Blue Monday

Dreaming of the Galapagos this week.

Nice weather, nothing to do but snorkel, loads of wildlife to look at, new friends made, bonding over trying not to throw up when the sea got rough, star gazing miles from anywhere, sea lions popping up all over the place, Sally Lightfoot crabs...no marking, no planning, no meetings, no training days, no emails...

I was meditating today, though, that Theresa May must be exhausted. The news said something about* her needing to have finalised Brexit by midday on Wednesday. Just typing that made me facepalm - I thought my schedule was jammed. She must have not had a decent night's sleep since she took over. I feel like she's basically doing the equivalent of all of my jobs, but whilst also inhabiting a pit of snakes, under the full glare of all the world's media.

She's not my cup of tea but you have to hand it to her. It defo makes me feel better about my workload.


* I was scrolling through Twitter so I wasn't clear on the specifics of what needs to be achieved by then.

Blue Monday

What delights must lie behind a blue door!

I spotted this one in Cusco in the summer. I like the matching windowsill.

Travel Tuesday

It would be impossible to write a blog about the Galapagos that did it justice. I think it was my perfect holiday location. Since it's late I'm not even going to try; I'm just going to share another GoPro video, which doesn't quite have the surprise factor of last week's but is probably my favourite.

I'd swum off a bit from the crowd: every time a sea lion showed up to play, everyone crowded around trying to take a selfie with it and I was a bit bored of that by this point, so I was off exploring by myself. That meant I was the only person to see this.

The quality isn't great; there's my surprised, 'OH!' at the start when I realised what I was looking at; and you have to put up with my, 'IS THIS THING DEFINITELY ON?!!??!!' face at the end, but that is still a video of a marine iguana being harassed by a sea lion on the shore of Los Lobos island. Yes, Blue Planet, I am available for your third series.

GoPro video of the summer

I had a bit of spare time this evening, so I finally got round to copying the pictures and videos I made on the GoPro when I was in the Galapagos. The pictures aren't up to much....definitely time for a new GoPro (what a pity). The videos are great, though. Here's my favourite.

We were warned they liked to do this before we got off the boat, so it wasn't wholly unexpected. Really cool!

Blue Monday

Cusco. A sky so blue that it shows up all the specks on the camera lens...

Here is the Inca in context. Lovely fountain in the Plaza de Armas, which is (as far as I could tell) the Cusco equivalent of Leicester Square.

I have found I am a little too fond of shooting monuments against nothing but sky. Witness, here and here.

Blue Monday

I took this one on our San Cristobal day boat trip, of the coastline, with the guano that is so valuable (it also stops the dark rocks from getting so hot that the birds can't sit on them. Clever!)

I like this because it reminds me very much of Capri.

Blue Monday

This handsome pelican was floating with his buddies next to our boat, just off Isla Santiago in the Galapagos. I like to think the boat engine was providing them with some kind of spa experience.

They flew off quite quickly when a shark turned up, though.

Blue Monday

Back in the Galapagos. I basically took enough pictures here for a year of blue Mondays. Sorry not sorry.

There are a few good things about this one. Firstly - the blue, obvs. Then, the frigate bird - this one followed the boat around for a considerable amount of time. Finally, you can see the lava floe coming down and meeting the shore. This is from Isla Santiago

Blue Monday

This amazing reflection of the sky is courtesy of the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, an art museum and gallery in Quito.

Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find the way in and I don't feel like I saw much of the inside, though I did wander around the art gallery, which included an eerily lifelike, life-sized model of a clown. In the end I had to leave because I got so freaked out by it. I was the only person in there and I started to envisage a horror-movie scenario in which it came to life and chased me around, to a murderous conclusion.

There are some definite drawbacks to travelling alone.

Blue Monday

A break from the Galapagos this week.

This is from the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a splendid church with some lovely terraces one one side. This is a gate I came across on those terraces.

Blue Monday

Another blue Monday, another Galapagos shot. 

This one features several frigate birds, who can grow very large. The males have big red pouches in their throats that they use for attracting lady birds at mating time. I tried to capture one in its nest but was not completely successful. Still, you'll get the gist.

Blue Monday

The Galapagos wasn't all sea and sky (though there are a large number of sea and sky pictures coming up). There was also a lot of epic wildlife, including a huge number of blue-footed boobies (not to be confused with the red-footed booby or the... other kind of booby. Cliff dwelling, maybe?) They were very handsome creatures who felt so safe they just nested right on the ground, often right on the trail, and we were forced to edge gently around them, a few feet off the path to stay within the 2 metre rule imposed by the national park.

Such feet! If I recall correctly, it's to do with their diet. We watched them diving into the sea in some places. Apparently they live for quite some time and only die when they become too weak to effectively break the surface of the water, whereupon they starve to death. Nice.

This picture, in that vein, made me sad. Though they often lay more than one egg, most of the time only one baby survives because they can't manage to feed more than that one.

So, in this picture is a fat and healthy chick who is slowly starving the weaker chick to death, next to one that is long gone. Ah, nature.

Blue Monday

Another perfect Galapagos sea view.

Here's a picture of us on that very boat. My new Canadian friends, Kristina and Diana, and our guide. I have forgotten his name.

Blue Monday

Having been on some exciting summer holidays, you'll be happy to know that I have a whole bevvy of new blue-themed photographs to share with you.

I'll begin with a seascape from the Galapagos. This was from a day-trip off San Cristobal, to Isla Lobos. Lobos are sea lions - you can see why.

They were such posers I had to join in.

Tuesday Ten part 2

Peruvian flag flying over the main square in Cusco, on Independence Day (July 28th)

Two from the fountains-with-lights-and-music park in Lima (this place was a tourist trap but utterly enthralling)

Flashing sign outside the Mario Testino museum in Lima.

Pool toes in Siena.

Tuesday Ten part 1

I am a bit obsessed with the Boomerang app and recorded quite a lot of them during my various trips. Here are ten of my faves from the summer. I had to do it in two parts because Blogger wasn't keen on having 10 video clips in one post.

Sea lion in the Galapagos, waving hello.

And this one is having a scratch.

My new Canadian friends, Diana and Kristina, pulling on wetsuits to go snorkelling again, on our boat in the Galapagos.

This boat was pretty windy.

Machu Picchu! It was so amazing.