There are times in all our lives where nothing seems to go right. You hit a stream of bad luck. Challenges are thrown in your direction. In usual life there is enough routine and responsibility to distract you. When you are travelling you have the freedom to wallow and as such these streams of challenges can feel quite overwhelming. Banos in Ecuador is by no means a difficult place to be but it was our venue for a stream of challenges. Predictable as they are, a...

The Galápagos Islands conjure images of a paradise lost, a gateway to existential enlightenment, where human kind and animal kind can live in synthesis. To the budget traveller it also conjures up dollar signs and silent tears when looking at the bank balance. Temptation was too much and both Simon and I decided to justify the expense with a) they might close the Galapagos b) it might get more expensive in the future c) it's a pre wedding honeymoon d) we just ...