Galapagos Islands, Here I Come!

The Island Girl is at it again! I leave home on Monday for a week exploring the Galapagos Islands. I expect that it will be reminiscent of Iceland, except for the heat, the rain, the snorkeling, the cacti, the buried pirate treasure, and the wildlife: blue-footed boobies, lumbering giant tortoises, showy frigatebirds, the only marine iguanas in the world, penguins, flamingos, lava lizards, seals, seahorses, and Darwin’s infamous finches. The Galapagos Islands are on the equator, while Iceland touches the Arctic Circle. Why do I think the Galapagos will remind me of Iceland, then? Because the Galapagos are relatively new volcanic islands, and like Iceland, appear at first sighting to be formidably uninhabitable. They also have a long, varied, and questionable history of human attempts at colonization.

The only drawback of this trip is that the airlines wanted to charge me $80 extra to take a suitcase. I refuse to do that simply out of principle. All my belongings are consequently squished into a daypack. Less is more! I hope the seat belt fits around me, as I will be wearing most of my clothes.