Mar 2

Today is March 2, 2009. We are landing in Tristan da Cunha today. It is known as being the most isolated community in the whole world – the nearest place with other people is the island of St. Helena, which is over 1300 miles away. There are only 300 people living on Tristan da Cunha in a small settlement named Edinburgh, which is by the ocean on the only flat area of a big volcanic island. The islanders are partly the descendants of a British garrison that was established there in the Napoleonic era, and partly the descendants of sailors who have been shipwrecked and marooned there since. In 1969 the volcano erupted on the island. Everyone was evacuated to England, but two years later all but four or five of them chose to return to their island. At the time they were evacuated, almost all of them had never left the island before. They had to leave all their animals behind when they left. Even their dogs. It was sad, but fortunately the dogs survived by eating the sheep on the island. They were all happy to see the dogs alive after two years alone.

We landed on the island in the morning. We hiked up to the top of the volcano where it erupted. It was cool to see all the lava rocks. We then walked to one pub in the town - I got a soda. While I was at the pub, I went over to a dog and petted him. He was very friendly. He acted like my dog Lucy does. It was really cute. After a while my dad and I went around town looking at different things. It was very interesting to see. We came across the post office, so I sent a couple of post cards.

In the afternoon, there was a bus to take us out to the potato fields – which is the big highlight of the town! As soon as my dad and I got there, we wanted to go back – so we decided to walk. It was about a 3-miles, so it wasn’t that bad, and we passed by some people walking to the fields. We got back to the pub and had a few more drinks.

Back at the ship, my dad and I rested in our cabin for a while, then went to the lounge to play some cards, then had dinner. After dinner, my dad said I could read for a while before bedtime, but I didn’t have a book so I went up to the library to get one. On my way back down I say Sarah playing cards with her dad. They started talking to me and I sat down and they sort of went on forever. Then they asked me if I wanted to play cards with them. I said I would ask my dad. He said yes and we wound up playing until after 11:00!

Bye for now,

Emily