Settled in on 'Jack' our tour truck we stopped on the drive at the equator line, not as warm as you would think at such high altitude! We had a stunning view out to the mountain being the highest point on the equator line. Closer to Otavalo we had a lookout over the stunning lake by the town and got up close with alpacas. Otavalo itself was a market town - our tour guides showed us around and took us to the food stalls where we tried the delicious pork and other ...

After an unsuccessful hunt for the huge red Quito sign we headed to old town. We climbed the stairs in the huge basilica to lookout over the stone church and pretty stained glass windows. Another flight of stairs higher we walked across a rickety bridge above the church to very steep steps to a lookout over Quito. Around the corner were two more ladder-style flights to climb without much underneath! Holding on extremely tight with shaking hands we somehow made it...

On the last day on Galápagos we were up to see the sunrise from the dinghy on the way to black turtle cove. This was a very protected area where lots of baby turtles, sharks, rays and fish can be seen. We saw lots of turtles (some not so small) and sharks including a baby hammerhead. There were lots of spotted eagle rays and one huge marble ray. Lots of young pelicans were enjoying the abundance of fish. Sadly it was time to say goodbye to the Floreana and depa...

Jumping into the dinghy surrounded by shark shaped shadows in the water, we headed to the green and red island. Sea lions once again greeted us on the stairs and were doing entertaining flips in the water. On the land there were a huge number of land iguanas, much more than any other island. Plenty of frigate birds were flying about and gulls looking after their small chicks. There were so many sea lions lazing about the island, lots of pups and an area up high a...

We went snorkelling along the rocks and before long lots of sea lions wanted in on the fun. Up to 4 sea lions at once were swimming around our group, doing entertaining flips and twists. They got so close to us it was almost intimidating. They brushed up against some of our group and were very inquisitive with the go-pro camera. When we got closer to the beach we separately came across 4 massive turtles on the swim back to the boat.