I live in one of the communities in the Boston area recently affected by the water main break and subsequent boil water order. While this was considered a catastrophe by the water authority and many news agencies, my experience was of mild inconvenience at worst. Water kept flowing for anything except drinking and food preparation, fires could still be fought and I still could wake up and take a hot shower.

I noticed a few different responses to this event: The Government, the geek, the historian, the public at large, and the business man.

The Government:
As soon as it became clear that the water might be unsafe to drink, a boil order was issued. Boiling water for 1 minute kills anything dangerous that may have gotten into the water system and makes it perfectly safe to drink and cook with.

The Geek:
I have a ceramic water filter that I use for camping and is designed to filter water from more questionable sources than a reservoir that hasn't been fully treated, and removes anything larger than .2 microns (pretty much anything larger than viruses) I then treated the filtered water with a miox pen (an msr product that rips the salt in salt water apart producing chlorine and mixed oxide compounds that kill viruses and bacteria in 15 minutes) In a real emergency, I could get water that's almost as safe pumping out of the Charles river just a few blocks away.

The Historian:
Before safe water was readily available, beer and other alcoholic drinks were usually the best way to stay safe. Alcohol kills most of the bad things that can wind up in water and the drunken state that results is an added bonus.

The Public at Large:
When faced with a nearly infinite supply of water that could simply be boiled to make safe, everyone else rushes to the supermarkets, department stores, warehouse stores and anywhere else bottled water is available and proceeds to stock up on as much as they can grab like it's the end of the world. One store was closed for the day when a fight broke out over the last of the bottled water. A day later and there was plenty of bottled water on store shelves and shoppers usually had a case in their carts in the checkout line.


The Business Man:
Price gouging on bottled water by some local businesses were also reported and supposedly being cracked down on.

Overall this was a good test of what would happen in a real emergency; by the time the emergency happens, its often too late to stock up on supplies. Its always good to have some sort of backup plan for emergencies, even if its just setting aside a little emergency food and water so you can stay away from the unprepared mobs rushing the local Wal-Mart for the last of the available food and water.

Well this was a bad trip for a travelogue it turns out. Between having a moderate cold, and that they kept us quite busy between the hikes, snorkeling and other activities that most of the time not spent on something scheduled was spent resting. This combined with the internet that would only work in 5 minute spurts, made me focus on getting flickr updated in the time I did have online instead of writing about our experiences. I have a few location logs still to post but I think I'm gonna let the pictures and video speak for themselves this trip.

Galapagos set on Flickr

Youtube videos

In closing the trip was simply amazing. The wildlife was not the least bit afraid of humans so we could get close to everything, the ship was great, the food was excellent, the only real trouble we had on the trip was the fact that we flew American Airlines who screwed up pretty much everything they possibly could have. The hassles were worth it for the experience though and I would recommend anyone who has the oppurtunity to visit the Galapagos Islands should do so.

Equator Crossing Party
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We opted to be woken up early at 6 this morning for the crossing of the equator. We all went up to the bridge to watch the GPS tick down to 0.00000 The step size on my GPS was updating too slowly to read all zeros and get a picture of it but I managed to snap it as it hit 0.00001. Encountered some blue whales surfacing near the equator. Whales have amazingly bad breath. We had breakfast as we continued to sail to Fernandina.


Fernandina Island
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We encountered some dolphins and sea turtles as we took the zodiacs to Fernandina Island where we hiked the beaches and lava flows. Saw sea lions, iguanas, lava lizards, stingrays, crabs, flightless cormorants and a great blue heron. Sections of the hike sheltered by foliage were very hot over the lava.



Isabela Island
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Much longer hike. Saw penguins, much larger iguanas, flightless cormorants and more boobys on the rocks on the way in. It was overcast thankfully as a long hike over black, jagged lava flows would have been very hot. Saw a single flamingo at the end of the hike in one of the brackish pools.

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Went on a half mile walking tour of North Seymour Island after we got settled aboard the ship. The animals out here are amazingly uninterested in us, could get very close to sea lions, birds and lizards without them paying us much attention. Uploaded a few photos to flickr, more to follow as I process things.

Galapagos Set on Flickr

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We finally arrived in the Galapagos today, we're all ready for a few days without getting on a plane. We'll be sailing aboard the Yacht LaPinta for the next week, stopping at different islands each day.

We flew in to Baltra Island where we met our ship, and we'll be sailing to North Seymour Island for a late afternoon hike to see the island.