After leaving Montanita we moved about 3 hours or so along the coast to one of the biggest cities in Ecuador called Guayaquil. Not a very picturesque city but it was just a stop over for a couple of days before flying to Galápagos!

First major bonus was being able to sleep without the pounding music of Montanita! The music was fine when you're out but any quiet(ish) nights (although few and far between) and ear plugs were needed! The hostel in Guayaquil was nice, chilled and we had a decent private room. A few bits were planned on the full day in town as well.

First stop was to a nature reserve just off shore, alligators and loads of wetland wildlife pottering about. Although the the sun was absolutely relentless! The taxi driver claimed 37 degrees and it felt even hotter. It was a random place connected by a bridge with a local community still living on the island reserve.

That afternoon we headed into the main town where the Central Park was randomly full of wild iguanas! There must have been hundreds of all sizes, pigeons casually living side by side with Terrapins swimming in the pond! The iguanas didn't care less about the people wondering around the park and were either chilling in the sun or climbing the trees!

Very rare for South America is some really good street/ local food but we found great bbq meat and potatoes in the evenings and curry type dishes in the downtown area, well happy after the fast food throughout Montanita!

A quick stop and all prepped for Galápagos, a needed break in between the New Year festivities!

We've got 7 days planned in Galápagos and with a bit of history known about Dawin's theories he made on the islands, plus all the series produced by David Attenborough, we couldn't wait! Hoping to get a bit of diving in with the hammerheads, giant tortuous and all the other crazy marine life!