When we slid off of our rubber Zodiac into the cool Pacific, waves were slapping up against nearby Champion Islet, a rocky little thing among the grand Galápagos islands. But once the three of us, including myself, another North American and a native Galapagueño, dunked our dive masks below the tide, thoughts of current and conditions were washed away by awe. 

A small, black-tipped reef shark circled below, followed by graceful spotted eagle rays, and a thick school of deep blue-and-yellow-striped Sargeant Majors. Few creatures seemed to notice us until we met a cadre of sleek brown sea lions, intent on goofing around. They darted toward, around and beneath us, often mimicking our acrobatics. When it seems they could spend the entire day at play, they finally hauled their massive hides awkwardly onto the beach. Some plopped down atop another brazenly while pups snuggled up to their mothers to nurse in the warm autumn sun. 

On the Galápagos archipelago, 600 miles west of mainland Ecuador, time is measured by the rhythms of nature and the place is defined by the extremes of life and death, wet and dry (seasons), dormant and explosive, and native and alien. Yet traveling there is like wandering in a parallel universe.

Certain phenomenon like heat, wind and gravity are familiar, but other aspects are other-worldly. Sea lions are unperturbed, even inquisitive, of humans, normally land-fixed iguanas dive headfirst into the surf, birds with powder-blue foot are ubiquitous, and tortoises with shells the size of beach umbrellas roam through one century to the next.

While the islands, 97 percent of which are national park, retain a staggering 95 percent of their endemic species (a feat unparalleled on any other archipelago in the world) keeping Galápagos biologically pristine has been, and continues to be, a constant and hard-waged battle.

The introduction of foreign species to the isolated islands remains the single greatest threat to their biodiversity. And in the swirl and shove of globalization the conditions that the islands’ biota demand for survival (the ones toward which these species specifically evolved) are becoming difficult to sustain. While the Galápagos have many watchdogs and protectors, they suffer constant bombardment by illegal immigration and fishing, weak national park administration, corrupt mainland politics and an influx of bloated cruise ships.