Galapagos Wildlife Photo Expedition

Galapagos, for me, is the most magical place. Once you get in the water, that feels feels like a whole bunch of energy exploding because of all the animals that are around you, swimming right in front of your face. The sea lions seems like they're waiting for you. It's come, come to the water and play with us please. Make our day. And there we are, trying to swim with them. Looking at the sea lion staring at you, it's like they're trying to tell me something, but they're happy, they're having fun, and I'm having fun. For that moment, when you're having the animals so close, it feels like you forget everything else. All those problems, they disappear. It's gone because you are living that moment. It's like meditation and you don't want to end. It's living in a different world. Should I start now? Yeah, yeah. Just start Ah, okay. Well, I was so lucky to grow here in the Galapagos Islands. I was born in Quito, but I grew up here. My mom got divorced of my dad when I was about five, six years old. She was stuck in the mainland, living in a big city, and she didn't like it at all. She was thirty four years old when she decided to move with her two kids to the islands, a remote area where you only have five thousand people. And she started all over again. And I think that was the best thing that could ever happen to us. At that time, everybody knew each other, and your parents would let you be alone most of the day while they were working. I remember going to school on my little bicycle, and every afternoon we'll go to the ocean and be playing outside with friends. It was very beautiful to be independent and have that freedom. I feel very lucky that I had the possibility to grow up here in this paradise. Here in Galapagos, eighty percent of the people works directly for tourism. And my mom at that time was working for a tourism company. They offered her two spaces to go on a cruise. My mom said, You and your sister will go on this cruise. And I had the most amazing guides and the most amazing experience with wildlife ever. My favorite animal is the dolphin. So I told the guides, I wish I could see a dolphin. And one of the guides said, Josie, I promise you we're going to see dolphins. I say, how can you promise that? We were there, dolphins showed up, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. And I just fall in love. Know, that moment that we saw the dolphins, we were looking for them, and we saw them, it was like, that's what I wanted to do. I want to be a naturalist guide of the Galapagos. After that trip, I graduated from high school. I was not eighteen years old, and a training to become a naturalist guide was offered by the national park, and I was not able to do it. So I said, Okay, I have to wait for the next training. I had to wait five years to be able to become a guide. And as soon as the national park offered the training, I said, Okay, I have to do it because that's what I've been dreaming to do, and that's what I did. My mom always teaches to go for it, to try to get what we want. She's supporting me all the time. Being a guide, she really liked it because she knew I was enjoying it a lot. She's very happy with any choice that makes me happy. I really love her. We're very close to each other. I'm always very impressed of how tough and how strong and how brave she's been in her life. When it's Mother's Day, we celebrate. And when it's Father's Day, we celebrate because she had to do the two things together. And you know, and that's when it brings me to tears always when I talk about that because she's incredible. If I'm ever a mom, I wish I can be like her. Yeah. I owe to Galapagos so much because Galapagos has gave me, my mom, and my sister so many things. So I have to give back. At the beginning of the trip, I always like to tell the groups that this is my home. I feel privileged to be able to grow up here on the Galapagos, and it's a magical place. And I really hope that by the end of the trip, it's going to be magical for the guests too. And at the end, they say it was magical, and they will always have Galapagos in their hearts. Sharing with other people, it's what enriches all this work that we do. If you want to be a guide, it's not easy, but go for it. If you have a dream, go for it. For me, I started from zero, and I've always think there is opportunities, hard work, and be persistent in what you do. Sometimes you want to give up. But if you go out to nature and you feel that peacefulness around you, nature recharge the energy so you can keep on going forward. That's the most important part.