Our boat moved a small distance early in the morning so when we arose for breakfast, we were near South Plaza Island, just of the coast of Isla Santa Cruz. After breaky we jumped in the dingy to the island for a walk around. As soon as we put our feet on land we were surrounded by sea lions, both adults and babies, resting on the rocks. There were also various types of sea birds and a Canario Maria. One of the things that hit us first on this island was the s...

When you fly out of Quito airport for the Galapagos you have to go through an extra bag check to make sure you aren't carrying food items and the like. You also have to pay a US$10 fee, probably for the pleasure of having this bag check. Fortunately the lady processing our details forgot to actually take our money, so we saved US$20! Our flight passed through Guayaquil, as they all do. Since we booked the cheapest available flight option we had to wait a few hou...

We stopped briefly back in Quito for 1 night as our flight to the Galapagos left from there. With only an afternoon spare we quickly circled the outdoor shops to stock up on a few things like shoes, pants and socks. Turns out travelling can wear these sorts of things out a little. We tried to have a really early night, since we had to leave for the airport at 4.30am. The hostel was unfortunately holding its weekly trivia night! They also selected to play the mus...

As Jo and Colin were heading to Baños the same day as us, the 4 of us travelled together. Fortunately it was Sunday and since extra buses run on Sundays we were able to catch a 9am bus to Latacunga rather than the usual 4.30am bus. To get from there to Baños we had to catch a bus to Ambato, then change buses. What no one told us was that the Baños buses left from a different terminal from where we were dropped off. After asking several people where to go and ...

It's a bit like another day, another volcano in Ecuador! We were headed to the Volcano Quilotoa in order to see the lake inside the crater. After having done some research on the small town of Quilotoa that sits right near the crater edge we decided to avoid the low rated accommodation options and freezing nights, and instead stayed at the nearby town of Chugchilán. When we arrived at the Cloud Forest Hostel we ran into Jo and Colin, who we had previousl...