Ah, yes. Another day at the office.

We were the first generation of students in this program to go to the Galápagos, and it was…refer to above picture to see how great it was.

Blue-footed booby babysitting fluffy child

On Friday we flew to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, and explored for a day before flying to the isle San Cristobal, on the eastern edge of the archipelago. I bubbled with excitement while we flew over the Pacific; once we landed, the flight attendants sprayed insecticide into the overhead compartments and released us onto the tarmac. We took taxis to our hotel, where I bubbled with excitement some more.

The first people we met were sea lions. Being that the Galápagos islands have only been inhabited by humans in the relatively recent past, none of the animals are shy. Sea lions regularly colonize the benches along the beachfront, waddle around on sidewalks and park themselves in front of shops. If not flopping around, they’ll be sleeping, with absolutely no regard for the people (like me) who gather to gawk at them. They were at every beach we went to, and some would swim close to inspect us. It was only jealous males who might bark threateningly at interlopers, so we gave them a wide berth when swimming.

The first island we visited looked like somewhere geologists would go to die happy. Or ornithologists, or marine biologists. In subsequent days, I saw blue and red-footed boobies beyond count, pelicans doing synchronized diving, and frigate birds wheeling or following our boat. Frigates are my new favorite bird – males are known for their scarlet inflatable throats, but I like them because they look like a cross between a swallow and a pterodactyl.

Hungry, hungry baby blue-footed booby

Then, snorkeling. Had never done it before, did it almost every day in the Galápagos. I swam with schools of razor surgeonfish (think Dory’s cousins), parrotfish, rainbow wrasse, Pacific creole fish, puffers, and more. “Part of your world” played in my head on repeat, but my plight was reversed. I want to be where the fish are! I want to see what the fish see…which is a rainbow microcosm of organisms, hiding in nooks and crannies in steep flows of lava rock. Once we had some snorkeling savvy and could be trusted not to drown at a moment’s notice, we boated out to deeper waters (around 60-80 foot depth) around spires of rock where turtles and sharks are known to congregate.

I had perhaps the most zen moment of my life that day, floating above a sea turtle so closely I could count the speckles on its shell. I saw about a dozen of them in an hour, and one Galápagos shark cruising far below. There aren’t quite words to describe the feeling of floating suspended over a different world.

Or of seeing new life! This sea lion had given birth so recently that the placenta was still lying in the sand nearby, and the baby was so fresh it wasn’t even sure where to look for milk. It snuffled around its mother’s head while she took a postpartum nap.

There was a flip side. Not all pups survive, which I should have expected, but I was still speechless to see little piles of fur mixing with the sand on a different beach. I already know I revile social Darwinism, but I discovered that I can also detest regular Darwinism for the pragmatic ruthlessness of biology. I almost demanded of the sea lions why they didn’t have better social support networks and food redistribution. Filthy socialist that I am.

This dog has better color coordination than I ever will

The trip overall was incredible, as was the sunburn. When we got back, we looked (in the words of one friend) “like we just crawled out of a bisque.” It doesn’t help that malaria prophylactics make people photosensitive. The medicine is for when we travel to the Amazon next week, and we’ve also started an intensive class in Kichwa to better communicate with our hosts. I can now introduce myself and my family, comment on everyone’s marital status and conjugate verbs in the present and future tenses. With any luck, next week we’ll learn swear words.