South America

Hungover from the night before, I took my anti-malarial tablet which I had forgotten to take in my drunken stupor. A while later, when we were getting ready to leave on the truck, I found out why you shouldn't take these pills on an empty stomach - I had to rush off the truck and puke on the street in front of all the new recruits.

On the way to Otavalo, we stopped at a museum at the equator. Everyone shuffled around quietly, feeling the effects of the night before. All we knew about this museum was that they prove the water & plughole theory by draining a sinkful of water on the equator, then moving it either side of the equatorial line to show that it circles down the plughole in different directions in different hemispheres. On the way to the museum I had stubbornly said I didn't believe it to be true (I actually exclaimed that it was b*llocks), but seeing it done in front of us, many people were amazed and laughed at me for being a doubter. It wasn't until I could get to the internet that I found out it was a trick. Of course, I sent everyone the link and gloated that I was right, but I think I was the only that cared. We were shown some other equator experiments (also tricks), like balancing an egg on a nail (which supposedly can only be done at the equator) and also a bizarre trick that 'proves' it is easier to pull someone’s arms down on the equatorial line because you are lighter. Codswallop.

We were shown a few exhibits about indigenous tribes around the equator, including a real shrunken head from an Ecuadorian Amazon tribe. Around the open air museum were fake flowers for hummingbirds, and we spotted a couple drinking the nectar, their wings moving in a blur.

Once at Otavalo, we were tempted to get up at 6am to see the cattle market, but we needed a lie in after the full day hangover yesterday. It was Saturday, market day in Otavalo, so when we got up we headed into town. The atmosphere was very different to when we were here last time. The town was completely unrecognisable, as market stalls lined every street and people were walking around with arms full of live chickens or newly purchased pigs on leads. It was a perfect time to do present shopping, as it was possible to buy items from all around South America, including Alpaca clothes, Silver jewelery and all sorts of Native American arts & crafts. We spent the day bartering with the Native American stall owners and buying gifts and souvenirs. I bought a couple of Galapagos t-shirts for half the price that they were on the islands.

We were crossing the border to Colombia the next day and we won't see the truck again till Venezuela. In Colombia we would be flying from city to city because it is too dangerous to go by road, so we loaded up all non-essentials onto the truck and hoped they will still be there by the time the truck came out the other side of Colombia.

After the wonder of the Galapagos we were a little disappointed to return to the concrete pick-pocketing jungle of Quito and after the Galapagos, we had spent up! Ollie ran straight to an internet café, "Got to upload the photos, I’ll see you tonight" and so I was left wondering what to do with myself. He spent two days solid in that internet café, I couldn’t get him out for love nor money. I window shopped, read books, watched bad cheesey cable movies and treated myself to an expensive imported English magazine. It was a wonderful two days. We found a pizza place that did a beer, salad and pizza for US$3.80 so lived there at meal times.

The last night in Quito was actually the first night of the next leg and we had new people joining so we all went out for a group meal. At a Mongolian grill, you pick your food and sauces and they stir-fry it in front of you. This was a brilliant choice for us as it was a set price, eat AND DRINK as much as you want . I had huge bowls of tofu and maize, Ollie had bowls of meat, meat and calamari and meat. The cocktails were included in the 'AND DRINK' bit, so the whole group took great advantage of this. I was on Godfathers (whiskey and amaretto) and Ollie was on Black Russians. It was quarter final night for football and Quito had just won against Boca Juniors and so the streets were full of people celebrating, jumping on cars and dancing in the streets and piling into restaurants to continue the fun, which gave the place a great atmosphere. Everyone was wasted after 3 hours of free cocktails and we all piled into a local salsa club. After a few hours boogying we headed back, the streets were still lively with people and so we took a risk by actually walking the 3 blocks home after a great night.

