The Inside Passage -- Discovery

The Inside Passage -- Discovery

     This journey of the Inside Passage for us has been (to me, anyway) a voyage of discovery.  Little did I know that science is correcting itself regarding starfish and jellyfish (which are now called sea stars and jellies simply because neither is a vertebrate or a "fish").  And I discovered that dolphins make clicking sounds through the water with their pointy snouts while porpoises make no noise and have rounded snouts.  Here's another: sea lions group in colonies on land but throw the entire group into the water and they are suddenly grouped not into colonies but "rafts" (such are the eccentricities of biologists).  I also discovered that the orca female has a slanted dorsal fin while the male's fin is straight (appears to be the same with distinguishing certain types of ferns in the forest).  And in a final bit of this voyage of discovery on the water, I discovered that humpback whales are social and tend to group together but gray whales are quite happy being solitary (and are also eagerly hunted by orcas).

    But perhaps one of the most interesting things both my wife and I have again discovered is that people are people.  Some of the guests on the ship we were on basked in elaborate suites with two bathrooms (unlike our one bathroom with child-like showers) but were as down to earth as the next person, one person in particular turning out to be actually quite like me (for better or worse), waking up early and loving history and treasuring life (doesn't like to kill anything, even rats); each morning we would chat about everything except our political views as if we both realize that there were far more important things to discuss and to share, especially each others knowledge and experiences; in addition, his wife would turn out to be my own wife's ally, both of them taking their love for animals to new heights.  And then there were the workers (remember that our ship's crew had 50 different nationalities spread amongst them), their extensive knowledge of their countries' history giving me both surprise and embarrassment and make me realize just how much more they knew about their country than I did my own, all while making me sense their pride and desire to return to their country once their youthful vigor to explore the world was satiated. The woman who cleaned our room was from the Dominican Republic and was as humble as the most polite guest you've ever had to dinner (typically the staff works 6-month contracts then has 3 months off...the navigation crew schedule was substantially more lenient, the captain working for 10 weeks then taking 10 weeks off); for our young housekeeper, she told us with a smile that her two young boys always anxiously awaited her return.  Another young lad from Bulgaria (working onboard as a waiter) basically dazzled us with his tales of his country's history and its songs and instruments (when I mentioned how beautiful the women seemed in his videos he blushed and said, "oh yes," with both pride and a slight glimmer in his eye; "it is hard to say no to them," he added).

     Other than the navigation crew (or those wearing stripes on their uniforms), the serving staff could only stare at the elaborate food they were dishing out to us (or so we had been told by numerous crew members), the majority of the food of the buffets and restaurants discarded at the end of each meal, the chefs of their own employee kitchen busily preparing simpler and more limited meals quickly and efficiently, for soon the workers would have to return to their quarters on deck two to try for a bit of sleep amidst the roar of the giant diesel engines moving the thrusters and propellers, each adding to the splash of the ocean waves banging against the bow (one wouldn't know such a windowless deck for housing existed, the listed decks for paying guests starting on deck five in the brochures).   At those lower deck levels, the ship's movements are amplified, the swaying exaggerated, the motion sickness always just minutes away (the navigation crews' cabins are on deck eight). Still, the smiles were there everyday on the workers even as they changed their coats for another station or shift (each day often brought new schedules in different venues, working at the buffet one day leading into the high-end specialty restaurants the next).

     Added to all of this were the unexpected and pleasant discoveries of initially walking onboard and not knowing anyone then suddenly finding yourself meeting people that you would likely come to know for years to come.  Serendipity or pure chance, such meetings happened with us, one couple from England as quaint and energetic as long-lost cousins, and another couple from South Carolina as familiar as neighbors that had moved away years ago and were almost forgotten.   We all came to  develop the reputation (good or bad) of chatting away long after dinner and not realizing how few (if any) people area were still in the place.  It all boiled down to a good time, the sights and scenery (and food) of course; and it showed that no matter where any of us end up going, what you take away are the friends, all of which usually leads to more sharing later and yes, more food, but this time probably a dinner lovingly made for an evening at home.  As with any tight and confined gathering  --a school reunion, a convention, a protest, a long plane ride, or a cruise ship-- you are brought together for a reason, an expected experience or destination or cause; it is a rendezvous with all sorts of people, for the most part all strangers full of unique differences in ages, in backgrounds, in appearances, and in attitudes.  But if you're lucky enough you might just walk away with new friends, and if you're even luckier you might just walk away as good friends, people you "connected" with.  And perhaps at that point, just as with the ocean and the creatures both above and below it, you would discover that the differences of people are merely on the surface, differences temporarily created, and that such differences can be easily washed away and still leave each of us as unique as we are while still sharing in our commonality.

     There was one more discovery, that of a man walking the beach in the city of Wrangell, a beach  known for its petroglyphs.  We began talking..."You know, these are similar to those we have in Puerto Rico," he said.  Wait a minute.  Puerto Rico has petroglyphs?  On the next and final post of my journey along the Inside Passage, you'll discover that beyond the spectacular scenery and wildlife, beyond the food and the making of new friends, there was yet another thing to discover, a bit of history from long ago and much of it was (and is) just sitting there exposed on a beach...

Coming into the small city of Wrangell