Yesterday, after several nights in Quito, we finally got to explore the city and spent the morning wandering around the old town. It is a Unesco site and is nice enough but there is nothing to really keep you there for long. We headed up El Pancillo for the view of the city and to see the statue of the Virgen de Quito. In the afternoon we headed to the bus terminal and took the bus to a town called Latacunga about 2 hours south on the Pan American highway past t...

On a recommendation fo a german girl at the hostel we ventured about 15-20k north of Quito to the Equator to a place aptly named Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the World). It took 3 buses and about 1 1/2 hours to get there and was probably not worth the effort! It is the sight of some controversy as some claim the equator is not exactly where the French scientists that came here many years ago claim it is! We took a few pics in both hemispheres and did a trip to an...

We took the local bus for a couple of hours north to Otavalo, famous for its Saturday market. However not being able to wait till saturday and needing to buy some tat for Simone´s school we had to chance it on a Wednesday The Plaza de Ponchos market was still full of stalls so we spent a few hours shopping away and came a way with a few carrier bags full of stuff for the school. We had an almuerzos lunch which basically was a 3 course meal and drink for $2. W...

We have just arrived in Quito and it is freezing compared to the Galapagos where it was actually getting too hot! However we have just had our first curry since we set off which warmed us up nicely!! The Galapagos has been amazing and it was topped off nicely with some diving yesterday. I did it at a place called Gordon Rocks off the east coast of Santa Cruz island. It is a difficult place to dive because the currents are so strong and unpredictable but the dive...

We have just had 7 amazing days cruising through the Galapagos Islands and are now in Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz, one of the larger islands, where we are staying for a couple of nights because I am diving tomorrow. The islands were amazing, much better than expected. We saw lots of boobies (red, blue and masked!!) as well as sea lions, land and marine iguanas, sally lightfoot crabs, lava lizands, land tortoises etc etc. Best of all though was the snorkelling an...