Thursday (24th) afternoon I did go to the orchid garden- it's this lady's garden and she shows you around pointing out the orchids, a good job too really as many were really small (she even gives you a magnifying glass so you can see them in more detail). Some were growing on the leaf, others were growing at the ends of the leaf. Only saw a couple like the type we tend to have at home. Afterwards I went for the chocolate brownie (delicious!) and wrote a few postc...

I have spent the past few days in a lovely little place called Mindo. It is a village surrounded by cloud forest. I travelled here on Monday which involved a 2 hour bus to Quito, a short taxi ride to a different bus station, a 2 hour wait for the bus (I'd allowed for a delay and only a couple of buses per day go to Mindo) then a 2 hour journey to Mindo. I arrived just as it was getting dark and walked to my hostel. Could hear the river but not see it but had brea...

Having been to Ecuador 2 years ago on this second visit I'm hopefully going to visit some places I didn't get to go to last time. My blog make start to get a bit confusing as this year's posts may get mixed in with summer 2009 posts….and if I revisit a place it may appear with 2 dates.... Anyway, I started my Ecuador trip in Otavalo. I have been here before but it was a good place to stop south of the border and is a nice town. Plus they have a lovely market,...

I had two days in Quito before flying to Lima on Friday 7th in the evening. It was pretty quiet as everyone from the tour had left, and I actually felt a bit too lazy to do anything, but I decided that I had better so on the first day I went to the other Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world) that I´d previously mentioned! It was about a 40 minute drive away (I was lazy and got a taxi!) and I visited the monument which is one the equator line and also the next do...

Sunday 2nd Aug - Wednesday 5th August - Galapagos Islands So, as I previously mentioned, had to get up at 5.30- horrible! The flight went via Quayaquil, and after a stop there, continued to the islands. We arrived by about 10.15 local time (one hour behind the rest of Ecuador). You have to pay 100 dollars to enter the Galapagos, approx 60 pounds, which is quite a lot, but hopefully the money goes to preservation and conservation of the islands and is well worth ...