At first it was hard to see how the colours of the chilly mountains of Ecuador would come together with the equatorial, rocky and, in parts, surprisingly barren islands of the Galapagos.
Working boats painted as blue and green as the ocean had bumpers of intricately hand-knotted blue rope. Although it wasn’t flamingo season, we came across a lost flock, all soft pink from their diet of shrimp and algae.
I found that, in some ways, the Galapagos and Ecuadorian landscapes offered the same colours but showed them off in very different ways – a fabulous styling technique from nature itself. I considered whether to even place these two distinct places together, but if a trip is planned to one, it would be foolish not to explore the other. For these reasons, your inspirations are likely to come home all mixed up & this is very natural.
In a remote cove of pink sands, the shores are strewn with sea turtle tracks, sea urchin quills & coral fragments, with the dunes behind speckled with bluey-green prickly pears & the holy trees that lend a beautiful scent to the scape. It was all very David Attenborough, and it became clear to me how this part of my gypsy roving fitted together as I watched blue-footed boobies dance, saw the aquamarine, turquoise & milky greens of the sea and the shock of orange & red Sally Lightfoot crabs scuttling across the cool coral sand.
I named my colours (from the top) hacienda, flamingo, Sally lightfoot, alpaca, isola, booby, flotsam, hummingbird, St Anthony & sea lion. Tune in next week as I start to details the way I brought home these colours, and how I re-lived my experiences through interior styling.