A TRIP TO THE GALAPAGOS -turns out the most interesting species was the two legged homo sapien

When a flight delay at La Guardia resulted in a missed connection that threatened our 5 days and 4 nights on a ship in the Galapagos, it hit my wife Lori harder than it hit me.

Lori has traveling in her DNA. I get the benefit of it and her plan to squeeze in as much retirement traveling as possible before we get too old.

Even if I had a bucket list it would not involve travel to see animals.

When I don’t acknowledge a friend’s dog yapping at my feet I know that it’s like I’ve ignored their child. For me bending over and pretending to be interested in someone’s pooch would be like bending down and petting their couch.

When I flopped over the side of the Zodiac and found myself nose to nose with a Galapagos hogfish and it’s jumbojet profile I quickly got over myself.

The Galapagos has come a long way from the 19th Century when passing whalers, sailors and pirates stopped there and grabbed an estimated 100,000 live tortoises to stack up in their ships for fresh meat.

The archipelago officially became a national park in 1959. In 1986 the Ecuadorian Government formed the Marine Resources Reserve. Visitors pay a $100 entrance fee and our orientation lecture included the strict warning to stay on the trails, not to pick up souvenirs and to keep a respectful distance from wildlife.

Here are some freeze frame images captured on a video by our naturalist guide who used weights on his belt to help him go deep.

Then there was the hike that ended next to a flock of flamingos feeding in a wetland at sunset

There is a 12 year old boy within me that never gets tired of saying Blue Footed Booby.

The Galapagos land iguanas, that feed on cactus pads, are straight out of a 1954 Japanese Godzilla movie.

There was a particularly fascinating creature we encountered on this trip — the two legged homo sapien.

One of the joys of traveling is the passing conversations in waiting areas, restaurants and on planes as we picked up snapshots of lives outside of our bubble.

.

Airport waiting areas are the migratory resting areas for our species. At La Guardia the crowd was full of the usual flock of humans that typically travel from NYC to Miami. Orthodox Jews, Spanish speakers and group of retirees headed for cruise ships waiting for them in Miami.

The woman next to me on the flight to Miami was a retired Rikers Island correction officer, traveling with her Church group to begin a Carribean cruise. Between movies, she and I covered a lot of ground, including how much anger there is on the New York City subway these days.

Over breakfast in a Miami airport hotel, where the airline put us up after missed our connection, a guy at the next table in his 70s, wearing expensive casual clothes looked exhausted. He was a retired airline pilot and an experienced sailor from Australia. He now travels all over the world inspecting luxury yachts for one client. He was off to inspect a boat in Panama. Jet lag was wearing him down.

Waiting in Miami for our flight to Quito we chatted with two brothers in their sixties, both career military, one a West Point graduate and the other from the Naval Academy. Working for different government subcontractors they live near each other in DC suburbs. They were on their way to climb Mount Cotopaxi, the second highest mountain in Ecuador, 30 miles from Quito.

In Quito, a bustling City of 2.7 million sitting on the Equator, our smiling 34 year old guide had been a dancer and holds a degree in botany. For years he’s been trying to get a Visa to visit cousins in New Jersey.

The Quito airport waiting area for the flight to San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos, was full of bucket list travelers in their new REI adventure outfits. The gift shop was selling $170 sun glasses.

The flight to San Cristobal stopped briefly in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s economic capital and main port. The 30 something guy next to me worked for Hua Wei the Chinese tech giant manufacturer of phones and network systems. He was about to spend a week in one of their customer’s offices in Guayaquil troubleshooting a new system. He got along well with his Chinese bosses and hoped to someday be flown to the company headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

We landed in San Cristobal Island, the easternmost island in the Galapagos archipelago, where a rubber pontooned Zodiac ferried us to the Sirius Galaxy a 16 passenger yacht built in Quito a year ago. For four nights and five days, as we slept, the luxurious boat travelled to the next location. The staff of hardworking nice guys took good care of us.

.

The other big piece of luck was our group of 10 lovely travelers who enjoyed getting to know each other. We hung out, rode the zodiac to uniquely beautiful locations where we snorkelled, kyaked, paddle boarded and hiked. Conversations over dinner continued long after the tables were cleared.

The Lonely Planet Guidebook notes that the Galapagos, and its “its fragile ecosystem” has taken on “almost mythological status as a show case of biodiversity”.

We got home on January 20 the day that Donald Trump was sworn in. His day one firehouse of proclamations included ending “diversity, equity and inclusion” in the United States government.

Thinking about where we had just been I put this question to chat GBT:

Trump’s federal government now seeks to eliminate diversity. Is the end of diversity in America a threat to the fragile social ecosystem of the United States?

Here is the robot’s answer;

Yes, reducing diversity — whether cultural, racial, or ideological — poses a serious threat to the social ecosystem of the United States, much like disrupting biodiversity threatens fragile natural ecosystems like the Galápagos. Diversity has been a cornerstone of America’s resilience, innovation, and economic strength. Societies that embrace diverse perspectives tend to be more adaptable and creative, while those that seek uniformity risk stagnation, division, and decline.

Efforts to limit diversity — whether through policy, rhetoric, or exclusionary practices — undermine the very pluralism that has made the U.S. a global leader. History shows that societies that suppress diversity often face internal strife, economic downturns, and a loss of global influence. In contrast, those that foster inclusivity tend to be more stable, prosperous, and forward-thinking.

The odds of that answer surviving the next four years are not good.