The bus journey to Iguazu was by far the easiest 19 hrs on public transport I have ever had to endure. The bus was smooth, the seats large and lie flat, and the entertainment was not too intrusive. The food could have been better, but as it came with a couple of small bottles of wine and a half pint of Whiskey, it was edible (unless you're a veggie, in which case you where told by the bitter ponce of a steward that he had nothing for you), but lets not forget tha...

Ignoring the quick return to pick up our bags, we have technically left BA after a lovely week or so. We did manage to get to the Polo Cup Final. I think we were very very lucky as all the tickets had been sold when we arrived at the ground, but outside the ground there were lots of poor fellows who had obviously been stood up by lots of friends as they had lots of tickets to sell and at only twice the face value. It was a exciting match and we were slightly more...

The last day or so in Ecuador was reasonably pleasant. We slept, shopped for a souvenir (we try to get a wooden animal from each place we visit; unsurprisingly we now have a Blue Footed Boobie on its way to UK). We found a good Indian restaurant where more than we could eat cost about $10 and we got our cloths washed. We also visited Cotopaxi, which is a live snow capped volcano that peaks at 5800m. We could only get up to 4800m without crampons, a guide and a he...

Boobies as far as the eye can see; what more can a man want? The Galapagos are wonderful. We had to leave the hotel at a very unsociable hour to get our plane to the Galapagos.The airport reminded me of a cross between the chaos ofChambray airport at the height of ski season and the American Embassy during the fall of Saigon.Bags every where, manners far from evident and lots of people were cutting about in clothes brought especially for the trip, complete with ...

We transited through Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador and by far the highest city we have visited. It reminded me of the Alps, but a little (though not much)warmer, with green mountains either side of the valley that the city sits in and the vegetation is very European; green fields, rolling hills, hedges and woods. We met up with JJ & Jen at our hotel, called Los Alps - an interesting place. Huge rooms, eclectic décor, an open fire and lots of wood; ...