This adventure nearly didn't happen. The alarm clock on Galapagos time (which was an hour behind), meant that at 8am I was still in my hostel despite my plane leaving at 8.35am. The hostel manager didn't think this was a problem - was he mad!!!!! I raced to get my bags and he grabbed me a cab. The cab driver drove like a maniac. I closed my eyes trying to bear in mind this was for my benefit and started to pray. Somehow I managed to get to the check in by 8.30 ...

This adventure nearly didn't happen. The alarm clock on Galapagos time (which was an hour behind), meant that at 8am I was still in my hostel despite my plane leaving at 8.35am. The hostel manager didn't think this was a problem - was he mad!!!!! I raced to get my bags and he grabbed me a cab. The cab driver drove like a maniac. I closed my eyes trying to bear in mind this was for my benefit and started to pray. Somehow I managed to get to the check in by 8.30 ...

The Galapagos Islands are out of this world. They are the best thing I have done this whole trip. I went on an 8 day trip but could easily have stayed another week. I loved the wildlife; being on a boat; the group; the food and the our guide. It is hard to know where to start because I could talk about the Galapagos for hours and then no one would bother reading my blog!! So first things first - the wildlife. Galapagos is unique because it has never been...

Quito is a huge city which for some reason looks even bigger from air. As you fly in you see thousands of white/grey buildings in the bottom of a valley framed by volcanoes. The city is made up of the old and the new city. The old city has some beautiful buildings and churches with steep cobbled streets and squares. The new part is shops, bars, restaurants and neon lights. The main tourist area is here and it is called the Mariscal. This is where I made m...

Panama City stretches from the canal in the west to the Panama Viejo in the east. Me and Ann stayed pretty central in Casco |Viejo. This is the old town. It was left to crumble on the edge of the sea for years. There is now an urban renewal program which is seeing many of the buildings being restored to their formed glory. So it is a mixture of restoration and dilapidation. There are abandoned houses and bordered up ruins everywhere. It is still a high c...