Exactly 209 years ago today, Charles Darwin was born. A bit more recently (Oct-Dec 2014), we sailed part of the now world-famous route that Darwin once took on the HMS Beagle: from the Cape Verde Islands, across the Atlantic Ocean, to Salvador de Bahía (Brazil), via Montevideo, further south along the coast of Argentina, straight through the Strait of Magellan, and finally to the southernmost tip of Latin America.
And when you’re at sea for days on end, seeing mostly water and (sometimes) blue skies, there’s plenty of time to pick up that book by Darwin. While reading The Origin of Species, a few dragonflies drift by, along with a swarm of flies. Where they came from, I have no idea. We’re now miles away from the mainland.
I flip to the chapter where Darwin describes this part of his journey. He, too, was amazed by the many insects on board the Beagle in this area. ‘It was snowing butterflies,’ he writes. He was here on almost the exact same day as us, but back in 1833. According to Darwin, the Argentine countryside is so parched and dry that the insects are blown out to sea by the wind.
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