Magical

The sea was variably indigo blue and tourmaline green. Everywhere we went was like a phantasmagorical zoo sans cages or bars. On land, the naturalists asked that we not stray from the approved paths; in the water that we please resist the urge to touch. This never felt like a limitation. The ever present animal life was often within arm’s length, or swimming so close to our masks it wasn’t clear who came to see who. Countless species of birds were everywhere. Albatrosses with eight foot wingspans knifed through the air like stealth jets. Boobies performed acrobatic nosedives into the water to catch fish only they could spy. Black male frigate birds soared on updrafts, showing off their radiant orange gular pouches. The girls looked on, ranking their displays. We were voyeurs to two Swallow-tailed gulls copulating. Two turtles too. Yellow-crowned herons hunted ubiquitous Sally lightfoot crabs that moved crabwise among the lava rocks like rainbow toys in a dream. Fancy flamingos scoured the floor of a backwater lagoon for food, oblivious to our presence. Penguin pairs played on the rocks and slid on their bellies into the sea. An undaunted mother albatross rose and leaned back to reveal a most beautifully colored egg she was incubating. So close she was, I imagined she was inviting me to take a turn. Near sunset large groups of iguanas would arrange themselves non-randomly, and stare motionless at the setting sun like they were members of a cult. Brilliantly-colored lava lizards flourished on every island we visited. Darwin’s finches flitted among the trees, singing. At night fifteen foot sharks circled our yacht, drawn to the bait fish drawn to the boat lights. We used inflatable rafts to shuttle between the islands and the yacht. One day dozens of dolphins joined us. We ate like royalty three times a day and drank juices made from fruit I didn’t know existed. We cozied up in the lounge and devoured lectures on island geology, marveled at the art of ancient volcanoes. We were smack dab on the equator over five hundred miles from the nearest continent, yet we had WiFi. It was eighty degrees or better every day. The night sky was like living in a planetarium. Not a day passed when I didn’t want to applaud. One night we left the yacht and slept in a tree house. The next day we visited the Darwin research center and cried like children when told the story of Lonesome George. We visited a plantation and learned the proper way to taste coffee. We made friends and were rocked to sleep by shallow, long period waves. On the penultimate day of our adventure we took a long, solemn walk on Chinese Hat island where I’m pretty sure I saw HW tear up. It was all that overwhelmingly fragile and beautiful.