The last day with the girls today was spent visiting Cotopaxi- the highest active volcano in Ecuador. Leaving at about 8am we travelled 1 1/2 hours in the mini bus to get the car park of Cotopaxi at 4500 meters. It was incredibly windy but we were just about prepared with all our layers, hats, gloves and scarves. Nathan had refused to buy any extra warm stuff (as we are soon going to be in 30degrees) but was lucky that someone we met yesterday no longer needed hi...

Our two day tour started today, we left Quito at 7am on a minibus which took us a couple of hours to a market selling mostly fruit, vegetables and meat, we didn't buy anything other than Kat bought one banana for $0.10. It was probably more interesting that Otavalo market as it was for locals rather than tourists. On the drive there we had all kinds of animals running out in front of us - llamas, dogs and cows! A police car pulled up in front of us to move a dead...

We had heard mixed reviews about Otavalo Market but decided to give it a go as we had a free day to spend around Quito. The bus station was incredibly busy, and we had to catch 3 buses to get there which wasn't ideal. We were very happy for Kat's Spanish as the people at the bus station weren't being very helpfulI! It was all similar stuff to what we had seen in Bolivia and Peru - alpaca jumpers, hats, jewellery etc. Kat, Eddy and Browny bought wooly hats and glo...

Today was a long day travelling, we left Galápagos at 9.30, got a taxi, boat, bus, plane, and another taxi and are now tucking into a McDonalds in Quito which we've been dreaming of all day. We didn't have accommodation booked but turned up to a hostel recommended in the lonely planet which turned out to be a bargain, $7.50 a night including breakfast. We went straight away to book our weekends activities, a two day tour starting Sunday to the Quilatoa Crater a...

We had another rollercoaster boat ride at 6am back to Puerto Ayora. To our horror when we boarded mrs sicky from last time was sitting opposite us again. She was ok this time though, unfortunately for the people at the back of the boat 3 American girls all had to run and throw up into the sea. One poor girl was ghostly white from the start and was truly hating life the whole way. The co-captain was running up and down handing out tissues, plastic bags and water, ...