5AM Snorkels, Boat Life, and Doing It for the Plot
Penn Global Seminar: Darwin’s Laboratory: History, Philosophy, Evolution and Social Ecology in the Galápagos Archipelago
Allison, one of the Fall 2025 Penn Global Seminar Correspondents, shares her experience abroad during the Winter Break. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed.
Photo taken by Allison Li from the 1920 Commons Bridge during an in-class practice photography session.
When I applied to the Galápagos PGS, I had no idea what to expect. All I heard through the grapevine was the supposed allure of waking up at 5am to snorkel.
On the first day of class, Professor Weisberg confirmed our expectations – yes, we would be snorkeling in the open ocean. Nearly every day of the trip, at that. With some amount of glee, Professor Weisberg recounted previous trips where he swam circles around his PGS students, holding many of their hands as they recovered from the “extra-invigorating” ocean water.
“It’s REALLY hard to drown in the ocean. Humans are naturally buoyant,” Professor Weisberg insisted to us on multiple occasions. I’m only halfway reassured. The prospect of snorkeling in the ocean still remains terrifying to me. Can I really do it?
The neuroscience major in me can’t wait to dissect this mental battle. What happens to your brain when you swim in the open ocean? What kind of physiological changes happen, and how do these responses adapt over time?
The creative writing minor in me says forget all of that, think of the lore. As a senior on the cusp of their last spring semester, I can think of few better ways to start the year than a 10-day trip to the Galápagos. 10 days of exploring world-famous wildlife, completely cut off from the rest of the world? Discomfort isn’t just about fear. It’s a story just waiting to happen.
During the first day of class, we also learned that we would be living on a boat for nearly the entire trip. 97% of the archipelago’s land area is designated a National Park, so traveling by boat minimizes the traces we may leave behind on the environment.
This leads into a core aspect of the PGS – the Galápagos Paradox. This paradox describes a central conflict around sustainability: the Galápagos is renowned for its biodiversity and relies on tourism to fund its economy, but its biodiversity is directly threatened by tourism’s environmental impact. As visitors to the islands, I wonder how the paradox will manifest during our trip.
Despite the tensions that exist, the Galápagos Islands remain an impressive feat of wildlife conservation and biodiversity. About 80% of land birds, 97% of the reptiles and land mammals, and more than 30% of the plants are not found anywhere else on earth.
There’s no telling how these next 10 days will go, but it’s undoubtedly going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our trip leaders are both avid photographers, so much so that we even spent an entire class period on learning basic photography techniques. There’s something satisfying about how photography slows you down, forcing you to pay attention to light and shadows. Between bringing two cameras (my dad’s Canon and an old digi) and two journals (one for sketching and one for writing), I can’t wait to document it all.