Great Aunt Mabel, for whom the Mabel Rose is named, lived on Nantucket in a small cottage with her life partner Liz. Life with Mabel in the summer was pure curious selkie – two long swims a day in the ocean, walks on the moors with the dogs collecting whatever was ripe (my favorite- blueberries) and pulling out books to understand what had been discovered in the ocean or on the moors. Land’s embrace was most obvious when we left the selkie life, usually with tears in our eyes, for the green hills of New Hampshire. Reaching out to us the trees reminded us how tall, green and comforting land can be. Even along the sandy back roads in Nantucket as you skidded along on your bike the trees reached out, embraced you and reminded you were not a fish.

Today we were both pelagic and felt the land’s embrace although the terrain was not the tall maples and elms of my childhood. The morning was spent learning to double kayak together and searching for the Galapagos penguins. Success on both fronts. After a lunch at the beachside restaurant that had caught Karl’s eye the first day, we headed south on our folding bikes along the only Isabela road into the park you are allowed to explore without a Guide. This bike ride was our plan for tomorrow but we wanted to see if our narrow-tired bikes were up to the task. Where the sand was pretty thick close to the beach we had to walk, the Bromptons did well. We decided to explore each side trail today so tomorrow we can make it to the end of the road and the hiking trail. Pink ponds with flamingos, green ponds with cactus, tiny beaches with iguana, and round ponds framed with lava all greeted us. The luxury of not being on guided tour was brilliant. Even better was the Land’s Embrace. The bikes skidded just like on the Nantucket moor road between Quidnet and Sconset. The further we went, the more the trees formed a tunnel and embraced us. One of the side trails was through all four types of mangroves to a secret beach in the middle of the woods. We had to bend over in half to get through the Mangrove tunnel before the trees opened into the clearing with crabs skittling around and the occasional surge with the offshore swell pushing waves up the channel of the forest beach. I am not sure if a lava tunnel counts as a land embrace but this one was clearly tidal with water marks on the edge and more crabs skittering across the floor.

We thought of turning back at the secret beach but the land pulled us along. The trees, now mostly poison apple made a dense tunnel and we reached the Poison apple bridge. We had reached the Camion de las Tortugas– the road of tortoises. The pair of wooden bridges crossed the inflow of the river that flows to the secret forest beach then rose up. Tortoises love poisin apples. Past the river crossing, trails began to appear in the bush. In the Adirondacks, game trails are narrow 4-12 inches wide. These side trails with flattened vegetation might be game trails but were 3-4 feet wide. Signs warning us not to pet the tortoises appeared. We are on the lookout. Karl spots a large Tortoise on the side of the road, mostly pulled into the shell. This mammoth creature in like a small sofa or a large ottoman with rough scaled legs, thick toenails and staring eyes. We sit and wait. Out patience is rewarded. A head out looks around, she snorts a bit and grazes with a huge mouth then ambles into the woods. We bike a little further and I identify three feral chickens including two beautiful roosters. Time to head back.
Bird Note: The penguins thrive here as they have almost not predators. Their main challenge is keeping their eggs from overheating so close to the equator. Instead of the Antarctic heroics of sitting on the eggs for months here the penguins work to keep the eggs out of the sun pushing them into shadows and into cracks in the lava.