Galapagos – 2005 Grand Prize in Writing, NATJA Awards

Paradise Retained, 2005 NATJA award winning story examining conservation in the Galapagos Islands. — Plenty Magazine

In Galapagos, animals are rockstars. The fauna are friendlier than your neighbors. Sea lions stare directly into your mask while you snorkel with sea turtles, penguins, and giant manta rays.  Later, while sunning on the beach, you may find that same sea lion has cuddled up beside you for a snooze.  The birds, brilliantly and bizarrely festooned, are so close and so fearless they will sing right into your ear.  There are rainbow-colored giant iguanas.  And when you sail into the sunset, whales and dolphins frolic in your bow-waves. …To travel in Galapagos is to watch Darwin’s ideas take shape, as if one had sat down to watch Shakespeare write.