Galapagos Islands, Continued

Through a typical day on the islands, I would wake up from a fairly tourist-friendly, local hotel, and either explore through the allowed areas of my island, or take a short boating trip to a nearby one. Through my weaving journey, I enjoyed some lovely local cuisine (though it was hard to find among all the tourist traps), met some truly knowledgeable and friendly guides, and generally just had a relaxing tour.

            In the final portion of my tour, I went on an underwater tour of the coral reefs speckled throughout the islands. In a whole other, beautiful and undisturbed world down there, I saw a few sharks, sea turtles, a squid, a rainbow of stunning fish, and the precious coral that held together the ecosystem. All over the world, coral has been threatened lately by pollution and ocean acidity, both mainly caused by human actions (fossil fuel burning). It’s the one peril that the Galapagos may be unable to avoid. For now, I enjoyed the view.

            Overall, I had an amazing journey into a separate world; one largely untouched by human civilization. Although it was a wonderful trip, it left me slightly wistful for how different things could be if we hadn’t wreaked so much havoc over many other environments. Still, there’s always hope for societal improvement in the future.