So, this being our last day on the Galapagos we decided to make the most of it. After leisurely waking in the lovely hotel that cost us a fortune here on Santa Cruz, we decided to hire snorkel gear and walk round to a bay close to Puerto Ayora called "Tortuga bay". You have to walk to the other side of town and then through a dry forest for approx 6km to reach the bay, although it doesn’t stop there, as that water has strong currents, you then have to walk a further 4km round to the sheltered bay. We were both dripping with sweat by the time we arrived; it was a humid hot one. The bay is beautiful, white sands and amazing blue clear water with big white waves, ghost crabs peeking out of their little holes at us and marine iguanas enjoying the sun. As you round the tip of the bay youre greeted with mangroves and a cactus forest which opens onto a small secluded beach. It was really green and luscious, the sea changing from bright blue to an emerald green color. Although, due to its secluded nature and the mangroves, the water was not clear, in fact, if you stood in the sea to your knees you couldn’t see your toes anymore, so the possibility of snorkeling was quickly put to an end.

Ollie was sulking at this point, "it’s the last day on the Galapagos and we’re just going to sit on a beach and look at marine iguanas...". So, I being nice, stopped enjoying my wonderful white idealistic beach and sun tan session and agreed to walk ALL the way back to town with him, to try and catch a boat trip for the afternoon. This would have been fine but it gave us one hour to walk all the way back, in the midday sun, high humidity and 35 degrees. Not fun. I ended up sulking at the end "I don’t even like snorkeling, what’s wrong with sunbathing, my feet hurt..." with Ollie grinning cos he’d made it in time.

So at 2pm we set off on a small rowing boat, 7 of us onboard to head out snorkeling for the afternoon. At first we had a guy who was telling us about what we were going to see and he spoke English. As we left the harbor he jumped off the boat, said " have fun" and left us with the driver of the boat, he spoke no English, sounded like he didn’t really speak Spanish that well either and he was nicknamed "Colombia" for obvious reasons. The sea was quite rough and as we reached the first little island just outside Puerto Ayora, one of the other guys felt really sea sick, he’d still got about 4 hours to go, I don’t think he was having fun.

The island we had arrived at had a small sea lion colony and we had anchored here to jump in and swim with them. We jumped in, and waited, I shivered, and waited, and the sea lions just sat looking at us thinking "just eaten mate, come back in an hour". Colombia reassured us in whatever language he was speaking that we were going to see lots more and set off driving straight into waves, rocking the boat and making the other guy sicker. We anchored at the edge of a rocky cliff and Colombia told us to swim down the channel inland. So we all set off just as I heard him go "its called the shark channel", so I wonder what were going to see in here then....

The channel was 2m wide at the entrance and just got narrower but went inland for a good 20m or so, with high rocky walls on either side. The water was clear and only a couple of meters deep so as I swam further and saw the huge shark shape laying on the floor under me it was quite daunting. There’s no real room for it to swim around you and the channel is a dead end. These were the common white tipped sharks we have seen before but larger than the ones we saw prior. As we swam down the channel sharks would be swimming towards you to get back to the ocean and you felt like they were coming right at you. Amazing. I counted around 8 in total, 3 really big ones, around 1.5m and rest smaller but no less menacing. It made up for the poor sea lion turnout. I went and got back on the boat at this point as I had turned into an icecube and Ollie carried on snorkeling into the ocean. He suddenly starts shouting at me “Dee, Dee, come and look at this”. I was on the boat already, wrapped in a towel, satisfied with my days sightings, and didn’t really want to see anything else (or get wet again). Then he starts, like, going mental,”you´ve got to come, now, hurry”. So I grudgingly jumped into the coldness again thinking “this better be a talking dolphin or something equally good”. As I swam towards him I made out a dark shape hovering in the vast blueness out in front of me, as I got closer it was a huge sea turtle caught in a sunbeam around 2m underwater. Looked breathtaking. He’d been right, it was worth it.

