

Here, Paul's keeping a lookout, John seems to be fiddling with his camera, Pat's checking a tricky ID, David, Tim and Richard are making sure they don't miss anything, Armin's reading the Spanish translation of the first Harry Potter book, Toni's taking it easy, it's all too much for Marie, and Ms Toad (behind camera) is sneaking around trying to grab candids.

Since half of us were on an official birdwatching group, we had a ritual of 'doing the list' each evening. This wasn't as onerous as it no doubt was on the Cloud Forest extension, except for trying to get to grips with the fish and 'other taxa' seen. This picture shows Pat, Andy, Laida and Martin making sure they get 'the list' right!

I caught Laida taking Laura's photo, which gave me the chance to try out a little Photoshop trickery!

The music on board started as 'international classics', but later on the trip we stuck to South American dance tunes.
Armin was keen on Salsa (apparently it's been high fashion in Zürich for some years now) and was trying to get everyone to have a go.
I was hopeless (no surprise there); Silvia, shown here, not much better! I videoed Armin and Toni gi'en' it laldy.
Only Laura had a clue what to do. I think I should have a few slides of her being more competant than the rest of us.
Only afterwards did Armin admit he'd been doing it for five years!
OK, Armin, next time you're in Scotland, I want to see you doing the Draps o' Brandy - first time - or, maybe even worse, an Eightsome Reel!

Laida and Andy, aka Love's Young Dream. Aaaaaaaaaaah!
Don't you think Andy bears more than a passing resemblance to a piece of Hollywood Eyecandy?

Laida was on a quest to find the Ecuadoran girl her parents had named her after.
So - was your quest successful?

Toni, aka Antonia, one of the German ladies, enjoys a few moments of total relaxation.

Martin said he always slept very well at night: but apparently also during the day too.
He must have a remarkably clear conscience!

Ursh, aka Ursula, a German schoolteacher (she assures me that indiscipline is not a problem in her school, and from her incredulity when Marie and I were talking about school indiscipline in the UK, I can only assume it isn't a widespread problem in Germany) catching up with her reading.

Farewell dinner
La Ronda dinner