This was the answer I penned which I thought might be worth putting here for future reference…
To elaborate slightly on previous answers…there are 13 different sub-species of Darwin’s Finch. Each pertains to a particular island in the Galapagos archipelago. That is to say that the same bird evolved subtly different characteristics depending on the local conditions of their island habitat. Where the main food source was a form of nut, they evolved stronger beaks for insects, longer beaks. That sort of thing.
If you go to the Galapagos what you actually see are lots of little brown birds, like a house sparrow. Not at first sight the most interesting bird in the sky. Far from it. It was the same for Darwin who frankly went hunting on the islands. It was only much later in life that he returned to the specimens he had gathered as a young man in the Galapagos and noticed the differences between the finches and between the shells of the giant tortoises and started to really work though his theory of evolution.
In short, those little brown birds don’t look like much but are fundamental to the development of evolutionary theory.
If you are interested in joining us on a Galapagos cruise, get in touch!
Beluga Galapagos yacht at anchor
There are currently some fantastic discount Galapagos cruise offers from the superior first class Beluga yacht. Travel for seven nights departing on June 3rd , July 1st, July 8th, July 15th, July 22nd, July 29th or August 12th and you will enjoy a first class/deluxe Galapagos cruise on board this lovely yacht for just £2,000 per person, including the flights to and from the mainland of Ecuador.
If you would like to know more about our Galapagos wildlife cruises or our holidays in general, please call us on 01273 676712.
Penguins on an iceberg in Antarctica
This is some really interesting feedback from a recent client who travelled on board Antarctic Dream for her cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. I think this gives you a sense of the rough and the smooth of the experience, and hopefully explains why we will not promote the ‘fly cruise’ options now coming on line whereby you simply fly over the Drake Passage.
Antarctica is an absolutely extraordinary experience, although mother nature definitely makes you work for it – the crossing of Drake’s Passage takes 2 days and although it’s known to be the roughest stretch of water in the world, we weren’t prepared for 14mtr waves and force 9 winds!
R toughed it out much better than I did and managed, at least, to leave the cabin at meal times, whereas I spent the entire crossing either vomiting or passed out on sea-sickness tablets. At least we had a decent cabin, thanks to our surprise honeymoon upgrade 
Although the journey is hell, the rewards are so worth it – I’ve never seen anywhere so peaceful and vast and pure and savage all at the same time. Whilst it’s stillness and beauty appears unthreatening, it actually belies an incredibly hostile environment.
For starters, if you fell in the water, you’d need to be rescued within about 3mins if you’ve any chance of survival! Now, we’ve watched more than our fair share of David Attenborough, so were excited enough as it is to be seeing it all for real, but it’s so much more impressive in the flesh.
The enormity of the glaciers and icebergs blows you away – we were lucky enough to make it into the Weddel Sea, where the pack ice stretches as far as the eye can see and the icebergs are all as large as apartment blocks. If even a small piece chips and falls to the water it makes a sound like cracking thunder and causes disturbing waves – when they split and divide, they cause mini tsunamis and I can only imagine the noise… when the ice below the water (usually 8x bigger than the ice that protrudes) has been eroded away, they flip, literally in an instant!
For me, the highlight was scooting alongside a group of humpback whales in a little zodiac – being up close and personal with these beasts in their natural environment was exhilarating. You’d hang over the side, camera in hand, feeling untouchable in your little rubber dinghy, then see their white bellies glide out from underneath you as they rotate and surface just metres away… gulp…wow!
The seals and penguin rookeries are also amazing to see. You can literally walk amongst hundreds of thousands of penguins on one island and, as long as you respect their ‘highways’ and nest, they won’t even flinch. We ended the trip with a jaunt into the water filled crater of the volcano at Deception Island – where else can you do that!? Anyway, the pictures say a lot but really “you had to be there”. Superb!
You should only visit Antarctica if you can face the crossing. It’s a means of sorting the wheat from the chaff and making sure that only the most committed visit this most precious of places. It may be uncomfortable to make the crossing but it heightens the experience once you are there. If it was easy, visitors wouldn’t value it as much.
Secondly, most importantly, Drakes Passage keeps visitor numbers down. Increased flights down to Antarctica is not something we welcome as a positive development.