We hoped back onto the boat and Colombia took us in-between the rocks towards a cactus forest, the canal of love, he called it. More like the canal of discomfort and pain with the size of the horse flies eating me alive. A short walk through the cactus forest allowed us to see the marine iguana nests (good) and feed the mosquitoes (bad) before we headed back into Puerto Ayora at sunset. We caught a few cheeky pirate sea lions trying to steal someone’s boat and thanked Colombia for a great afternoon. He’d been right, it was better than sunbathing.

It truly is a uniquely special place.

The boat had been travelling overnight so we awoke in the busy harbour of Puerto Ayora. Our guide hurried to get our things off the boat as some people were leaving the islands that afternoon. The night before, our guide apologised for having a problem with alcohol. On our time on the boat, we had found him pretty good and knowledgeable, but before we arrived, he had failed to meet some other passengers at the airport, been drunk and unintelligible and told Thomas to f*ck off. He informed us this was his last day at work as he was taking some time off to go into rehab. We had been happy with his service however and gave him a tip (unlike Thomas) but our guide this morning seemed impatient and rude as he herded us to see the lava tubes and wild giant tortoises on the island. We got in a taxi and drove into the centre of the island. The stop at the lava tubes was brief and not very interesting. Our next stop was a private farm that has wild tortoises in its grounds. We hunted around for a while and saw one in a dirty pond. It was a female and it was about 70 years old. The tortoises eat fruit and are able to drink the stagnant water in this area. We said goodbye to our guide and some of the passengers who were getting the plane back and carried on the tour with another guide. He showed us the fruit trees and fed us guavas and passion fruits and showed us a pineapple tree/bush (it grows without roots and gets all its nutrients from the air) and coffee. There was a total of 4 tortoises in this area, ranging from 15 to 140 years old. The oldest male was HUGE. It weighed 200kg and could barely move. At the end of the tour we were shown a couple of old tortoise shells and, just as I was thinking 'I wonder if I could fit in that?', the guide asked me if I wanted to try it on. He didn't need to ask me twice as I was already half in it. The shell was unbelievably heavy and I needed help to be able to stand up. There is currently a lot of random American tourists that have a photo of me and Thomas posing in an embarrassing tortoise mating position.

Our taxi took us back to our hotel which was really nice and, more importantly, had air conditioning which went down to 17 degrees. We had 2 nights in this hotel before we had to leave. Puerto Ayora is small but there are plenty of nice restaurants and touristy shops, and not as expensive as we were lead to believe. The Darwin Centre is walking distance from the hotel so we left in the midday sun to see the tortoise rehabilitation programme at work. On the way, we watched a fisherman selling fish on the side of the road as the massive, cheeky pelicans were trying to sneak up and steal some scraps. There was also a sea lion trying the 'puppy dog eyes' technique to get some food. Unsuccessfully, of course.

The Darwin Centre is a working research centre for the wellbeing of indigenous Galapagos flora and fauna. There was a display of pictures of how the Galapagos islands were just 40 years ago compared to now, and the difference is amazing. Foreign plants have almost completely taken over and the once sparse bush land is now nearly jungle. The unique thing about these islands is that they rose from the sea from underwater volcanoes and have never been part of the mainland. All the indigenous life was somehow able to travel across water in one of these ways:

• a waterproof seed that floats from the mainland
  
• flight
  
• on a natural raft such as a fallen branch (in the case of lizards)
  
• float for a long period of time, like a tortoise that accidentally falls into the sea on the mainland and washes up days later on the shores of the Galapagos.
  

The wildlife then adapted to its new environment over tens of thousands of years and that's how Darwin was able to come up with the theory of evolution; by comparing the mainland species to the island's.

We walked through the tortoise breeding area where the eggs are hatched and the young caged tortoises are protected for 2 years from rats (a species which has travelled to the islands aboard ships from the mainland). The tortoises then get upgraded and live in a pen that is similar to the island's habitat for 5 years, before being released back onto the island that the species originated from. Each island has a slightly different species of giant tortoise, each with a different shell shape. There is one tortoise that is the last surviving member of its species and he is called 'Lonely George'. He lives in a pen with loads of females which are of a similar species from a nearby island, but he has never been able to reproduce. He is 120 years old and looks pretty sad and lonely (so would you).

