A journey of self-discovery unfolds as a woman travels with her adult daughters to the Galapagos to see natural selection in action. Her memoir of family bonding is set amongst giant tortoises, salt-crested marine iguanas, and crimson-throated Magnificent Frigatebirds; includes photographs and an essay on the life and work of Charles Darwin.
Bette Blaydes Pegas was born in San Diego, California, the only child of an Anglo father and Mexican mother. Because her family spoke only English at home, she never became proficient in her mother's native tongue--a handicap she is now trying to overcome by studying with a Spanish language tutor. Her parents loved reading and filled their small living room with classics and a few first editions. At age five, she tried to read Jurgen, by James Branch Cabell, and even though she understood nothing, ran to tell her father that she'd finished the whole book. A lover of words, her father taught her to spell "hypnosis" before she started school and to love the rhythm of words carefully put together. To this day, she never feels satisfied if the cadence of her writing doesn't match the theme and tenor she's trying to create.
Pegas lives in El Cajon, California with her historian husband, Art. She has received a fiction award for the short story "Dry Lips" from the Florida State Writing Competition and a California School Public Relations Association award for writing and editing the best school district newsletter in the state. She is an associate in Sanchez & Associates, a team of educators dedicated to raising the achievement of inner city children and youth; one of the founding members of the La Jolla Writers' Network; a featured singer in the Friendship Connection, a choral group that performs in nursing homes; and a member of the Galapagos Conservancy, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Audubon Society, and the National Resources Defense Council. CHASING A DREAM IN THE GALPAGOS: A PERSONAL EVOLUTION is her first book. She is currently working on a book of short stories.
