Days 49 - 60 Colombia, Equator, Otovalo and home

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So as it turned out, we didn't try any of the things Colombia is famous for but we did have a very relaxing and enjoyable end to our trip.

12 December (day 49) - to Bogota

Having eyed up the pancakes at the Magic Bean ever since we got to Quito, today was the first time we got to sample them. It was worth the wait. We grabbed a taxi to the airport and got a nasty shock when we discovered we had to pay $40 each to leave the country. The worst thing is we will have to pay it again when we leave to come back to England.

We were both really tired today and are looking forward to lying on a beach. We ate lunch on the flight and after meeting our first friendly border policeman ever we successfully negotiated the various checks and made it into Colombia. We went for the taxi option into Bogota keen to assess the place before considering public transport. The journey to our hostel took us through some pretty ugly neighbourhoods and our first impression of the city was not too positive. Our taxi driver was also incapable of understanding exactly where we wanted to go so eventually I asked him to just let us out, knowing we were only a minute away.

The hostel we had chosen, Casa Platypus, had a great write-up so we had phoned 5 days ago to book a room. When we arrived they said they were full and had no record of us ringing. We showed them the call history on James' phone but it wasn't much good. After much deliberation they said we could have a dorm room to ourselves which worked fine for us. We dumped our bags, hiding all valuables in the room as we didn't want to walk round Bogota with everything then headed out to explore.

We headed to the main square, Simon Bolivar, where they were definitely gearing up for Christmas. There was a huge tree in the middle and a nativity outside the church. The main street had more Christmas lights than Oxford Street and every church had lights on the outside. This still isn't enough to make us feel like it is Christmas in 13 days, it is just not cold enough. We saw all of the main buildings in the area, including Congress, Mayor's office and the Presidential palace and then decided to spend the rest of the afternoon drifting. First we walked through a small market which sold only baskets and other woven goods - very dull. We then spotted a church and on instruction from the Lonely Planet which says you should look in some of the churches as they are normally very well adorned, we ventured inside. It was nothing special. James is now worried that the rest of our time in Colombia will involve visiting every church we see - and there are a lot of them. To make him feel happier we went into the first supermarket we saw and bumped into some nuns shopping - clearly he can't avoid religion here.

We both feel we haven't sampled enough of the food sold on little street stalls this trip so we decided to try a pasty which turned out to be chicken - very tasty. We followed this with some yoghurts we had bought in the supermarket. We noticed we were getting approached by beggars and the like a lot more than in other cities but we didn't feel less safe really. Although they don't seem as obsessed with all things sweet as they are in Argentina we did spot a McDonalds postres, a McDonalds that only sells puddings. Our next food stop was at Crepes y Waffles a fantastic chain of restaurants we have only seen in Colombia. Two nutella waffles later we were snacked out and headed back to our hostel for a couple of hours kip.

We had spotted loads of Christmas lights on the buildings around the centre so before heading up to Zona G (apparently the posh restaurant area) for dinner we walked back to the main street. Now it was dark you could see the full extent of the Christmas lights and they were quite impressive. The main road was closed and there were literally hundreds of people walking up the road. We decided to join them but after about 30 minutes we realised that the street stalls were all selling old mobile phones or tacky jewellery and we were getting hungry. The challenge was finding a taxi. We turned off the main road but after about 5 minutes we found ourselves alone and in a dark street and turned back. Luckily not long after we found a cab and headed up to Zona G. Finding the restaurant was another challenge as we didn't have the exact address. We were dropped at a classy hotel and after wandering round the block found the restaurant, Harry's. It was the first classy place we have been in for a while and we took full advantage of the great wine list and food. I found it tough being back in an only Spanish speaking world, it is amazing how quickly you get out of the habit of listening extra hard to what people say.

We were too full for clubbing (I think both of us knew when we suggested it earlier in the day that we wouldn't make it). We headed back to the hostel, quite liking the city after our great dinner, and instead of sleeping stayed up watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - it was complete rubbish so I fell asleep but James persevered.

