Personal Narrative: Galapagos Islands

Personal Narrative: Galapagos Islands
Cody Doran

Experiencing nature as it should be is a privilege not everyone has. But I had the opportunity thanks to my great Aunt Lynn. About two years ago, she invited my family and I to go on a trip with her with national geographic. She left it up to us to figure out where we wanted to go. We called her up and told her where we had decided to go, “We would like to take the trip to the Galapagos Islands.” This trip was important to me because it influenced the way I see nature, and I learned things that many people don’t know. My aunt told us that she would cover the trip if we paid for the airfare, which was undoubtedly expensive. “Wake up! We’re gonna be late!” My mom’s screams woke up the whole house, and we scrambled to get to the airport on time to check in our bags. Unfortunately we were too late, the bag
It had a red sanded beach, and we got to see the Sealions, a Galapagos Hawk, and the Marine Iguanas, which are the only species that swim underwater to eat the algae off of rocks. The next day, we went to another island and saw the Blue Footed Boobys and Frigate birds. The Boobys were sky pointing and doing their mating dance around their nests, and the Frigates were puffing up their red bellies to the females. When I went back to the ship, I worked on my questions that I had gotten from the naturalists in my room. Later on in the trip, I turned in my questions and became a junior naturalist. The naturalists taught us about the inhabitants of the islands and how Charles Darwin proved that natural selection was real in the Galapagos Islands. I learned a lot more than I would have in school, and I can’t wait to go on the next trip to Baja California. This trip has impacted the way that I see nature, and I found it interesting that evolution was proved there. If I had not had the privilege of this trip, I would not know nearly as much about nature as I do