Our time in Quito has been over two weekends with our Galapagos trip inbetween. We have been fortunate both times to meet up with Michael Hassett, Rob Peterson and friends in this city. Quito is at high altitide and consequently it takes longer for planes to take off due to the reduced oxygen. A jumbo jet could land here but the runway isn't long enough for fully loaded planes to take off, so just about all flights out of the city land in Guayaquil to be fully l...

We have just got back from our 5 day cruise in the Galapagos Islands which was a great experience - apart from the sea sickness one day! Our boat would usually move from island to island during the night and our first night crossing was a particularly rough one. Apparently this time of year is the cool/dry season and the seas can be a little rougher, unfortunately we didn't have any sea sickness pills with us but another passenger gave us some so we were ok after...

We are now back in Argentina after getting the ferry from Uruguay, and have been spending some time in Buenos Aires. On our first day we went to La Boca, the area of the city that Boca Juniors (an Argentinan football club) are from. South America is football crazy and we have noticed that even in the smartest resturants, there are large TV screens which are showing replays if there is no live match. We have even seen groups of people standing outside looking in a...

Colonia is a small town on the south coast of Uruguay. The old town is another world heritage site, with cobbled streets and mixed spanish and portugese architecture due to continual confict and changing ruling powers in its history. There isn't really much to say about the town but it's very picturesque and you can spend lots of time walking the quaint streets. In Uruguay and Argentina there is a popular habit of drinking Maté (pronounced Maa-tay). It's a type...

Our first stop in Uruguay was Salto. On crossing the border at about 6.30am after another 10 hour overnight bus trip, there was frost on the ground and we really know that we are heading south now. The days though are usually sunny if a little cold when the wind blows. An oil exploration in Salto many years ago hit upon thermal waters instead and this is now what the town is famous for. The water is pumped into numerous pools that have been built in a park area a...