We saw some large land iguanas but the heat was stifling, so we headed back to the relief of the air con. Dee was still walking and swaying like she was on the boat, she had a bad case of land sickness.

That night, we met up with a couple of guys from our boat and ate at a nice restaurant called The Rock. Thomas paid with his credit card and a couple of days later had a call from his bank saying that his card had been cloned. This isn't the first time we had heard of this happening in South America, but we were surprised that it happened in a popular tourist restaurant.

Again we heard the boat bell early to tell us it was time to disembark. The boat had set sail just prior to dawn so as we stepped out into bright sunshine we were anchored at a new island 'Sombrero Chino' (Chinese Hat). We boarded the panga and headed across the smooth turquoise water toward the white sand beach. The blackness of the marine iguanas was a stark contrast to the pure white of the old coral sand. A short walk took us across to the open side of the island where more marine iguanas and crabs basked on the lava rocks amongst the huge waves that crashed against the rocks. As we headed back to the beach we watched a seal pup desperately trying to find a human playmate. It amused itself trying to pick up someone’s backpack and then jumped into the water as the panga arrived waiting to surprise the first person off the boat. Ollie was so desperate to get in the water he was almost physically shaking with excitement but the guide told us we had to head back. We laughed watching an unsuspecting stereotypically-dressed German tourist wade into the water and getting the shock of his life when the seal jumped up right in front of him. The guy did a quick glance around to see if anyone saw, his expression, 'I wasn't scared, much' and almost falling as he couldn't get out of the water quick enough.

Snacks back at the boat then we jumped back on the panga to go snorkeling. This time we jumped off the panga into deep water with the possibility of seeing rays or sharks. I heard the guide shout shark and calmly swam across to see the animal, as we were told to do as splashes scare them off. I was right next to the guide following his pointing hand about to see my first shark when I was hit from the side, got lots of bubbles in my vision then smacked in the face by a hard plastic flipper. Ollie’s approach was as gentile as a bull in a china shop, he swam as gracefully as Godzilla doing ballet, splashing and kicking everyone who had calmly gathered to see the shark, scared it, proceeded to chase it and upset everyone in the process. No apology, just 'they are fast', he suggested that if I’d have chased it too I might have seen it. I kept to myself the thought that if something as stupidly crazy as him in the water was chasing me, I’d be fast too.

Back at the boat we set sail to James Bay on Santiago. It was going to take around 3hrs so lunchtime then siesta. The sea didn't look rough but our boat being small and tall felt everything. It was funny seeing the green faces of some passengers turning down food as one minute you saw sky through the windows, the next deep blue ocean. The soup was eaten quickly to stop it spilling and as you placed the water glass down with your left hand, one second later you could pick it up with your right hand as it glided along the table with the waves. Trying to walk was even better, almost like the comical steps the old fashioned Star Trek actors would take when their spaceship was crashing. Ollie went to lie down (he felt poorly) and I played Titanic, on my own ;( at the front of the boat basking in the sun and sea spray waiting for the never-appearing dolphins.

At the black sand beach of James Bay we headed back into the sea for some snorkeling. Each time you get in the water you’re surprised by the vast amount of fish, every colour under the sun, it almost becomes expected but never disappoints. At one point a huge shawl of fish swam towards me followed by the biggest sea lion I’ve seen yet. It was an adult female hunting, she swam right up and under my stomach so close I was waiting for the hit as she pushed me aside. We then swam into a very shallow bay just off a beach, and there, probably only 2m in from the beach was a sea turtle eating. You could hear it pulling up the algae and intermittently snorting as it came up for air. We were all sat just watching it, not once did it seem to acknowledge us, just carried on munching. As we headed back towards the other end of the beach we noticed some penguins so swam towards them, as we got close a seal lion pup appeared obviously wanting to play. Ollie, only a child mentally himself, grinned and started diving down in the water. Now, if you hear Ollie’s version the sea lion was copying him, I was the eye witness. A sea lion is graceful and agile in the water, Ollie is not. It is true Ollie would move forward, the sea lion would, Ollie would forward roll, and the sea lion would. But the whole time it appeared the pup was smiling, taking the micky out of Ollie 'you call that a dive?...'. We were called back to shore and as we got out of the ocean the little pup appeared next to us, also walking up onto the beach, looking at us with puppy dog eyes, begging us to return to the water. I want a pet sea lion pup.

