After our cruise finished we had to think for ourselves again - we no longer had a whiteboard telling us things like when to eat and what shoes to wear. But joking aside we were very sad and hoped that our remaining time on the islands would bear some resemblance to our first week. After we had checked into our hostel in Puerto Ayora we caught a taxi into the highlands to see the giant tortoises. They were so big that we could fit inside their shells (see pi...

It's going to be hard to do the Galápagos Islands justice in this blog. We were expecting the cruise to be excellent, but it was better. Every day I was like an excitable child at Christmas, wanting to be out there with the animals. The flight from Guayquil left a little bit late but we got an unexpected sandwich onboard so all good! As we taxied to the terminal after landing, Simon had already spotted an iguana before the plane had even stopped! We then had ...

The bus to Guayaquil took us down out of the Andes and back to the sea for the first time in nearly 2 months. It was cloudy so wasn't very hot but the humidity really hit us. The countryside near the coast looked very poor, with half finished buildings and houses on stilts, and reminded me (Simon) of the Honduran coast. We'd heard many warnings regarding security in Guayaquil so were on edge and took a taxi into town. The 6 lane highway resembled the dodgems and ...

Two buses and a 9 hour journey from Baños took us south to Cuenca. We caught a taxi into town to our hostel which was located out the back of a popular bar/restaurant - luckily far enough out the back that it wasn't too loud. We enjoyed filling Colombian arepas and hospitality just down the street and then took advantage of 'our' bar's happy hour offers on cocktails. The next day we got up reasonably early to explore the city and after our included breakfast he...

Next stop on the trip was to Baños, translation: bathroom, toilet, bath (take your pick), so known for its thermal waters. It was a short hop on the bus from Latacunga, made slightly longer by roadworks (at least they're trying to improve their roads unlike many other countries) with Tijs and Jacqueline. We checked into our hotel, where we had a balcony with a view of the nearby waterfall and our own bathroom for the princely sum of $20, then headed out to lunc...