Galapagos Episode 1

This is a scheduled post, so we´re actually probably on a boat in the middle of the Pacific right now, pèrhaps sipping a tasty juice, waiting to get onto our next island...


A pair of very tired girls landed in the Galapagos and were immediately assaulted by tropical views and muchos wildlife. We´re definitely not in London any more... Our boat is small but pretty nice, the food is good and the climes are super hot. Equatorial life isn´t it!

Apparently, I now suffer from seasickness - an unexpected discovery, since I never USED to get ill on boats! Still, lying down makes me feel much better. Sometimes the boat is so rocky that even Milla, Queen of the Sea, isn´t quite at her best, only reaching the second-to-top deck.

So far we have visited several islands and snorkelled a lot as well. I know it´s a cliche but the islands really are teeming with wildlife. On our first day, we visited the giant tortoise reserve. And those things are HUGE. Apparently they can weigh up to 250kg (600 lbs). Pretty incredible. We managed to get pictures of us with them (pretty close!) so you´ll be able to see the true size soon enough.

We´ve snorkelled with sharks, starfish, tropical fish, stingrays, Galapagos penguins and playful sea lions, but the highlight for me was swimming in the immediate vicinity of a sea turtle. Amazing.

Bartoleme Island was also pretty cool - we trekked up a volcano and gazed upon a moonscape - those of you who´ve seen the film Total Recall - this is where Arnie escaped on Mars or something. Master and Commander was also filmed there.

I´d say that from a wildlife perspective, North Seymour Island was incredible - frigate birds with big red inflatable pouches, land and marine iguanas, sea lions, blue footed boobies... beautiful. Everything stays pretty close too, the animals haven´t had time to develop fear of humans in the same way as they have in the UK (or anywhere else I´ve visited), meaning we get some incredible (sorry, am overusing this word but it´s hard not to!) photos. So glad I got the Beast for this trip.


Tan watch - Milla is just coming through the initial phases of "pink with a tinge", whereas I am still predominantly a pale shade of lily, with occasional pink tones. Neither of us are even approaching the mahogany/tango shade of orange that Dan is able to within a couple of days. It will be some sort of miracle if I ever even look vaguely golden. Just gotta keep slapping on that factor 50!


I´d upload pictures but this connection is pretty slow.... needless to say, both Milla and I have gone a bit snap happy. Pics to follow.