13 December (day 50) - Bogota and to Cartagena

The hostel breakfast was really nice and we were sitting opposite a couple who left half of theirs so when they left we ate theirs as well. The plan was to walk up Cerro Monserrate, which is only safe at weekends when locals make the 1,500 step ascent to a church at the top. Unfortunately the path was closed so we had to get the funicular instead. We walked up to the church past the stations of the cross and I think James knew then that religion was the theme of the day. We took lots of photos of the view and could even spot a volcano 135km away. I noticed that Mass was just starting so with lots of time to spare James agreed to come with me. When it was finished we headed to the cable car to come down. The queue was enormous but we got down eventually and walked to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. We followed it with snacks from a recommended bakery.

We spent the next few hours just drifting round the city. Sunday seemed to be junk market day. The whole city turned into one huge car boot sale without the cars. We couldn't believe anyone could buy the stuff on offer which included the baldest tennis balls I have seen, 20 year old cameras and phone chargers of every shape and size imaginable. We sat in a square and watched the stall owners desperately trying to sell their wares.

We had time for another visit to Crepes y Waffles before we needed to get our plane. We were slightly disconcerted when on our way there a tramp asked if we were English. In our whole trip, noone has guessed English first. We figured it was because the Brits are the only nationality mad enough to visit Bogota.

Our taxi man dropped us at the wrong terminal, but a shuttle bus ride and a chaotic queueing system later we were safely checked in with an hour to go before our flight. We made a quick visit to Dunkin Donuts for a smoothie and ended up sitting and watching Michael Jackson and Jackson Five videos. We love the old school music that South Americans play everywhere you go. 15 minutes before our flight, there was still no assigned gate so we asked at information and she panicked and told us we had to run to the gate. We ran only to find that the flight was delayed by an hour. To pass the time we watched 'So you think you can dance' which for some bizarre reason they were showing on the only TV in the airport.

We were disappointed not to get dinner on the plane. We got a taxi to our hotel, the Hilton, and were shown to our room in the Executive Tower. Orlando, the porter, was a bit put out that we didn't give him any money for showing us the bathroom and where the safe was. I never understand why you get a tour of your room in these hotels - its not like it is hard to find your way around. As it was Sunday night and pretty late, we decided to eat in the hotel. We took ourselves on a little tour of the place and ended up outside watching a beauty pageant - all very odd. We found the only open restaurant and had a pretty over-priced dinner and agreed that we would not eat in the hotel again.

14 December (day 51) - Cartagena

There are a few common themes to the next eight days. Each day consisted of 30 to 40 minutes in the gym (normally watching Liverpool on ESPN), a huge breakfast at about 10am (enough time to have at least 3 plates full before they finished serving at 10.30am), about 3 hours by the pool sweltering in 32-35 degree heat, a late lunch in our room (of course acquired from breakfast - nice focaccia, sandwiches, cakes and fruit), more time at the pool before it got dark (very early at about 5.30pm), taxi into the old town for drinks and dinner, back to our room for a film on AXN (James was keen to point out that they are his audit client) followed by Sarah falling asleep half way through and James staying up until about 1am. We have fully dosed up on rubbish films and crime programmes for a while, varying our viewing from CSI/NCIS/Law and Order to The Mummy Returns,As Good As it Gets,The Shooter, Jurassic Park 3 and other complete rubbish. We were sometimes adventurous and changed the order of the above events eg going to the gym later in the day to accommodate James' lack of ability to get out of bed so early after his late nights of film watching.

Although there wasn't much apart from the above that happened on each day, there were a few things worth commenting on. As we had (unintentionally) booked a room in the executive tower this gave us access to the executive lounge which was just like an airport lounge with free drinks and snacks all day. You can probably guess that we took full advantage of this! The lounge also had free wifi. As the room rate we had booked increased by $110 from 16 December we were keen to check out rates at other hotels to make sure we weren't being ripped off. For some reason I decided to check the Hilton website and found you could get a room with a king bed and balcony for $130 less than we were going to be paying. It would mean no access to the lounge but we both agreed that as good as the snacks were, we would struggle to eat $130 worth a day!

That evening we visited reception to negotiate a room move. They told us their reservations department was closed and that we should be able to sort it in the morning. I was nervous though as that would be within 24 hours (the cancellation period) of our rate increase. After making my point about 10 different ways I gave up and we went out for dinner.

