Old friends

Our first stop was on Gran Canaria. As we walked around the old town, we came across a museum devoted to Christopher Colombus.

The old joke is not completely true; (... when he left, he didn't know where he was going; when he got there, he didn't know where he was; when he came back, he didn't know where he had been ...) He had a good idea of how the Trade winds operated, and he had the best evidence of the day about foreign plants and even bodies being washed up in places like the Canaries. He had travelled extensively in the Atlantic (Canaries, Azores, even Bristol) before setting out West. He was as certain as could be that the next land was not all that far away.

Anyway, in one room, we came across these old friends - top two photographs. I say 'old friends' because I first met them in 1968, the church of San Pedro Claver in Cartagena, Colombia (bottom right). In 2009, Mrs jml and I had gone on a cruise to the Caribbean. In San Pedro, we found the parrots still there (bottom left). They can apparently, live for 50-70 years, so it is at least possible that it might even be the same one!

Even more remarkably, as Mrs jml pointed out, she is wearing the same T-shirt as in the 2009 photograph; and I am wearing the same hat!