Book One: The Thing Was, Chapter 5-Chapter 6 Summary

The Bahía de Darwin's engines will die in five days, and in ten years, she will sink. She's the newest, fastest Ecuadorian cruise ships, designed to travel to the Galapagos Islands and back. The narrator worked on her in Sweden, where she was built. She has all possible luxuries and technological advantages, unlike the Beagle, on which Darwin sailed. The other Galapagos Island cruise ships are out of commission because the tourist trade is gone.

People in Ecuador, which has poor soil, are starving because their money no longer can buy food. Peru and Colombia are also bankrupt. Besides the Bahía de Darwin, the only other ship in Guayaquil is the San Mateo, a Colombian freighter that's sitting unused, collecting seaweed. The economic collapse has spread to most of...