We headed across the island to see the natural pools and the nocturnal fur seals that frequent them. The sun was hot and marine iguanas were out in force enjoying the heat. Ollie was not enjoying the sun, he had taken it upon himself to play Jesus by wearing socks and sandals and a huge Hawaiian beach towel as a skirt. I swear some people were taking photos of the strange human to add to their Galapagos species collection.

Back to the boat for the last night we enjoyed a glass of wine as the sun set, ate our last evening meal on the Amigo and slept soundly as the boat overnight sailed to Santa Cruz.

The horn on the boat sounded at 6am to get us up for the panga ride to Bartolome Island, as the sun rose over the volcano on the small, bone-shaped island. I discovered that our damp room had caused my camera to stop working again, which annoyed me a lot, but I took it to the island anyway as it was still semi-usable. The dingy stopped at a small outcrop where we could see a couple of Galapagos penguins. They were tiny, half the size of the other penguins we had seen in Patagonia. We landed on the beach on one side of the island and walked through some typical Galapagos bush land to the bay on the opposite side. As we arrived we watched some fisherman trying to pull a huge haul of fish into their undersized boat, as sea lions and herons were taking their share from inside the massive nets. We watched them struggle for a while but it wasn't until later we learned that what they were doing was illegal. Tourist areas were out of bounds for fishermen. Our tour guide didn't seem too worried about it; it must happen quite regularly, but, in theory, 50,000 square miles (129,499 square kilometers) of the surrounding sea is protected as a marine reserve, one of the largest in the world.

We walked along the beach to the volcanic rock at the end of the bay and saw our first marine iguanas bathing in the sun. They are black in colour to blend in with the dark volcanic rock around the beaches. The crabs on the other hand, stood out a mile with their bright red bodies and beautiful turquoise undersides. They are called Sally Lightfoot crabs because of the way they can hop quickly from one rock to another. I tested the theory by chasing them around and they are pretty light-footed. The people who had been on the boat for a few days before us didn't seem very interested in the crabs or marine iguanas. We find out why later on in the trip - stay tuned. They were interested in seeing the turtle tracks which ran up the beach to the nesting area where they lay their eggs. We also saw plenty of lava lizards (guess how they got their name - they live on lava) and some spiders which lie on the centre of their web in an X shape.

We returned to the boat for breakfast and headed back out to climb the small volcano on the island. We learned about the lava formations on the island and climbed up the walkway to the viewpoint for the most photographed view on the Galapagos. We saw a tiny snake lying under the steps, but the Australians laughed "that's not a snake! It's more like a worm". They were used to seeing really big snakes in their own country. From the top of the volcano it is possible to see the whole island. We could see some sea lions catching fish in the waters below.

