“I went to the Galapagos Legend 8 years ago and I haven’t forgotten anything about that expedition”.

My trip to Galapagos, the one that I thought I’d taken no more than a couple of years ago, turns out it actually happened 8 years ago. The experiences of that expedition are so clear to me that they have remained frozen in my mind, available for me to relive them over and over again.

There are times in my days when the coffee aroma washes over me. Surely it has happened to you that an aroma makes you feel in another place, even for a brief second, and suddenly thousands of memories are unleashed. It takes me to the Galapagos Legend. Sometimes having breakfast, other times watching the sunset after having explored the Islands, at night seeing the millions of stars that the city lights won’t allow us to see. Most of the time I feel submerged in the sea, chasing the biggest shark I could have imagined, there, below me, totally blind to my presence.

Every time I see a photo I feel the emotion of snorkeling in Corona del Diablo, with manta rays swimming with me, chased by countless fish of many, many colors, and I became part of that current, swimming with my eyes wide open so I wouldn’t miss anything. I can’t erase from my mind the face of a baby sea lion that circled around me while I was snorkeling, who suddenly changed his swimming direction directly at me, 5 centimeters from my face, then he turned around with the agility that characterizes them, and he did it again. He seemed to be laughing, at least I was.

The moments that we were not in the water, we were walking on black lava or very white sand. We were able to see the nests of the turtles that would soon run out to the sea. And in case I wasn’t expecting much on a path surrounded by mangroves, a giant tortoise, who happened to be passing by, blocked our way. Slowly, without haste, as if enjoying that environment too: wide skies, the sound of waves, birds or sea lions taking their siesta on the hot stones of the islands.

Every time I see a photo I want to go back, go back with more emotion than the first time I went, because now I know that those memories are eternal and will never leave my mind.