Why the Galapagos? A long, long time ago - in 1966 - I went to college (first time) and did two years in a year and a half (sounds like I was doing time right? That's what it felt like!) I left school, but about ten years later, I heard about a marine biology class. Food, lodging, transportation in Baja - for $200 - cheap vacation!! I put in for two weeks time off from work and signed up. For 14 days in the little village of Bajia de los Angeles on the Sea of Cortez, we bird-watched, snorkeled, swam with giant manta rays, ate grouper caught by local fishermen in long canoes, and drank beer. It was heaven! I wanted to be a biologist. None of the women biologists shaved their legs!! How European!! FREEDOM!
I went back to college (second time), taking every biology class offered - field biology, ornithology, herpetology (great class at UCLA), oceanography, everything but statistics. You needed calculus to take statistics and I couldn't get past algebra. Cut to the chase - I changed my major to English lit, graduated (shaved my legs) and went to work as a technical writer...computer programmer...systems analyst. Ten years, twenty years, thirty years went by, and I took a senior bus trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium - huge aquariums with seaweed, fish and turtles, tide pools with baby rays and the jellies!! Such a thrill - to re-connect with the variety, beauty, wonder of God's creation. Living on the Central Coast, there's no shortage of opportunities for wonder, but this was different. From somewhere in the Aquarium, the word "Galapagos" floated out of a conversation and into my consciousness. Yes! Yes! What better place to revisit my passions - for herpetology, the marine iguanas! For ornithology - the waved albatross! Nudibranchs, frigate birds, sea cucumbers - creatures I haven't seen or felt in 40 years! Time to fly to Ecuador!
Wrap-up:
A jump from Miami to Houston, a skip from Houston to San Francisco and a final hop from SF to SLO and home! Wow - this was a challenging trip! I could definitely see all Bishop's Peak hikers here - but me??? However, I did all the hikes!!! and this was rough terrain - no paths in several places, just try to follow the guide and envision self as mountain goat (ha-haaaaaa-ha-ha). Snorkeling? Nancy Moll would tell you, I'm the only person she knows who could live in Hawaii for a month and never go in the water! But I did try snorkeling - twice!! Well, there really was no need to snorkel and I did do a fair amount of beach swimming - beautiful clear water. I did many firsts on this trip - but one of the most enjoyable was....I had my first massage! Yes! 65 and never had a massage before and finally decided, it's time. Oh my!! It was innncccrreddibbbllleeee!!! She put on Beethoven and then it felt like five hands were at work - yes, it was kind of indulgent (a lot indulgent) - but felt sooooo goooood!!
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I think about what I will take away from this pilgrimage. At first, I envied our expedition leader, Lynn Fowler, who came to the Galapagos 36 years ago, in about 1978, and did her doctoral study on tortoises and burros, at about the same time I was getting by B.A. in English lit. But her bio seems to have destined her for this life - niece of Jim Fowler (remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?) - she grew up on a farm with giraffes as playmates. Their family Christmas cards were of her and her five siblings holding an anaconda snake! Her daughter is - a biologist.
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I never became a biologist - my path has been a meander through medical transcribing, computer programming, system analysis, counseling, working with the homeless and disabled, helping the mentally ill and their families, and God has blessed all this work and me. So I return home with a heart full of gratitude - for all I saw and experienced, yes - but more for the meaningful, purpose-filled life God has given me, and especially my beautiful son - an English lit teacher.
