Even now we cannot sometimes believe just how lucky we were to go to the Galapagos Islands. It just so happened that we were booked in just one week after the 8.8 Chilean earthquake and the vast majority of long-haul tourists had been advised to cancel for fear of further tsunamis. The savagery of this event afforded us a wonderfully quiet group of islands, with just 4 of us aboard our 16 berth motor yacht 'Cruz del Sur', along with our somewhat superfluous 8 s...

Note from Ed.: It is now 2012, we have been home 2 years and have finally got around to finishing off our tale (Frodo Baggins stylee)! Jen and I are sorry for the gap. The one vision that sticks in my head as we ventured north into Ecuador is how rough I felt. Hayfever-style sniffles picked up from the Pisco dust bowl escalated into a torrent of roughness. I did not enter Ecuador in a good or helpful place. Poor Jen had to suffer my near-death experience for s...