Jay Sterling

A Charm of Finches

You can’t comprehend isolation until you’ve lived on an island in the middle of nowhere. In the beginning, I don’t think I understood the reality of it. A naïve American ornithologist who fell in love with the idea of this brilliant, tropical place and had forgotten the fact that The Galapagos are harsh and unforgiving to those who are not fit to survive. Shortly after my arrival to Santa Cruz, I was introduced by a local friend to one of the town elders, another American who told me about how he came when he was twenty, how unbelievably tough it was working in a village where there were slim pickings in terms of a menu, no doctors, no plumbers, and little communication with the outside world. He told me how they partied whenever they could, that made me smile. He also told me that even the best survivalists could die and disappear out in the wilderness. I kind of shrugged and promised I wouldn’t go out there.