[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N76Jnhv_7O4[/youtube]

30th November till 6th December last year we were at the Galapagos….

A month before “The Year of Darwin” – Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150-year anniversary of Origins of Species – I stepped onto the Enchanted Isles with more than age (26) in common with my hero.

Charles and I both defied our fathers expectations for us: for Charles this involved the rejection of a career in medicine and for me it was a career in the corporate business world.

Both Charles and I came from strong Christian backgrounds (Charles was a clergyman and I a was once a Sunday School teacher and unknowingly a fundamentalist Christian).

We both are (some-what) self-taught scientists (although mine more in the social-sciences than Charles).

And we were both inspired by the enchantment of Galapagos to question the significance of humanity’s connection with animals and nature, and wonder what this means for our lives.

Incredible encounters with iguanas, sea lions and cubs, ancient turtles, fish, crabs, birds, eagles, death, love, families, English teachers, Ecuadorian boys, planes, boats and tummy bugs – these are just some of my experiences of the Galapagos Islands.