Blogs from Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 95

What an absolutely incredible trip this turned out to be, probably the best we´ve been on, not only for the spectacular place and wild life but also for the fantastic group of people that we ended up with on our boat- top week. After the first leg of our flight from Quito to Guayaquil, we had to switch planes and unfortunately had a three hour delay. However, every cloud has a silver lining and ours was Andy, a guy from Brighton who has been travelling around the world for the last year who suggested we use the delay time wisely and head to the local off licence -we immediately bonded. Thirty bottles of wine and five bottles of spirits later, I knew we were in good company. The week turned into more of a booze cruise ... read more

Am starting this travelblog thingy half way through my trip, so apologies for a scanty one on Ecuador. Everyting already blurring into one... First stop was Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Stayed here a couple of days in a pre-booked Hostelling International Quito. Note to self - do not believe how wonderful, comfortable, informative and centrally located hostels advertised on the net are. Quito is quite pretty - see my two screetscape photos.. 6 July - 5 days spent hopping around the Galapagos Islands on a small boat. The islands cost a fortune (I´ve conveniently blocked from memory the exact cost), but worth it. Went to islands such as Isla Santa Cruz, Floreanna and Isla Espanola. **Crap deal - foreigners pay $100 US Galapagos National Park entrance fee, but locals only $6 US. Saw crabs, sealions, ... read more

A piece of advice... never get a haircut in Peru. In fact never travel with short hair as you will just end up spending your time choosing between hairdressers stuck in the 50's, a very bad mullet or shaving it all off. I have abstained from the latter and after the last attempt at a decent haircut in Cusco, which left me begging Matt to get the scissors out to stop me looking like a 96 year old, I am now having to learn to live with a mullet. It is an affliction, honestly. Well moving on... next stop Lima, the capital of Peru. We were in Lima for the national elections, which was all very exciting, well, had the potential to be exciting but it wasn't at all... everything was closed and they banned the ... read more

Today we were in Bartolome Bay. It is the most photographed place in the Galapagos and looking at the pictures I am sure you can understand why. The large pointed rock is called Pinnacle Rock. It was used for target practice by the US, who had a base at Baltra, during WWII. To get to the lookout we had to climb up many stairs. All of us were tired when we got to the top except for Ljubica who decided to run down and then run back up again. While we were there we ran into the navy guys we had met. They were doing drills on the beach. After we all got our pictures we went to do some snorkelling. The snorkelling was amazing. We snorkelled around Pinnacle Rock and there were so many fish ... read more

Tonight was our last night in San Cristobal. We went to the bar beside the restaurant where we ate lunch everyday. Andrew from our group borrowed a guitar from the owner of Iguana Rock a club we went to a couple of nights. He played a show for us and our group was pretty much the majority of people there. We met some navy boys from Guayaquil and practiced our Spanish and they practiced their English. Once we got back to our hotel we realized we were locked out and had to wake someone up to open the door.... read more