OK, to placate my excellent student Katie King, I'll post some more pictures of the giant tortoises out on Prison Island. We'll start with a picture of the boat ride out from Stone Town, and then a mixture of shots. I especially love the picture of the one ancient turtle, well over a century old, with the very battered shell. They seemed almost completely oblivious to the world, and I suppose if you're a century old armored tank that would be your natural response. As much as I loved swimming with dolphins, I may have actually liked the tortoises more. They were just so magnificent and ridiculous at the same time.
It is some part amazing and humbling and amusing and befuddling to think of how old some of these tortoises were. What an odd little evolutionary niche they had carved off for themselves. My friend Trish told me about how one picture I sent her brought back memories of the place, and it was really nice to think of her sharing the same experience and how the passage of years in between her visit and mine would have meant nothing to the tortoises. And so someday my son or (insh'allah) grandson or great-grandson could pay a visit to Prison Island and the same tortoises would still be there hanging out, just living the tortoise equivalent of the sweet life and not getting too concerned with the petty events of the world. The Dude abides.
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