Whilst exploring the island in the morning, we bumped into Liz and Jay ordering breakfast at a cafe. Fortunately they had found a hostel for the night, albeit on the 3rd try! Over breakfast they told us about a hostel they had heard of on the beach front with cheap rooms, so after food we all wandered over to check it out. La Jungla turned out to be a lovely spot and so we borrowed a couple of bike and moved in. Note: cycling with a many kilo pack is no easy feat...

At 4am we awoke, dressed and jumped in a taxi to the airport en route to our 2nd planned destination of the trip: the Galapagos Islands! After working our way through customs, we boarded the plane and were seated next to an American couple, Liz and Jay, who were also travelling South America day by day. We became fast friends and convinced them to come with us directly to Isla Isabela rather than stay on Santa Cruz, a decision which led to a very interesting stri...

After an exciting morning spent figuring out that the Anti-Malaria tablets were the cause of my suspicious morning nausea (thanks pharmacy and pee-stick), and playing with Oli the hostel puppy, we head out into the world. First stop was the giant Mega supermarket/department store (it was gigantic!) for lunch items - fought my way through the Deli shop, looks like our Spanish is getting better! - olives and bread and sun-dried tomatoes, and artesan beers. The next...

After breakfast in the hostel, we headed off into Quito in search of our stolen belongings (they stole the toilet paper too!). Turns out a 'Centro Commercial Montufar' is the place to go for stolen/'super cheap' electronics. Nine floors later, we gave up searching, and went to the Plaza de Armas to find an information centre. No luck. So we sat down for a coffee and replanned our day. Looking at the map, La Mitad del Mundo looked promising. We jumped on a trolley...

Our arrival in the bus terminal in Banos was hectic. Within minutes of entering the terminal, company representatives were fighting amongst each other for us to pick between them - we chose the one that was literally pulling out the door that minute. In hindsight, we should have picked the other company because twenty minutes after arriving in Quito, while we were in the taxi heading towards our hostel, I realised that there was no money left in my wallet. A quic...