We stopped briefly back in Quito for 1 night as our flight to the Galapagos left from there. With only an afternoon spare we quickly circled the outdoor shops to stock up on a few things like shoes, pants and socks. Turns out travelling can wear these sorts of things out a little. We tried to have a really early night, since we had to leave for the airport at 4.30am. The hostel was unfortunately holding its weekly trivia night! They also selected to play the mus...

As Jo and Colin were heading to Baños the same day as us, the 4 of us travelled together. Fortunately it was Sunday and since extra buses run on Sundays we were able to catch a 9am bus to Latacunga rather than the usual 4.30am bus. To get from there to Baños we had to catch a bus to Ambato, then change buses. What no one told us was that the Baños buses left from a different terminal from where we were dropped off. After asking several people where to go and ...

It's a bit like another day, another volcano in Ecuador! We were headed to the Volcano Quilotoa in order to see the lake inside the crater. After having done some research on the small town of Quilotoa that sits right near the crater edge we decided to avoid the low rated accommodation options and freezing nights, and instead stayed at the nearby town of Chugchilán. When we arrived at the Cloud Forest Hostel we ran into Jo and Colin, who we had previousl...

After turning off the Panamericana we followed an impressively made and wide cobblestone road for quite some time, eventually turning off and driving across a field scattered with small mounds which turned out to be from volcano debris. When we pulled into the Secret Garden hostel we were very pleased with what we saw. The hostel consists of a large house with communal dining and lounge, kitchen etc. There is a central patio with some hammocks that looks straigh...

Back in Quito for a night. This time we booked a room at the Secret Garden, a large and popular hostel around the corner from the one we had previously stayed at in Quito. This hostel houses the office of Carpe Diem, the company we used to book our Galapagos tour, and also offered a cheap transfer to their other hostel, Secret Garden Cotopaxi which was our next destination. We only had the afternoon back in Quito. Our plan was to visit some of the camping stores...