Back to the boat again and we got our snorkeling gear for our first snorkel in the sea. As soon as we put our head under the water we saw so many fish it was impossible to count. It was like turning on the TV onto the Discovery Channel. Among the fish we recognised were shoals of angel fish picking noisily at the algae; an unpuffed, spotty puffer fish; a big mouthed, aggressive-looking moray eel; huge multicoloured parrot fish and lots of smaller colourful fish. We swam right next to some penguins which were standing on the rocks above the water. We hung around for a bit to see if they would jump in, but they didn't. Just around the corner we saw a marine iguana picking the algae off some submerged rocks and then it swam back to the surface to heat its cold blood by the sun to get the energy to dive again. A sea lion swam past us briefly and disappeared. This was all in the space of 30 minutes. Dee was getting cold so, like the iguana, she had to return to the surface to warm her blood in the sun. We walked round to the other side of the beach when I saw the head of a penguin bobbing above the water and then diving down. I jumped into the sea and sped off to see the penguin swim underwater. It took a while to locate the penguin but when I did, it had no fear of me and seemed to ignore me as it was diving down trying to catch some sardines. The penguin looks so agile under the water, yet so clumsy outside of the water. It flaps its wings to swim and actually looks like it's flying underwater. I tried to give the little fella a hand by swimming down and herding the fish towards him. We dived with each other trying to catch fish for about 10 minutes, until the penguin realised that I was much too slow and inagile to really do any help, and then it swam off.

I was pretty chuffed by this experience continued to swim towards the peninsular at the end of the bay following George, an aussie from our boat on his honeymoon. We got to a rocky outcrop where the water was particularly cold and a young sea lion swam right up to us. It hovered around us with mild interest so I dived down and did a somersault under water to hold its attention. It swam around me and dived down to do a somersault as well. I dived again and did a twirly move and the sea lion did the same and waited for me to do the next move. I shouted to George that the sea lion was copying me and I watched as he dived and played with the sea lion some more. It was amazing how friendly, intelligent and playful the pup was, and at times, the sea lion came up close and looked with its large, black eyes straight into our masks. Eventually me and George were too out of breath to dive any more and the sea lion swam off. George was cold so he headed back and I continued after the sea lion. I thought I saw the sea lion's shape in the water and swam towards it but it I got a shock when I saw it was actually a large shark, 1.5 metres long. It had white tips on its fins, which meant it was a harmless white tipped shark, so I watched it disappear into the distance before I swam back to shore.

After this experience I had fallen in love with the Galapagos. The animals here haven't been hunted that long by man (the islands were only discovered in the 16th century) and so they don't have that inbuilt instinctive fear of humans. All the land animals are also herbivores, so they have no need to defend themselves. That's why when other species are introduced to the ecosystem, like cats or rats, the land iguana population decreased from 200,000 on one island to about 2000. The same happened to the giant tortoises. The rules on the islands regarding preservation of the wildlife are very strict and we are shown constantly by our guide the effects that human intervention has had on the islands.

In the afternoon we went snorkeling at Sullivan's Bay. We saw many of the same fish as before, but the water was colder so Dee couldn't stay in long. I saw a sting ray then headed back to shore where we started a walk on the lava fields. The lava in this formation is called Pahoehoe which is a Hawaiian name. The lava spread far into the distance and looked like the surface of a black alien planet. The volcano had erupted about 100 years ago and the lava had covered a forest and a lot of the beach. It is still possible to see coloured patches in the lava which are the remains of minerals in the wood and fungus that grew on the bark. The flippers from snorkeling were giving me blisters so was wearing socks with my sandals, which Dee found hilarious. I thought it looked quite good and stopped my feet getting cut by the sharp lava.

We returned to the boat for snacks and a little siesta (all this fun is hard work) and then had dinner, which was excellent considering the kitchen was the size of a portaloo. We watched a boring DVD on the Galapagos which was narrated by a woman who could only speak in monotone, mispronounced English and everyone retired to bed one by one, or fell asleep in front of the TV.

So we had finally had enough of everyone else’s stories about how amazing the Galapagos Islands are, we bit the bullet and got ourselves some tickets. The next 3 nights we would spend on the boat “Amigo” then spend two further nights in a hotel on one of the islands. Sounded good, and at the price it costs, we were hoping it would be.

We left Quito at 5am to get the early flight out to the islands. We had one stop over to collect passengers and 3 hours later we had arrived on Baltra. Instantly the heat hit you as you got off the plane and Ollie started sweating profusely, I knew I was going to like it, first time in around 3 weeks I’ve not needed my jacket. We met the guide at the airport (a wooden shack) and collected our luggage (it’s just put on the floor at the side of the plane and you pick it up) and off we headed towards the boat.

