Where else can you see giant tortoises clambering up a hill? Beaches of dazzling green and red jewels? No explorer can call themselves truly intrepid unless they’ve been to the Galapagos Islands. If it was good enough for Charles Darwin, it’s a must for us at T London and a while ago, we were lucky enough to make the trip. And it’s not a short one. Lying 1,000 miles off the coast of Ecuador, the natural life here famously inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. We travelled by catamaran and sailed by night, arriving on the shore of a new island each morning. There’s such diversity on each island and the weird and wonderful animals see so few humans, they weren’t bothered by us. We walked past a Galapagos hawk only two meters away – he just looked at us and got on with his day. We swam with sea lions, saw fuzzy brown albatross chicks on the nest and avoided salt-snorting iguanas on technicoloured beaches. We passed a hillside of frankincense trees eerily lit up by the sunset. It was humbling and awe-inspiring. Truly like nowhere else on earth.