The area we are in is Bocagrande, described as the Miami Beach of Cartagena and you can see why with all of the skyscrapers that line the beach. We had been promised swanky bars and restaurants but all we could find along the main road was fast food restaurants, annoying street sellers and loads of Colombian teenagers clearly on their summer holidays. The whole area seemed really tacky and not at all what we were expecting. After searching high and low for a nice restaurant for dinner we gave up and settled for Crepes y Waffles. We had a surprisingly good savoury crepe and salad, followed by a huge ice-cream sundae called Festival. Although the place had been crazily busy at 8pm, by 10.30pm everything was closing for the night. We even had to negotiate buying sun-cream and toothpaste through a security grate which was a challenge given we didn't know either word in Spanish.

15 December (day 52) - Cartagena

I didn't sleep that well worrying about not being able to negotiate a lower rate. When the lounge opened we checked other hotels and found all of the really nice ones were about $300 a night so were content with staying where we were but moving rooms. Our conversation was delayed as the girl we had spoken to was at lunch when we went down. When we went back she told us reservations would change our rate to $199 a night but not the $189 we had seen on the internet. I think she realised we wouldn't give up so eventually she agreed to $189. We took the new keys and moved our stuff into a slightly smaller but much lighter room with a balcony and sea view. We visited the lounge a few more times that afternoon, gathering enough internet codes to last us for the rest of our trip and taking advantage of the snacks for the last time.

That evening we ventured into the old town and spent a while drifting round the cobbled little streets. First impressions of the place were really good and we agreed to get taxis into this area most nights. Dinner was at Cocina del Carmel where we had excellent cocktails and quite good food and wine. We carried on our wandering after dinner then got a cab back to the hotel. By this point I had the munchies and insisted on finding chocolate which luckily wasn't too tricky. Back in the room James settled down to watch some rubbish film and I passed out.

16 December (day 53) - Cartagena

Excitements for today were James getting his haircut - a much better effort than last time - and us playing tennis. After explaining we had no racquets, we were handed one pretty good and one really ropey one and some very bad balls. We headed to the court to meet our ball boy/umpire who was compulsory with the court. Although it was 6pm so the sun had gone down, it was still over 30 degrees. Our ball boy was pretty good, but that meant the game went quicker so we got hotter. By the end we both felt like we had had a pretty good work out.

We got a taxi to a place just north of the old town called La Langosta, which was pretty posh and we were surprised to be the only ones in the restaurant. We ordered a starter each and lobster for two. We were slightly surprised when a huge tray came out with a whole lobster for each of us. We didn't hold back and after eating all of the obviously accessible meat, got going with the crackers attacking what we could. Having not eaten a whole lobster before, we thought we made a pretty good first attempt but we were pleased there were no eyes on tables near us to watch the mess we made.

We were so stuffed that we decided to have a walk to the supermarket. We strolled along the seafront which was nice, if a little sweaty. Like Bogota, Cartagena has its share of Christmas lights and nativity scenes. They even have lights all around the trees in their parks. The best thing we have found is a huge inflatable Mary, Joseph and Jesus - I had to pose for a photo so you could see how big they are.

17 December (day 54) - Cartagena

James is racing through books quicker than we can find them for him to read so he had taken to practising floating in the pool. He is completely incapable of this and it generally leads to him flailing around at the bottom of the pool then he re-emerges moaning that his legs are too heavy. Today's floating lesson was made more interesting though as there were an English couple of about our age having a very heated discussion quite near us. Having not heard anyone else speak English for a while it was a novelty to listen (and we were nosey) so we pretended to be relaxing and sat back to listen. By the time we reluctantly left the pool about half an hour later they had decided they couldn't travel together any more and would have to split up. We were looking forward to a second instalment the next day, that was providing they were still together then.

We decided to head into town before lunch so we could see the sights in day light. The old town is really picturesque, being surrounded by a fortified wall. We stopped in a pretty touristy square for lunch and had a pizza. We were inundated with people trying to sell us their wares. James is much more tolerant than me and actually speaks to them, whereas I just pretend they don't exist until they move on.

