When I described, a couple weeks ago, the echo of hope emanating from the Gulf of California it is fair to say I was pleasantly surprised.  That may be putting it too mildly, especially in hindsight now that I have seen a major new entrepreneurial initiative come to life there.  I will be writing more about that in the coming days.

But for now, I am in the Galapagos Islands and another echo is resonating.  In this case, for me, the echo is an eight year feedback.  As mentioned in this earlier post I had worked here on and off over several years, and the last time I was here there were some challenges that seemed intractable.  Today, upon arrival and for the remainder of the day, I had the opposite feeling of the last time I was here.  The photos below show the first thing I did with Reyna and Roberto after leaving the airport.  In the first photo you can see, as I did, just a simple conversation between them and one of the workers; then slowly a parade of otherworldly creatures crept into the photos…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hopefully you already read Reyna’s recent post and know that they are building a home here.  In addition, we have been discussing for a long time collaborating on an entrepreneurial conservation project.  They and I will share our perspectives on that project as it gets going.  For now, I will just mention that their property was full of male Galapagos tortoises (Geochelone portieri) in migration.  The open spaces you see in the photos are on another section of their property and were originally cleared for pasture decades ago; they now serve as a migratory path and the tortoises love these tender shoots of grass.