Another beautiful day in 'The Paradise'

I returned to Bolivia mid-week after an all-too-good stay in Ecuador and The Galapagos with my Ma. Already it feels like I never left…appropriately so, because a week in the Galapagos was kinda like all the other fantasies I concoct and think happen, but that my doctor tells me are lies.

Well, there was no Antonio Bandaras to go skipping down white sandy beaches with…

But, there were penguins, sea lions, sharks, sea turtles and fishes to snorkel beside.

I didn’t so much frolic underwater with the sharks and the penguins, which look more like tuxedoed torpedoes because they zip past you in a flash, but the sea lions did love to play with you in the water.

In fact, the first time I figured this out I was snorkeling with the group in one of the first areas that it is common to spot them. I was one of the last to spot one, so I was still, floating and looking all over the place when one came up from behind me and swam along my belly. Well, this is what the others say that saw the whole thing happen. I didn’t see or feel anything so by the time the little buddy showed up 4 inches from my face I was so surprised that I screamed. This became a running joke with another guy on the boat and he thought it was hilarious that of all the animals that would cause me to scream would be a docile sea lion. He even went so far as to alert the scuba dive master before our first dive that, as a doctor, he should inform everyone that I had an involuntary screaming problem aggravated by encounters with marine life…not far off, actually.

Also, it was neat to be with a group of strangers and quickly form relationships over new-found appreciation for the islands’ natural beauty or the day’s events of a bull seal chasing a passenger down the black sand beach, an involuntary screaming problem, etc. Most of the cohesion was thanks to our charismatic naturalist Ivan or I-BAN. Sure to shout, “oh my gosh”, “look at that”, “you are the best” and to wake up the passengers in the morning with imitation seal calls and a soft voice in high register saying, Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to another BEAUtiful day in The Paradise.

Some afterthoughts:

It can’t be easy for any Galapagos National Park naturalists to remain charming for an entire week while looking after twenty bumbling American tourists, but Ivan’s charisma and optimism equipped him with the know-who to handle all the moments when ethnocentrism or cultural insensitivities surfaced.

I think his optimism stands out to me because before this mini-vacation all incidents at my work of abusive behavior, medical problems and management mess felt like they were piling higher and higher into a toppling tower of un-fixables. Needless to say, this had me down in the pessimist dumps. No matter what, I felt really hard to motivate because I was in a close-minded about whether I was really accomplishing anything or was just spinning in circles and offering empty hope to a community that needed more than someone to put on a happy face and carry a positive, well-intentioned personality to work each day.

The best thing about Ivan’s optimism is that it wasn’t founded on ignorance or complacency. As a twenty-eight year old and soon to be father, his optimism has been his defense throughout real-really tough life experiences that as young child without sandals or running water these circumstances didn’t, for him, mean than he didn’t have a bright future. Or that as teenager when he tried make it within the system on minimal musical talent even though it would’ve been easier to rebel against a system that didn’t promote any future besides drugs and stealing for the poor kids. It roused me from my pessimist slumber just thinking how powerful it is that for someone in Ivan’s situation (which is reminiscent for me of children within the Bolivian community that I’m working) who is given little-to-no reason to embody optimism would make it his mission to do so.

Then, by the same standards, who I am with privileged life experiences to harbor pessimism when I approach a seemingly-similar problematic at my job?

Note: Unfortunately, my trip to the Galapagos has inspired no grand theories of species and such...yet. I await my divine moment of inspiration with bated breath.