A woman I work with recommended I read ¨Galapaagos¨ when I mentioned that I was going to the Galapagos for vacation. I downloaded the book to my Kindle and started reading it on the airplane as I headed to Ecuador. When I met up with my traveling companions, two of the seven were reading the same book. We would discuss the book as we trekked around the islands -- our own roving book circle. The book was weird but I did enjoy reading about the Galapagos as I was in the Galapagos. Yesterday, as I waited in Baltra for the plane, the main characters were on a boat hoping to get to Baltra. Their vision of Baltra was starkly different than the reality I stared out upon as I thought about the dreamy hope of the book. I also really enjoyed the setup and history of the Galapagos that Vonnegut educated his reader with. He recounted various tales about the hell of the Galapagos and how it was uninhabitable. He also attributed traits of different endemic species to the various characters (Wait was a frigate, the Captain and the ladies stranded with him were a sea lion colony).
Would I recommend the book to everyone? No, but if someone I knew was headed to the Galapagos, I would suggest they pick it up.
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