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...

Back in Lima again, I started to feel quite settled in there. It is a huge city with many distinctly different districts so I was only familiar with small parts of it but I was really comfortable there - I had a good deal on a hotel in Miraflores (a nice room with cable TV and helpful staff for less than the price of some hostels in that area), I could go to Starbucks by Parque Central for breakfast, the internet cafe on Tarata street to sort out my travel plans,...

Iquitos is a city in the jungle in the Northeast of Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River. It is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road - it can only be reached by plane from Lima or by boat. The first thing I noticed when I landed was the shocking heat and humidity. The second thing was probably the lack of cars - they are few and far between, with motorbikes and 'motocarros' (the same as tuk-tuks in Thailand) by far the most common method...

I felt incredibly relaxed in the beautiful, tranquil, comfortable surroundings of the Muyuna Lodge in the Amazon Rainforest - I had not a care in the world as I dozed in my hammock on the balcony overhanging the water, watching fish splashing and listening to the birds chirping during the day and the frogs croaking at night. The lodge served great food and had the perfect balance between activities and free time to relax. Several times a day I would go for excur...