Gra67

We´re nearly done!! After almost 7 weeks we´re at the airport in Quito about to fly back to Europe! A night in Madrid and we´ll be home on Sunday! The last 11 days have been pretty much indescribable - the best way would be for the pictures to tell the story but unfortunately we once again can´t upload any!!! We´ll put them on later...... We´ve seen sea lions (I even had a baby one licking my foot they got so close) blue footed boobies, turtles, giant tortoises, land and marine iguanas, hammerheads, dolphins, whales, white tipped sharks, black tipped sharks, rays, albatross, pelicans.... the list goes on and on and on! The most amazing thing is that they have no fear of humans, in fact we have to move away from them when they get too ... read more

Saturday was spent travelling and sleeping, still trying to catch up on the previous days lost sleep. Sunday we had another city tour of old and new Quito. We started at Plaza de la Independencia at the heart of old Quito. The area is surrounded in beautiful baroque Cathedrals. The elevation of Plaza de la Independencia is 2,850m apparently making Quito the second highest capital city in the world. I´m not good with altitudes, so was glad we weren´t spending too long here, especially as we ended up using the aerial tramway to travel from the city centre to the hill known as Cruz Loma on the east side of the Pichincha volcano. The ride takes you to an altitude of 4,100m, so walking is difficult, but allows some fab pictures can be taken of Quito. ... read more

Firstly just wanted to say thanks for all the messages from you all - it´s great to hear from home and G says Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Sydney was fantastic, a really cool city to see. We spent our first night in circular quay having a meal by the harbour and we went back to our hotel via the ferry over the harbour. Our hotel was over in the north side of the city with an absolutly brilliant view of the bridge. Graeme wanted to go surfing for his birthday so that´s what we did - up early and luckily had the weather. It was knackering, I don´t know what I was expecting but being washed backwards and forwards by what felt like 6 metre high waves was not what I call fun! Needless ... read more

Yesterday was another full day of sightseeing. We started with an early rise to go and see the first light of day strike Uluru. It was lovely but the coach driver wanted us back on our way just as it was getting to it's best colour. We then wondered round it's base and "listened" to some more culture. Later in the afternoon we visited Kata Tjuta, which although not as famous as Ayre's Rock we enjoyed more. This was probably down to the much better driver and guide (they slammed the breaks on at one point to go pick up a thorny lizard from the side of the road to show us!) Next we returned to Uluru for a glass of wine (or a few!) while we watched the sun set on it's other side. We ... read more

It's the middle of the day on our last day in Bali and its too hot to sunbathe so we're packing. A normally depressive time, but not when we've still got 6 weeks left! Yesterday we went on a tour of the island starting at an open air theater showing some traditional dancing. We then went shopping, much more my cup of tea, at a sliver smiths and a wood carvers. Then of to a temple at Tampak Siring. Due to the full moon yesterday we saw lots of ceremonies occurring throughout the day. The one at the temple however was the most amazing, including an upside down pig being carried on sticks (poor thing) we assume on the way to be sacrificed, it's a different world! There was also a holy bathing pool where people ... read more

We have a few hours to kill in Singapore airport, and I've managed to fix my Eee PC by buying a new mouse Grrr (the touch pad went crazy locking the PC up!). It has been a few days since our last entry, but we haven't been lazy, well not too lazy :) On Thursday we went into Singapore where we went to the Raffles landing site and had a boat ride along the Singapore river. Then we set off for our Singapore slings in Raffles. The posh bloke on the door wouldn't let me in the lobby as I was wearing shorts, so was Debs, but this didn't seem to bother him! We could go in the Long bar though so we went there and had our drinks and peanuts, remembering to drop the shells ... read more