The transport bus dropped us at the jetty and we were instantly greeted by around 8 sleeping sea lions on the jetty who couldn’t even be bothered to wake up as we stepped over them, they smell like rotting fish and poo, but look cute. We and the bags were loaded onto the dingy and we were taken to our new home. It looked like Popeye’s boat and needed a good renovation but we had got economy class and it had lots of character. Be aware that there were many arguments when booking Galapagos, I wanted a yacht, without shade so I could sunbathe all day and live the life of the ones with megabucks. What Ollie booked was a boat that was worth the money but the only chance of getting in the sun was hanging yourself off the back of the boat, no sundeck, no sun loungers, no chance of Ollie getting burnt (he was happy and purposely chose this) but no chance of Dee getting a tan and being warm, it was all air-conditioned.

Anyway, we unpacked our things in the small but perfectly formed ensuite cabin and headed back up to the SHADED deck for a quick safety run through and lunch. As we headed out of the cabin Ollie was in the doorway looking into the cabin where I was and all I could see was a funny little head and big beak behind him, I told him to turn around and he almost jumped out of his skin as a huge pelican was sat 6 inches from his head looking like he was trying to decide if Ollie was enemy or food.

Lunch was nice but interesting, we had the local dish of raw fish that is cooked in lime juice and served cold, however I had the veggie option which was all the lime juice, onions and tomatoes from the cold dish with little flecks of white where they hadn’t quite managed to fish out all of the fish from the meat eaters meal!

That afternoon we sailed to Black turtle cove on Santa Cruz for our first official wildlife spotting excursion. The Galapagos Islands are volcanic in origin and rose from the sea bed so have never been attached to the mainland. This makes the plants and wildlife so different from that of the mainland. Some creatures swam to the islands, some flew, some floated on driftwood and seeds were washed up by the ocean. Of course in more recent year’s humans are the causes of other more ecologically threatening species.

We all got onto the dingy and headed into the red and white mangroves. The water was shallow here and as the boat slowed the guide just said “look”, straight under us swam a huge turtle, about the size of a coffee table. We saw others coming to the surface for air or lazily gliding under or around the boat completely ignoring our presence. Starfish could also be seen on the sea floor, the size of dinner plates, fat and bright orange with purplish spots on. We were also getting bitten to death my mosquito’s and horseflies – thank you humans. As we were busy trying to spot the turtles we looked down to see huge whitetip reef sharks lying on the seafloor or cruising under the dingy in the shallow water their fins almost breaking the surface. So for our first outing in the Galapagos – it wasn’t bad!

We headed back to the main boat and jumped in the sea for a quick swim before tea, one of the crew members was the official “shark spotter” and he had to stand at the back of the boat looking for bull sharks while we were in the water. Made me a bit nervous, all I could think about was hearing the words “shark, get out of the water”– I didn’t go very far for the boat, I don’t swim that fast!

We set sail for the next destination and watched the sun set over the ocean. A huge lone frigatebird followed us the whole way, gliding just a metre above our boat and undeterred by our presence.

A 3 course dinner was served at 7pm in the dinning room downstairs and once our stomachs were satisfied the rocking motion of the boat lulled us both straight into a deep restful sleep.

