Tag Archives: Galapagos/Peru/Bolivia

For us, it all nearly ended at the equator.  When I say “at” the equator, I mean The Equator in all its geographic and nautical senses, that line that cuts the earth in two, like a halved grapefruit.

But first, a bit about the Galapagos.  I’m going to limit myself here, in part because it’s hard to know where to begin.  And also because I’m afraid once I start, I won’t be able to stop.  I will admit, at the risk of provoking all sorts of rolling eyeballs and gasps about the sacreligiousness of such thoughts, that I didn’t expect much from the Galapagos. I wanted to come here, because I knew intellectually the Galapagos needed to be seen.  But I didn’t think it’d be my kind of place.

Here’s why.  I don’t go in much for plants, insects, LBJs–little brown jobs, a name given to that general class of birds that are so similar one to the other, such as sparrows, or, dare I say it, Darwin finches, that only an experienced birder could tell them apart, or want to.  And I’m not an experienced birder. I know that the smaller inhabitants of the earth have an essential place in the ecosystem.  But, honestly, they strike me as existing to provide lunch for the big ones that are my favorites.  I’ll take a lion over a lava lizard any day.   What I find appealing are things with fur,  things that lumber, run or flap away when I approach,  things that are large or in other ways impressive.

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