Beads on Bartolome beach, next to a ghost crab. However these are not just any beads; each color represents a different species seen during this week by our Polaris guests, in the Galapagos Islands. This is what we call a "Memory Necklace"; created in order not to forget the marvelous places we have visited. Beads and memories that people can take back home, leaving only footprints behind.
When Linda Burback, our family program coordinator, visited the Columbia River, she learned that the Nez Perce people made calendar necklaces to record significant events in their lives. That was the kind of legacy that grandparents left to their children and grandchildren: experiences, sounds, odors and adventures, all recorded in colored items from Planet earth.
Linda brought the idea to the Galapagos, and each evening she meets the kids and the grown ups, and anyone who wants to keep a bit of Galapagos around their neck. Our guests explain the meanings of their beads to each other. Some have used the red for Red-footed boobies, some for the Espanola Marine iguanas. When they go back home, they will be able to share their memories with their families and friends.
I want to share my "Memory Necklace" with you all. A ghost crab lies in front of a few red and black beads, symbolizing their cousins the red Sally light foot crabs on the black lava. Next, and to the right of them, there is a huge green bead, for the amount of Red, White, Black and Button mangroves we found all over the littoral vegetation zone in the Galapagos. Then we find a couple of blue beads, for the blue feet of our famous dancers, the Blue-footed boobies. In front of the ghost crab, on the right corner, there are white beads, for the frigate, Masked boobies and Swallow-tailed gull chicks that we found on Tower Island. There are 11 big beads, each of a different color, and each one for a different subspecies of Galapagos giant tortoise.
I'll keep my "Memory Necklace" around my neck, and my memories and love for the islands always very deep in my heart, as most of our guests will do.
