We actually slept the whole night - I fell asleep while Alan was reviewing the pictures of the day -and thatwas 9pm! Another 6.45am wake up call and whilst the anchor dropping at 6am had woken Alan, Sienaand me, Finn and Derry were still well out of it - but at last we seem to be on Ecuadorian time! We set off for James (Santiago) Island at 8am and landed on the black sand beach then set off on another walk. This was a walk of rock pools through the lava rocks (...

Day 2 A bad night for sleep - the seas were very rough and although no one was ill there were an awful lot of interruptions, with a lot of room swapping and not much slumber. The kids enjoyed the sensation of trying to walk and get breakfast with the ship moving so much. Pics tell it all, tortoises (not often seen in the wild), californian sea lions, iguanas, crabs, herons, marine iguanas, finches, landed in Urvina Bay where the swell was quite severe - made fo...

The kids were very excited flying over the islands trying to spot them; they've handled the flights really well, especially since the longest one they'd ever had previously has been an hour and a half! Landing in the Galapagos, we certainly felt a bit out of place wearing raincoats, jumpers, long trousers and walking boots! It was hot, sunny and 30 degrees! The airport is as you might expect, quite primitive. But it's a busy one, handling quite a few landings e...

Today was 'Middle of the World' day. I was never sure about the water down the plughole thing about the northern and southern hemisphere,but now we've all seen it with our own eyes it's fascinating. you could actually feel the difference in the forces, literally 2 metres either side of the true equator! Angel, our driver for the day took us to a caldera first, to see the massive impact that an erupted volcano has to the layout of the land - losing thousands of me...

Well we survived the flights courtesy of American Airlines films and games on the seat backs. US immigration was a breeze - you get the quick route through with kids - and the friendly officials too, and 2 hours in Miami airport was good for people watching. Quito airport is akin to Luton airport 15 years ago so, although it was late for us (3.30am) and we were all really tired, getting out into the cold and rainy Quito evening was quite easy. Quito is a city o...