My week on the Calipso was magical. Magic needs everyone and everything to make it happen, and this trip had it all. First, the daunting waves that promised to wash you out of bed if you didn’t sleep on your back. You never forgot you were on a boat, heading Out There. The waves were still in force when we boarded pangas for the dive sites. Once we descended, the restless surface gave way to sea lions, hammerheads, turtles, huge schools of fish, rays, macro oddballs, and other critters seen nowhere else.

My favorite encounter happened at Wolf when, as I was mesmerized by the abundance of hammerheads in front of me, a movement near my left arm caught my attention, and I turned to face a large moray poking its toothy head from the very rock I clung to. All morays look disgruntled all the time, but perhaps a little more when they are a foot from your face. But there’s nothing I like more than being eye to eye with singular marine life, and I knew he was only breathing. I wonder what he thought about my breathing.

Back on the surface, my moray story was only one among the riveting stories from my fellow divers. They were told through daily meals that were endlessly delicious and served up by crew members for whom no request was too trivial or too much not to fill with a smile. The crew members all seemed to have three jobs, such as food prep, diver prep, and panga pilot.

Our topside excursions included a panga tour near the shores of Cousin’s Rock, where we were able to photograph Blue-footed Boobies and fur sea lions. The best, of course, was our visit to the Galapagos tortoises, where divemaster Peter became eco-tourist guide Peter and gave us an educated glimpse of the oddly beautiful and most famous animal in the Galapagos.

In spite of a couple of glitches in the schedule, we made it to the airport on time. I was sad to leave, happy for the privilege of the experience, and vowing to do it all over again.