I arrived back in Quito after a week in the Galápagos Islands. I had already booked a tour in Cuba beginning about a week later but I hadn't booked a flight - I had been busy and figured I could sort it out when I got back to Quito. However, while I was away, Cuba had suspended all flights from Mexico due to the flu pandemic that originated in Mexico. Pretty much all flights to Cuba go via Mexico so this presented a big problem... Cuba's national carrier, Cuban...

I had a fantastic week in the Galápagos Islands, 1,000 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador. I have never seen anything like it in my life before - the islands are packed with unusual wildlife, I didn't even have to make an effort to look for it, everywhere I turned I would see incredible scenes of animals in their natural environment. I was shocked by how unperturbed the animals were by the tourists - it was as if they didn't even notice we were there, they just...

I had a couple of days in Quito before heading out to the Galápagos Islands. I arrived in the middle of the night on a flight from Lima and, despite my insistence on getting a taxi driver that used a meter to take me from the airport to my hotel, I was still ripped off ($15 instead so $3 so not the end of the world but still very annoying!). Then, as I stood outside the hotel ringing the doorbell (now about 4am), a weird guy approached me - I was so glad to fina...

Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador and the old part of town, where I stayed, was quite pretty - it is known for its colonial style buildings. It was a long bus journey from Baños to Cuenca on my birthday but we livened it up with some music and beer. Along the way we stopped to see some guinea pigs grilling on a barbeque - it was a bit strange - they were bigger than I expected, more like small pigs than the little furry creatures we have at home. Whe...

Baños is a small, pretty, colourful town, surrounded by mountains and close to the Tungurahua volcano. It's quite touristy with lots of souvenir shops and many agents organising activities in the surrounding area. The town is famous for the sweets that are made there and there are several shops dedicated to them where I also watched them making the sweets. The local people seemed to be very friendly and I felt a lot more safe and relaxed there than in Quito. Th...