Member-only story
The Galapagos (And How to Not Get Sucked into a Jet Turbine)
Visiting the Galapagos is as exciting as it is exhausting.
It was hard to hear her screams over the whirr of the jet turbine.
Standing at the foot of the stairs leading down from the just-landed plane, I watched as an airport employee ran past, waving her hands. A second employee, from the opposite side of the tarmac, sprinted my direction, her arms doing the same.
I could only assume she was yelling as well.
Across from me, a tall, slender, man, chased his blown-off Panama hat like a child following a ball into traffic. The tumbleweed of a hat rolled along the pavement, past the coned off section, and continued toward the turbine.
His family — as American as their accents — watched him, oblivious to screaming workers and General Electric engines.
My body froze as I watched. Was this going to be my introduction to the islands? To see a man sucked into a jet turbine in pursuit of a hat sold along every street corner?
Nothing listened except the wind. It took a breather, allowing the hat to flop to the ground. The man bent over and picked it up, his hair and linen shirt rippling from twisting fate only a few feet away.
