Moon Galápagos Islands

Lisa Cho was born in Ojai, California to Chinese and Japanese parents, but often tells people that she is Ecuadorian-American. She discovered her love for travel at an early age when she visited extended family in rural China. Later she worked as a product manager in the biotech industry, a job that frequently sent her on business trips that seemed much too short. So after a lot of dreaming and planning, she decided to take the longest trip of her life, leaving her career and buying a one-way flight to Cuenca, Ecuador. In Ecuador the air was warmer, the mangos were cheaper, and the country was more beautiful than she had imagined. She started a blog about Ecuador and her travels around South America and later found work writing a blog about the Galapagos — work that required regular trips to the islands. Her time in the Galapagos has been an interesting mix. She has stayed in backpacker hostels, upscale eco-lodges, and sailed on cruises. She has ventured off the beaten path — taking Latin dance aerobics and trying the grilled intestines. Other times she has been quite content having a once-in-a-lifetime experience with all the other tourists, being surrounded by sharks, sea turtles, and sea lions. Two years later she now feels equally at home in Ecuador and San Francisco, and splits her time between the two. She holds a masters in bioengineering from Stanford University. Her hobbies include Argentine tango, photography, and SCUBA diving.