Carrie Pokrefke is living her dream, taking part in a 10-day National Geographic photography expedition on the Galapagos Islands.

“This is the realization of my ultimate dream in life,” said Pokrefke. “They say it’s like summer camp for adults. It’s nonstop.”

For years, Pokrefke, 31, has wanted to photograph the wildlife and various plant species indigenous to the island, officially named Galapagos Archipelago. A few months ago, she put her name on a waiting list to travel with National Geographic knowing her being able to go was a long shot. By chance, a spot opened for her when someone canceled his or her reservation for the trip to the chain of islands in the Pacific.

“I have always wanted to go since high school. This opportunity came up, and so, I took it,” said Pokrefke.

A representative from the magazine called on April 27 telling her the news. She said her being selected was “a total fluke.”

The St. Aloysius High School graduate left Vicksburg for Ecuador Friday en route to the Galapagos, famed for its endemic animal and plant life including the tortoise and cacti.

The volcanic island chain of lush vegetation and picturesque scenery lies in the Pacific Ocean about 525 miles off the western coast of Ecuador, sitting in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Discovered in 1535 by Fray Thomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama, the group of 18 islands, 107 rocks and islets is 3,040 square miles of land spread over 17,000 square miles of ocean.

As a lover of photography, Pokrefke, joined the magazine’s biannual photo expedition to capture images of what she had seen on television and the Internet since she was a teen.

“I do photography on the side. That’s the reason I’m going,” said Pokrefke, a credit union examiner for the state of Mississippi. “It’s a very photography-based expedition. I’ve always watched the website. National Geographic has been going to the Galapagos for 40 years. They actually give back to Galapagos.”

The magazine has studied and inspired interest in various cultures and plant and animal life from around the world for more than 100 years.

Pokrefke said during the tour, a photographer from the magazine will offer tutorials on rendering lighting and color of digital photos that participants have taken while on the islands.

“That’s the thing about photography — you get to share what you see with others,” said Pokrefke, who has been a serious photographer for six years. “I’m just a picture person. I see things in pictures.”

Pokrefke took four cameras with her, including two Canon 20Ds, a pinhole camera and a waterproof digital.

As a child she wanted to be a marine biologist, she said, inspired by her father, an engineer at Waterways Experiment Station.

Reading Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” sparked her interest in the Galapagos as a child.

The book derived from Darwin’s expedition on the island chain in 1835 when he observed variations among plants and animals similar to those in South America.

He studied assorted species around the globe yielding four theories: Evolution did occur. Evolutionary change was a gradual process that required thousands even millions of years. Natural selection was the primary factor for evolution. Species alive today sprang from a single original life form through speciation, a new species developed from the division of a single species into two genetically distinct ones.

Pokrefke said she will stay close to each species, studying their every detail with her camera. If she manages to miss something, she said, “I can always go back.”