By Jim Studer
“Far away places with strange sounding names” have always interested me. However, I never had a Gilligan complex and wanted to visit an island named after me, well maybe, if Mary Ann was on it.
Islands with strange sounding names did draw me, The Galápagos Islands. Charles Darwin and his birds made me aware of them. While traveling in South America I got the opportunity. The Islands are a National Park governed by Ecuador. In the 1980s when I visited there, tours arranged by the Park Service were the only way to explore them. Skiffs landed me on sandy beaches, one of which had green sand, or I had to hang onto ropes and propel myself hand over hand from the ship to the rocky shores mid choppy waves. The experience was fantastic.