WO Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 25

Lifestyle JOURNEYS go wild with your camera advantage of the cooler morning hours, you’re up at 5:30am, eating breakfast at 6:30am and off the ship by 7:30am. Days begin with an island hike that lasts two to three hours. As you walk, snapping photo after amazing photo of preening boobies, sun-drunk sea lions, and love-sick male Frigate birds with their red, swollen chests, your guide provides a wealth of information. It’s like waking up to find yourself in the middle of a Wild Kingdom episode. As you walk, the sun pushes the temperature higher and the humidity rises. Before long, you’re a walking puddle, shirt and shorts soaked through but strangely, you couldn’t care less. The astonishing things you’re seeing are well worth breaking a sweat. There are many other places in the world where you can see stunning wildlife – but it’s almost always from a distance. In the Galapagos Islands, although there were clear rules about keeping a six-foot gap between us and the wildlife, it was apparent that the wildlife hadn’t received the same memo. No matter how scrupulous we were about sticking to the well-marked pathways on those isolated Galapagos Islands, we were accosted by albatrosses, seduced by sea lions, and befriended by boobies at every turn. Incredibly, the beautiful creatures we’d come so far to see were equally keen to see us. IF YOU GO... We flew from Toronto to Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, for an overnight stop, then went on to Baltra the following day. At Baltra, we climbed aboard the Silver Galapagos, a lovely expedition ship that’s part of the Silversea fleet. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT: SILVERSEA.COM LIZ FLEMING IN ADDITION TO EDITING WO, LIZ FLEMING IS ALSO THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF CRUISE & TRAVEL LIFESTYLES MAGAZINE AND A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO THELOOP.CA, THE TORONTO STAR AND TORONTO SUN. SHE’S THE AUTHOR OF TWO AMAZON EBOOKS “SINCE YOU’RE HERE, WE MIGHT AS WELL SHAG” AND “207 TRAVEL TIPS BECAUSE 101 JUST WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN ENOUGH." fall 2015 | wo magazine | 23