The rest of the afternoon involved wandering round the old town, stopping for snacks when the heat got too unbearable to carry on. We visited some caves which have been turned into gift shops, then found ourselves in the busiest road in Cartagena, full of people Christmas shopping and food stalls, we then ventured to an area called Getsemani which was pretty dull and then finally back round the main squares in the old town where we caught a glimpse of Father Christmas and his three scantily clad helpers. We managed all of this with only two snack stops - a fruit juice and a huge hot fudge brownie sundae in Hard Rock Cafe. We tried to find a bikini for me as mine is about to fall apart but couldn't find any for less than £60 so headed to watch the sunset over a beer in Cafe del Mar while discussing the merits of setting up a Crepes y Waffles chain in England. After this we were pretty tired and hot so headed back to the hotel for a night of crime (watching rather than committing) and a dinner of carrots, tomatos, focaccia and fruit.

18 December (day 55) - Cartagena

Today we tried to play ping pong but when I was 3-0 up James started complaining that the ball had a dent in it. He tried to find another one but failed (I think he was actually just scared to lose to me). Instead we settled for scrabble - a game which I have yet to beat James at although I have got pretty close.

Although the beach is not amazing (the sand is really hard), we decided we couldn't spend 8 days here without going into the sea. I also thought that the salt water may help James' floating. The sea was warm, shallow and calm but James still didn't manage to float. The afternoon's excitement was that I bought a bikini in the hotel shop.

We had been advised to go to Hotel Santa Clara (one of the 5 star hotels in the old town) for drinks and to toucan spot. We ordered two glasses of champagne (well Argentinian sparkling wine) and settled back to listen to the tape recorded bird sounds - not quite what we had expected. We had a really good dinner at Santissimo, made even better by the fact that our waitress told us what to order and as we didn't understand most of what she said, the whole meal was a bit of a surprise. Unlike in the lobster place where 'para dos' led to us receiving two huge lobsters, here 'para dos' meant we shared a starter, but that was fine as we made up for it with the rest of the meal and then went to Crepes y Waffles for a waffle and huge sundae.

19 December (day 56) - Cartagena

James is now fully out of books so in a desperate attempt to keep him entertained we played charades in the pool! This didn't last long as James can only come up with films with one word in the title (Jaws / Jaws 2 etc) so I gave him the book I had just finished. I knew this would be a disaster. Although James has ventured onto authors other than Wilbur Smith this holiday (a first I think), a book called Our Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger which is complete rubbish even by my low standards, was a step too far. He made it to page 50 and then I filled him in on the rest of the plot which included ghosts taking souls from bodies and ghosts flying on crows!

The weather was slightly overcast today which was blissful as we were able to lie by the pool for most of the day without passing out. The only problem was that everyone else felt the same and as the hotel is now much busier, there were hundreds of children everywhere. It got worse later in the afternoon when some kind of Christmas show/event started next door and a woman with a microphone started shouting hundreds of children's names so they could go to pick up their gift from Father Christmas. I was upset my name wasn't called.

We both had had enough of fish for a while and went in search of burgers for dinner. For the first time this holiday (in fact the first time in about 2 years) we ate a McDonalds. I was pleasantly surprised. It was of course followed by a visit to Crepes y Waffles - a chocolate fondue this time. We then made our last visit to the supermarket of the holiday.

20 December (day 57) - Cartagena

We decided it was worth the £14 investment to buy James another book to read which at least kept him happy for the whole of the day. There really was nothing at all exciting that happened today. We had our nicest meal in Cartagena so far in a place called La Vitrola, where they had live music. We tried to go to Cafe del Mar for a drink afterwards but they wouldn't let me take my bottle of water in so we went to Hotel Charleston instead and ordered vodka and 7 up.

Film choice is now getting desperate as they keep repeating the same films. James wasn't put off by this though and watched The Shooter for the second time in a week. He is clearly not used to having nothing to do and has also started memorising all of the Spanish adverts and very annoyingly keeps saying 'porque' in a child's voice which comes from the Vanish advert. I think it is definitely time we used our brains again soon.

