Crossing the border from Peru into Ecuador was painful yet again. We had waited nearly two hours on the side of the road in Mancora waiting for a bus which we thought would never come, but thankfully it did and just in the nick of time as a certain guy who was waiting the same bus was driving me up the bleeding walls. You these kind of people that ask the most annoying, personal, intrusive questions. What age are you? Why did you leave your job? How much is the trip costing you? How much was your hostel? Mine was much cheaper. Ah f*ck Giovanni, your an utter pain in the arse and dressing entirely in bright orange doesn't do you any favours in the fashion stakes. The border itself took close to 2-3 hours to cross but atleast both custom desks were housed under the one roof. But remember this was still Peru and people are still with a serious lack of manners, i.e. sneaking in front of you in the queue even though I can blatantly see you doing it. Christ, these fully grown men and women would try your patience.

After six or so hours, we land in the city of Guayaquil in the morning and get a taxi to our hostel called Dreamkapture, a good bit from where the centre of the city lies but fine for what we want. Guayaquil for the most part is a pure kip, theres nothing to see there and not much to do, other than to get to the airport as quick as possible and to fly to the majestic place called the Galapagos Islands in the middle of the pacific ocean. To be honest, we didnt do much in Guayaquil other than I raped my bank a/c's of all they were worth to pay for this trip to the GPS Islands. Also, note to fellow travellers, that an O2 money card, can only dispense €200 per day. I learnth the hard way, spending more days than necessary in this crappyish city. Two things that they do have in abundance however, is a great array of fruits for sales and, oh ya, guns. We had just gotten out of a taxi at the end of our road after having been at a restaurant that night for morsels of a meal so we whomped down some street burgers that all the locals seem to love, and they were right, delish-malish, they were! We headed back up the small side road to our hostel, 200 metres from the burger joint and who are there only the 5-O outside with the lights flashing in the night sky, each one of us, egging each other on that they've come for you. Well actually, they were at the hostel door, and they were there for some person but not us. A couple who had jumped out of a cab minutes before we went to get burgers walked straight to the hostel and were then held at gun point at the hostel door, robbing them of credit card, a minimal amount of cash and a phone. Terrible thing to have happened to them, but it could have been worse. Someone could have been injured or killed or even worse than that, it could have been me and I'd have you all worrying that it was me that was held at gunpoint. Dont worry Ma, we were okay.

After paying the owner of the hostel, a small fortune for return flights and a last minute deal to the Galapagos, we we're off to the airport waving goodbye to a brief and uninspiring time in Guayaquil.

Okay, I know this episode is short and brief, but I wanted to write my blog in sections of the places that I visited as it will show better on the map on my blog page. I know, vain. So hauld your whist, as I try my best to construct the awesomeness of the next ten days spent sailing around the beautiful Galapagos Islands!