August 18, 2005

Who are the ecotourists?

RLC describes his recent ecotourism. What sort of people vacation this way?
The adults were as follows: a philosophy professor, an education professor, a medical doctor, a physics graduate student, a psychotherapist, a psychotherapist in training, a software engineer turned transpersonal therapist in training, and an ex-novelist trying to keep his mouth shut. At times the conversation turned to university politics, and one wondered, “Have I inadvertently booked my vacation in the faculty lounge?” But given the right frame of mind the chat beneath the roof blended with the chatter of monkeys and insects and birds outside. It was life, it was members of a species calling back and forth, “This is my area, this is what I control.”

Do you want monkeys swinging from the rafters while you're trying to eat breakfast? Seems like a heath code violation to me. Except where you are, there is no health code. No hot water or electricity either. Yet somehow RLC calls ecotourism "being coddled in the middle of nowhere."

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm one. I was in Sri Lanka in June, and we had breakfast on a deck in a rain forest overlooking a river. Monkeys were swinging in the trees overhead and we were warned that monkeys had a taste for jam, so we should watch out to make sure they didn't steal our breakfast. They didn't.

It was superb.

Ann Althouse said...

Bill: LOL. Once you say "except the ticks," you're in "other than that how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln" territory for me.

Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann Althouse said...

Ruth Anne: Actually, he never wanted to do things like that when we were together. The closest thing he wanted to do to roughing it when I lived with him was go on picnics. Which was a bit much for me, I'll admit.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

I'm with Reif except I prefer Maker's Mark. I like your commenters on this one.

BTW I've posted photographs of the accommodations and of the Drake Bay airstrip to give you a laugh.

Ann Althouse said...

Richard, these are your first photos ever. I must admit I found the accommodations frightening!

BTW, I bought an $84 bottle of Scotch recently!