I Still Say Turtle/Tortoise Confusion Is Okay As Long As You Don’t Drown Anyone

Two of the big things on our recent trip to the Galapagos was getting to see all the sea turtles and giant tortoises. This came up often in conversation, and you would be astounded how often you ended referring to the wrong creature. By reflex almost, you would be immediately corrected…despite the person who corrected you doing it themselves later. We all knew the difference, and we’d all keep accidentally referring to turtles as tortoises and tortoises as turtles.

We knew there were differences between turtles

and tortoises

but it happened anyway, repeatedly, the mistakes and the corrections.  I still think it doesn’t matter as long as you don’t throw a tortoise in the water and drown them. Whatever, right?

Personally, I kept muttering: “We called him tortoise because he taught us!”