21 December (day 58) - Cartagena

Our last day in the sun and it was another scorcher. The pool and gym are both much busier now and we are quite glad we have been here when it has been so quiet. We enjoyed a relaxing beer in the pool before getting ready for our last night out. We decided we were showing real commitment to brownie buying when instead of getting a taxi from our hotel straight into town, we walked in our jeans to La Dulceria. By the time we arrived we were both really uncomfortable, I had to wipe the sweat off James' back (disgusting!) and were glad to dive into an air-conditioned taxi. Our taxi driver must have been new to the job - we asked to go to Hotel Santa Clara, a journey that I could have directed him on with my eyes closed. He had to stop to ask directions and then ended up trying to go down a one way street. Eventually we asked him to stop as it was quicker to walk.

We tried to buy presents in the gift shops in the caves but they were shut (it was only 6.50pm). No presents for anyone at home then, although James is thinking that Ponchos all round from Quito will do the trick! We walked very slowly to the road where we had planned to have dinner, it was still far too hot in our jeans. We found the place we were looking for (8-18) and thankfully it was very well air conditioned and completely empty. It slowly filled up and we settled down to our last bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc of the holiday and another top class meal. The pudding (melted chocolate cake and apple tart) took a while to arrive but we weren't particularly bothered until some random infusion thing arrived and the look on the waiter's face told us he had mixed up the order. 20 minutes later we got the right puddings and they were worth the wait, especially as they only charged us for one of them.

We decided to go back through the main tourist area and came across a gift shop which sold the coasters we had been looking for. We negotiated a discount but only if we paid cash which would require a trip to the cash-point. The lady called to a man outside to accompany us so we didn't have to return to the shop - they turned out to be a retired couple from Bogota who spent two months a year in Cartagena and had a daughter in Luxembourg and another in Shanghai. He gave us a quick sightseeing tour on our way. The taxi journey home was interesting. We were stopped by the police and asked to show our identity cards (it is illegal to go round without ID in South America). We had nothing on us so James just said he did not understand in very bad Spanish, looked blank and pretended he didn't know what was going on, which seemed to work as they just waved us on even though our cab driver had already got out ready for his full cavity search!

22 December (day 59) - To Quito

We hit the gym early but the running machines were busy so James ended up going for a run along the beach, he then had a headache for the rest of the day - no surprise as it was boiling and he didn't take any water with him. We had time to kill so watched an episode of Smallville and packed. We washed our gym clothes, figuring they would dry in the two hours we had before we had to check out. Typically as soon as we hung them out the sun went in. I thought it was a good idea to dry them on the back shelf in the taxi but James didn't think the taxi man would approve, and he is probably right as James' gym kit has now turned yellow! Our first plane was delayed which meant a rush getting to our second plane. The good news was that the departure tax we expected to pay was included in our tickets. We watched an episode of Heroes on one of the flights, trying to work out if this will become our January viewing as we have nearly caught up on 24. Having travelled on hundreds of flights within South America we had become accustomed to their pretty lax security and had planned to take water, beer and yoghurts onto the plane with us. Unfortunately the Bogota security guards had a different idea and confiscated the lot (well almost everything - I ate one yoghurt and put the other back in my bag without them noticing).

We had another water spillage on the plane, but luckily the Colombia guidebook absorbed most of it. It was nice to be staying our last night in a place we knew. They had kept the penthouse room for us and had even put a Christmas decoration on the door. We had forgotten how small and hard the bed was but for £16 a night and free internet, it is definitely the best value place we have stayed.

We decided on fajitas for dinner and unoriginally went back to Red Hot Chilli Peppers which was packed full of Christmas parties. We ate our usual nachos and fajitas then bought muffins for breakfast and headed back to the hostel. We had heard that Madrid airport was shut so checked and found out it had opened that day but with a massive backlog of flights - we are dreading the journey home.

We watched another episode of Smallville and then a terrible programme called The Fringe whose only redeeming feature was that Pacey from Dawson's Creek was in it, James doesn't agree with this being a redeeming feature.

23 December (day 60) - Equator, Otovalo and the journey home

We slept badly and both woke feeling ill. Being up at 7.15am was a shock to the system but good preparation for being back in England. We waited outside for our 8am pick-up and soon after Marcel arrived. We were expecting someone called Antonio but he clearly had better things to do 2 days before Christmas. Marcel was friendly and having lived in England for 6 months we were soon chatting about Scotland, West Ham and Leicester Square.

