Eduardo’s Lunch

We were late for the interview. Eduardo Veliz was already cooking lunch for his guests when we arrived at his inn on the Galápagos Islands.

We’d have to wait for him, he told my reporting partner and me. Then we could all sit down, eat, and talk.

This was in March 2022, during a reporting trip for a journalism class at UNC Chapel Hill.

I entered the kitchen to start getting to know Eduardo, and to get an early glimpse of our meal. There were onions, green peppers, and tomatoes; some fish; oil heating in a big pot. He shooed me away like the flies that were also a little too eager. We’d talk when it was ready.