Sustainable FishingTruck parked near the docks in Petersburg, AlaskaAlaska salmon is all wild, never farmed. The Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch both rate it "green" -- that is, one of the most sustainable fish. "Abundance of salmon, particularly Pink and Sockeye, is high in Alaska due to …
Eating Alaska SalmonBreakfast one day on the Sea Bird: locally cured lox with bagels, cream cheese, etc.Serving himself: Justin the ship's fabulous diver, who narrated his dives as we watched videos or (once) narrated live from underwater.A dinner appetizer on the Sea Bird: smoked salmon from Petersburg, AlaskaWhite-fl…
Salmon, Bears, and TreesTlingit Totem Pole depicting salmon, Sitka Historical ParkSalmon! Last week in southeast Alaska we hiked and kayaked beside streams crowded with salmon swimming upstream to spawn and die. We saw salmon jumping in the waterways near our ship, the Sea Bird. We watched bears snatching salmon from the s…
Just before leaving AlaskaHappy Birthday to Len: our last evening on the Sea BirdYou can see the dining room behind us. The food was great, and I'll be posting more about what we ate on our National Geographic cruise.To celebrate our last afternoon on the boat, Alaska produced a double rainbow.I hope it's a promise of peace …
Darwin's DinnerDarwin, like most early voyagers, ate tortoise meat during his stay in the Galapagos:During our residence of two days at the Hovels, we lived on the meat of the Tortoise fried in the transparent Oil, which is procured from the fat. The Breast-plate with the meat attached to it, is roasted as the …
More from "Nimrod of the Sea"Yesterday I quoted William Davis's tale Nimrod of the Sea about a meal of Galapagos tortoise and iguana. Later in his story, he describes another night's dinner -- offering the reader a recipe:Heartily refreshed by the drink, we built a fire under the branches of a tree of fragrant foliage out of w…
Dinner in the Galapagos, 1835Since our return from the Galapagos, I've been thinking about early voyages that obviously didn't make sure their passengers would dine as if they were in a fine restaurant in any city in the world -- as ours did. I read this account of mariners onshore in the Galapagos, from the book Nimrod of the …
Best-Named CocktailEach day, Jimmy the bartender on the Islander offered a themed cocktail. I did not actually try this one. But I loved the name. Here's the namesake:Blue Footed Booby…
Shipboard DiningEcuadorian Barbecue Lunch on the National Geographic IslanderThe Head Chef on the IslanderIslander KitchenLunch Buffet, IslanderFood on the National Geographic Islander was mainly very good -- the dinners, with table service, offered much less choice than lunch and breakfast buffets, and thus I enjo…
Shipboard FoodOur cruise boat has very nice food, served frequently. When I get home I'll post some photos. Meanwhile, watch maetravels.blogspot.com for a few wildlife photos -- my favorite is penguins.…
Iguana eating beach plantsThe land iguanas on Plaza Island (visited yesterday) eat beach plants, which store water in this season. The plants are very beautiful: some red, some green some with yellow flowers, which the iguanas especially like. Sounds better than their normal diet of cactus to me! See maetravels.blogspot.com …
Lunch onboard the EclipseNote: we drank coke with our lunch.Galley of the Eclipse where they actually cooked our foodFor pictures of some of the wildlife we saw today, see: Santa Fe Island.…
Today's BreakfastAfter our own breakfast we walked back to the Darwin Research Station up the hill, and saw the same turtles as before -- eating breakfast. We also caught a glimpse of Lonesome George, the last of his species, who lives in the reserve with two females that don't interest him at all.…
Begging at the Fish MarketThese must be fantastically fresh fish. But what really struck me was the baby sea lion begging -- and the fisherman (or fish monger, I don't know which) actually tossing him one. A big crowd of pelicans were also begging.…
Eel for breakfast?On a beautiful walk this morning, I saw a most unusual sight: a heron who had a large eel in his beak, and was pecking and eating it. My excellent guide had never seen such a thing before. Along the 2 km trail to the wide sandy beach I also saw many beautiful birds, especially finches (see Beach wal…
LunchThe tour I took today had lunch at a small cafe on the island of Floreana, pop. 110, electricty entirely solar, maybe with more tortoises than humans. These fritters were quite nice.For much more interesting photos of wildlife and so on, see maetravels.blogspot.com for more posts later today.…
Silly Post: Airplane mealWe have arrived in the Galapagos. Airplane meals are so scarce, I took a photo of this one. Mostly, I'll be posting photos of wildlife and whatever we see at my other blog, maetravels.blogspot.com ... so far I documented the trip from our plane window here:Flying to the GalapagosHello from Miami…