Although Marcel was only strictly a driver and not a tour guide, he did a pretty good job of telling us about the area. He showed us avocado trees, rose farms, the new airport, Cayambe and Imbarra volcanoes. We thought we were going to Mitad del Mundo (17km north of Quito) but about an hour into the journey it seemed we were going in the wrong direction. A bit further along he stopped by a sign that said it was the equator. We took a picture then went about 50 metres further where there was a sundial that contained the real equator line (GPS approved!) and a man explained to us in 5 minutes all we wanted to know about shadows, equinoxes and the indigenous sites in the area. It turned out that we hadn't gone to the more popular equator spot where there were a couple of museums, but that suited us fine (and enables us to return to England having not been into any museums the entire trip).

Next stop was to take a picture of a lake called Lago San Pedro and then we headed onto Otovalo. We arrived at 10.30am and as we didn't have to be at the airport until 4pm we agreed to meet at 1.30pm. Not being market people, we didn't know how we would kill 3 hours. We spent the first 20 minutes drifting round the market then sat in a square listening to Christmas carols. We did a bit more drifting, this time through a food market where there were delightful sights like a pig being roasted with its head fully intact. We tried and failed to find two cafes listed in the Lonely Planet and ended up having a drink in a strange fast food place. This gave us enough energy to return to the market where we bought some little purses and found some nice bowls. We headed off to find some lunch (Pizza) and then returned to negotiate a big discount on the 6 bowls we wanted. James found it funny that I was negotiating over about $1 but I was enjoying it. James also thinks the man won't be able to feed his family at Christmas now!

We returned to the car and had a very hot journey back to Quito where we were dropped at the airport at about 3pm. The bad news was that our flight was delayed until 8.40pm. We toyed with getting a cab into town but settled for visiting the Supermaxi supermarket across the road where we bought a tub of Belgian Chocolate Haagen Daz and ate it on a bench in the shopping centre next to an Ecuadorian Father Christmas with Away in a Manger playing loudly in the background.

Back at the airport we got through security with 3 water bottles and nail file intact then settled down for the 3 hour wait for our plane (one of three to get us back to Heathrow). The best thing about Quito airport (and we should know as we have been here on 7 separate occasions) is that they have free wifi. We therefore spent the time uploading photos and calculating some more very fascinating statistics for the whole of our trip (which we have included below). Our photo uploading was interrupted by a Spanish girl of about 2 who didn't appear to have any parents in the vicinity and came up to me with a little toy make-up bag. She proceeded to empty the entire bag onto my lap and wanted me to open every pot and help her put it on. After about ten minutes (during which time James kept repeating 'bin the brat') she wandered off, only to come back five minutes later, fall over right in front of me, start crying and then put her arms out towards me like she thought I was her mother and for some reason I picked her up and showed her some sympathy. Luckily her mother soon turned up and we were rescued from Nicole, we were also very grateful that we didn't have to sit next to her on the plane.

The journey home was probably better than expected although we were all forced to get off the plane at Guayaquil (a 40 minute flight from Quito) only to get back on to exactly the same seats. Our seats were emergency exit seats, one advantage of getting to the airport 5 hours early. We have vowed not to fly with Iberia again though, the Spanish don't seem to drink anything, that or the air hostesses couldn't be bothered to offer us anything.

Our Madrid to London flight was 30 minutes late leaving as the crew didn't show up but we still made it back to London only 5 minutes late. We grabbed a taxi to my sister's office where our very clean car (Rich) had been delivered for us then drove back to my Mum's making it back in time for a quick shower before midnight mass. It is strange coming back straight into Christmas but we are both very glad to have a few days to acclimatise and get back into the swing of things before we have to go back to work.

So here are the statistics we worked out:

Number of days 60
Number of countries 7
Number of passport stamps 27
Number of beds slept in 31
Number of photos taken 3,184 (kept 1,345)
Best meal - La Cabrera, Buenos Aires (James) Afrigonia, Puerto Natales (Sarah)
Worst meal - Old Flour Mill in Trelew
Best value accommodation - Amazonas Inn, Quito
Worst value accommodation - Hostal Solor, San Pedro de Atacama
Best accommodation - Park Hyatt, Mendoza
Worst accommodation - Hotel Bajo Caracoles, Route 40 (even worse than the flea pit in the jungle)
Our favourite sights - Peninsula Valdes, Torres del Paine park, Glacier Perito Moreno, Galapagos, jungle, Atacama desert and Cotopaxi (so most of it!)

