We’ve had a quiet week really – quite a few afternoon’s off so filming is not so hectic as we thought it might be. This week we’ve managed to take the girls to school twice which the girls really enjoyed. Isla has managed to become friends with a couple of girls who are quite sweet and Molly is joining in with some of the art so they’re quite happy at the moment.

We’ve also visited the sinkholes towards the middle of the island off the main highway which are beautiful. We’ve visited Georgina’s house again and met some more residents of Santa Cruz. Some are ex-pats and all have been very friendly.

During a whole day off we drove to the eastern side of Santa Cruz and visited a new beach called El Garrapetaro – which was stunning. The sea was warm and we paddled and swam in the lagoons with the iguanas. We’ve only five more days before we set off to Isabela island. It will be great to see more of the islands, flamingoes and a volcano should feature.

Today we had a mirror box interview and we’ve already started to think about the fact that our time on Galapagos is slowly coming to end…I’ve just received two invites for Halloween parties from friends at home. It’ll be so strange to come home to a cold and dark UK. But I do love this time of year at home, the gradual build up to Christmas and the colder, crisper days.

15th October

With only 17 days to go I’m going to try and make the most of it. This is such a unique place I feel like I want to go and explore many more areas but we are restricted as to what we can realistically do due to filming. I did have a little adventure of my own this week! Katy and I visited Gordon’s Rocks. A very hairy and scary dive site – hugely renowned as a fantastic place to see Hammerhead sharks and other big animals, but with big animals comes big seas!

A channel surging with life but its very deep and the currents are very strong. We did manage to see Hammerheads and a Manta Ray plus countless fish and turtles but I wasn’t comfortable at times. Katy was super calm and helpful – you need to be experienced to dive here and it was great to have her as a buddy. And – however exhilarating it was – it was wonderful to get back in the water. Its very rare that we get to dive nowadays, with little ones and commitments at home, but there was no way I was leaving these islands without getting wet…

So five days to Isabela and then ten days before we go home. It’s nearly all over – we’ve looked through all the photos and the girls have had an amazing time and such an education. They can name so many birds and animals here now. They’ve been pretty well behaved, and have coped so well with all the different places we have been and people we have met. Molly has definitely had a few issues and here some of Molly’s meltdown highlights:

Refusing to wear shoes ever

Insisting that Mont carry her everywhere – its lucky he is so strong

Wearing the same two dresses every single day

Screaming fit due to no dummy during the day in Floreana

Screaming fit due to me taking away a noisy toy during a lesson at school

Screaming fit because we refused to by sugar laden cereal from the supermarket

Molly has also mostly eaten spag bol, chips and ice-cream since she arrived

And she refuses to wear her radio mic pretty much all the time…

So it all went quite well then…