Hola mis amigos , coma esta?

I want to start out by giving you all a great tip...if you ever want to experience all South America has to offer but only can only take a couple of weeks to do this then I would recommend you spend that time in Ecuador as this country really has it all.

After the lovely colonial city of Cuenca it was time to spend a few days high in the Andes namely in the little town of Banos which sits in a valley beneath one of the meanest-looking volcanoes I've yet seen in South America. The town is a real backpackers mecca offering every adrenalin sport you could wish for along with plenty of good lively night life. I spent my time walking, white-water rafting, having facials and drinking Bob Marleys (not always a good idea when you have rafting then next day!!).

Then after Banos it was a quick stop over in Quito where I had the ultimate tourist experience - I visited the big line aka The Equator and had lots of fun doing silly photos on the red line as well as stuff like jumping from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern in a matter of seconds.

Then it was off to the Amazon for a few days. We flew from Quito to Coca in El Oriente and took a 2.5 hour canoe ride up the Rio Napo, followed by a 20 minute trek through the jungle and then a final 20 minute canoe ride to reach our isolated jungle lodge (La Selva) where we spent 4 days trekking through the jungle and canoing/kayaking on the river itself to try and spot elusive animals and birds whilst trying to avoid the not so elusive mozzies, the jungle lodge was a truly beautiful place and so peaceful, where we spent our spare hours laying around in hammocks drinking red wine and listening to the sound of nothing but the birds - it was wonderful.

Then back to Quito where I said "chaucito" to my group and "hola" to Patrick (friendly face from back home) and it was now time to hook up with another tour for our sailing adventure in The Galapagos which proved to be, without a doubt, the highlight of all my travels to date. Imagine the wildlife experience of a lifetime... completely fearless animals.... giant tortoises that seem unfazed by groups of humans taking millions of pictures of them, sea lions that play with you whilst swimming or snorkeling, penguins and turtles that approach you and literally peer into your snorkeling mask, birds such as the Blue Footed Boobys, American Oyster Catchers and Pelicans that when you approach them lift their heads, look you in the eye then go back to feeding their baby chicks, tiny baby turtles playing under our boat at night-time, sharks stalking the boat at all times, dolphins jumping all over the place . Add to this stunningly beautiful islands from volcano dominated islands covered in lava, to pristine white-sand beach varieties, completely clear turquoise seas, and beautiful flora, and you can probably guess why this topped everything else I've ever seen.

As you can imagine I took tons and tons of photos but you'll be glad to know I have only put a few of my favs on here for you all to see and they will give you a much better feel for my last few days here than I could ever put in writing... oh and if you're really interested I've finally worked out how to put videos on here too so you can see "live" action too.

And, on that note I'll say bye for now.

xxx