Las Islas Cies are like an obscure paradise, nestled somewhere off the coast of Galicia. I’m an island girl for sure (Cancer), but I had never heard of these dazzlers until Lana enlightened me. Oh yes, I was intrigued. Especially when you see photos like this:

We were hoping to catch a ferry from our hotel in Nigran, but discover that we need to go back to Vigo instead since the ferry doesn’t operate in Nigran until mid-July. Fail.

So for our last night we cab it over to Baiona which is the village next to Nigran and is said to have a raging night life. It does not. Dinner was subdued because of general heat exhaustion and living life in excess. The highlight of the evening was when they played Danza Kuduro in one of the open bars we found. There were approximately 5 people there. We had a few Estrella Galicia’s and left.

We leave Nigran in the wee morning hours of 8AM on a bus. Once in Vigo we get a room at the same hotel and hop on down to the marina to book our tickets.

The girl at the ticket counter informs us that we can either come back at 5pm* or 7pm*.This bit of information is important, so remember it. I want to do 7pm but the Russian wanted 5pm. Never cross a Russian – life lessons to live by. We book the tickets for 5pm and Marina assures me that if we want to stay longer, it won’t be a problem. She is so confident in her statement, I find myself blindly trusting her. Another life lesson to live by – never trust a Russian.

First things first: we need supplies.
Here I am getting our Albariño.

Marina, in a panic, reminded me not to forget the ice. Dude. This isn’t my first rodeo.
Ice and wine in hand, we make our way to the launch.

Lana was terrified on the boat trip out there. She’s afraid of being on water and every time the boat rocked, which was constant, she dug her talons into my leg. So Marina and I, both being strong swimmers, devised a plan. If the boat went down, Marina would grab Lana, and I would grab the Albariño. That covered the two most important things. And we warned Lana that if she struggled against us, we would have to punch her in the face. It never came to that. And lo…this is what we stumble upon…

My awesome meter just peaked.