What we like about South America - the people, restaurants, spectacular scenery, speaking Spanish (Sarah), their music taste, poor airport security (apart from Bogota you can take anything through!)

What we don't like about South America - dust, blowing our nose and blood coming out, dogs, not being able to put loo roll down the loo, Iberian airlines (rubbish planes, always late and no food and drink), airport taxes (Quito), not being able to drink the tap water (Ecuador and Colombia), everything is designed for short people

What we are looking forward to most back in England - Washing our clothes and bags, being able to flush loo roll, cooking for ourselves, getting fit again, fresh bread, carrots and humous

Number of modes of transport 16 (car counts as one)

Number of journeys and distance travelled in each form of transport:

Plane (excluding flights to and from UK) - 18 (19712km)
Car - hire - 3 (6023)
Car - other people's - 7 (760)
Minibus - 8 (620)
Bus - 17 (598)
Catamaran - 3 (490)
Taxi - 48 (365)
Tow truck - 1 (150)
Ferry - 4 (121)
Canoe- 2 (119)
Bike - 2 (61)
Metro - 4 (33)
Helicopter - 1 (20)
Raft - 1(17)
Dinghy - 2 (13)
Speedboat - 1 (10)
Funicular/lifts/cable cars - 5 (3)
TOTAL - 127 (29115)




The next section is really just for us although some of you may be interested!

Animals we saw (excluding in the Galapagos and the Jungle)

Flamingo (James, Andean and Chilean), Andean duck, Andean goose, Polo pony, Butterfly, Lizard, Coati, Rat, Sea Lion, Elephant seal, Guanaco, Southern right whale, Penguin, Sheep Tinamous, Cuis, Armadillo, Nandu, Locust, Condor, Patagonian skunk, Goat, Pig, Pelican, Llama, Vicuna, Dog (far too many!), Chicken, Horse, Buzzard Eagle, Mouse, Iguana, Deer.

Animals we saw in the Galapogas

Galapagos penguin, Sea lion, White tipped reef shark, Blue heron, Parrot fish, Sargent fish, Pelican, Frigate bird, Marine iguana, Red crabs, Blue footed boobie, Flightless cormorant, Yellow warbler, Darwin finch, Peregrine hawk, Egret, Land iguana, Lava lizard, Eagle ray, Milk fish, Galapagos hawk, Sea turtle, Moray eel, Hermit crab, Galapagos mocking bird, Galapagos fly catcher, Sting ray, Giant tortoise, Greater flamingo.

Animals we saw in the Jungle

Monk-saki monkey, White throated toucan, Great egret, Two-toned sloth, White-eyed parakeet, Ruby poisoned dart frog, Red skirted poisoned dart frog, Leaf-cutter ant, Termite, Bullet ant, Caterpillar, Massive moth, Stinky turkey (hoatzin), Osprey, Ringed and Amazon kingfishers, Capped, Cocoi and Green herons, Blue-headed, Orange-winged and Moaly parrots, Night hawk, Snake bird (anhinga), Squirrel monkey, King, Black and Turkey vultures, Blue and Yellow macaws, Scarlet macaws, Black mantled monkey, Solitary sandpiper, Crimson crested woodpecker, Greater ani, Smooth billed ani, Wire tailed manakin, Sunbittern, Sungrebe, Neo-tropic cormorant, Pygmy anteater, Pink river dolphin, Beetle, Scorpion spider, Wolf spider, Tarantula, Jewelled tree frog, Black and Spectacled caiman, Amazon tree boa, Lemon ant, Yellow spotted Amazon river turtle, Silver and Red piranha, Noisy night monkey, Pincer ant, Chestnut fronted macaw, ANACONDA!

Animals we did not see but wanted to

Killer whale, Puma, Huemul, Hammerhead shark, Galapagos shark, Jaguar

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