This week’s travel dream: A mother, a son, and the origin of species

The Galápagos Islands may not seem like the ideal destination for mother-son bonding, said David Abel in The Boston Globe. Located 600 miles off Ecuador’s coast, the archipelago where Charles Darwin honed his ideas about evolution is notorious for its forbidding volcanic terrain, and my mom is not exactly the adventure-seeking type. But the two of us had business to take care of in Quito, and when I suggested this side excursion as a way to spend more time together, she agreed. Still, as our plane touched down on the “scree of lava rock” known as the island of Baltra, I began to worry that the whole trip might become “an exercise in masochism.”

My mother proved to be gamer than I expected when a water taxi took us to meet our small cruise ship, the Eden. Our below-deck cabin was snug, but Mom didn’t raise an eyebrow. “It’s clean and it’s nice,” she said. “No complaints.” After a pleasant lunch on board, we joined a rainy hike on the island of Santa Cruz to see its “lava tubes” and giant tortoises, some a century old. While descending into a cave carved from lava, my mother had to admit that she’d rather be golfing. But only when some of us went snorkeling the next morning did she beg out of the group itinerary. As we slipped into the waves without her, “several sea lions began to swim beside us, performing somersaults.”

The next day, my mother and I awoke to views of Española Island, “the most southerly spit of land in the chain.” Hundreds of iguanas had collected on the rocky landing, and sea lion pups nursed nearby on white sand. Walking inland, we encountered a colony of albatross, as well as “blue-footed boobies marching about in their comical courtship dance.” Naturally, my mother passed on snorkeling at Shark’s Rock, where I had a close encounter with a large predator that, mercifully, was “more interested in the shade of a small cave than dining on tourists.” Mom at least seemed happy I’d survived, flashing a “beatific smile” as we hugged later at the airport. “Well,” she said, in a typical understatement, “it’s been quite an adventure.”

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A four-day cruise on the Eden (galapagos​cruise.com.ec/eden-yacht) starts at $700.