We'd heard about a lot of security risks in Quito and read the advice on the handouts we were given before arriving at our hotel. This Dragoman leg finishes in Quito and the Drago hotel was damp and smelly and didn't have cable TV, so we moved to a nicer one just round the corner. Our Galapagos trip started in a few days so we didn't want to spend much money. However, it was the last night of this leg and a lot of people we had been with since Rio were leaving. It was also the last time we would be with our driver and co-driver, Vernon and Mac, as they leave to go back to Santiago. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and went to a crap westernised bar before following a badly written map to a bar called 'No Bar'. We were lead down some dodgy side streets with gangs hanging about on the corners shouting at us to try and sell us drugs. Many shops and hotels have armed security guards standing on the street, so the main roads are quite safe - until midnight when the guards and police finish for the day. Then the gangs move into the city centre. We were scared back to the main street to get better directions to the club and eventually found it 1 street further down. The club was good and we thanked Vernon for all his hard work, which he was really chuffed to hear because some people had sent complaints about him to the Dragoman head office back in the UK. We had a dance and everyone left the club when it finished at 3am. We tried to get into another club but it was closed so about 14 of us were hanging about outside trying to figure out where to go next. There was already one gang (the one from earlier) hanging about on the opposite corner to us and a few minutes later another gang appeared on another corner. I saw 3 guys walking down the street and 1 was carrying a baseball bat. The atmosphere was not friendly. Me and Dee warned everyone not to walk back and then got in a taxi ourselves back to our hotel.

The next day we heard that the people that did walk back (despite our warning) did get mugged. One group was 4 large guys that had been rushed from behind and Ricky had his phone and wallet taken from his pockets. Vernon tried to play the hero again and run after the thieves but one of them smashed a bottle and threatened him so he backed off. The other group consisted of 2 guys and a girl; one of the guys was rushed and had his wallet taken. Apparently Quito a few months ago was a really safe city, God knows what has happened since then.

The next couple of days we spent catching up on the internet and watching movies on cable TV and also paying for the Galapagos trip on Dees credit card.

On the way to Otavalo we had to cross the equator for a quick photo stop. We had a talk from a guide about how the giant calendar we were standing on works. Then the guide tried to sell us a single page paper pamphlet for US$10. We laughed in her face.

Otavalo is a famous market town in South America. Unfortunately, it wasn't market day, so we looked around the few touristy stalls that were there and I went for a cheap chinese meal with Carl and Simon, who leave Dragoman in a couple of days.

We return to Otavalo on the next leg, hopefully on a weekend.

It was hot and humid, so hot in fact even I was sweating, lots (obviously you can imagine the state Ollie was in). The background noise was a loud and constant buzzing, so infiltrating you wondered if it was just in your head. The surroundings were dense with greenery, the mud bright red and the green rivers wide and murky. We had arrived in the rainforest.

I had been looking forward to this for some time. We boarded dugout canoes to take us 20 minutes down the Napo River to Anaconda Lodge. In the dugout canoes you felt like the water would come over the edge at any moment and the wide, fast flowing river seemed very aggressive from this vantage point. The boat ride really gave you a sense of the vastness of the rainforest. There were a few locals washing themselves or their clothes in the river, a few small houses along the banks, cows grazing near the waters edge and as far as you could see green huge trees and tropical leaves.

This would be our home for the next 3 nights within the Amazon rainforest. I know I hate anything with more than two legs, especially if it has ´spider´ in its name, but I was intrigued.

As we grounded the boat outside Anaconda Lodge we jumped off to see our new residence. We crossed a small path of leafcutter ants on the way to the lodge which had me and Ollie fascinated, the others thought we were a little weird. The lodge was a large wooden hut open to the elements on all sides, with several small wooden huts surrounding it. The smaller huts contained a bed with a mosquito net over, candles on bedside tables (no electric) basic bathroom (no hot water) and windows covered in fly netting only.

The sun was shining and it was hot so I donned my summer dress to get back on the boat to go to the local animal sanctuary on the next island. This animal sanctuary had animals of all kinds rescued from local cities or taken by customs and here they were rehabilitated then eventually released or used in breeding programs. As we got off the boat Woolly monkeys greeted us, one with a penchant for trying to pull off flip flops, or if you wasn´t wearing any, trying to slap your head –Ollie fell victim to this to my amusement. We also saw Spider Monkeys, Tamarind Monkeys, Capibaras, Cayman, Macaws and many more. Seeing the Toucans was beautiful but somewhat spoilt when Ollie was inspired to spout off for an hour with the worst ´toucan´ jokes you have ever heard (toucan play at that game). We wanted them to bite him, they didn´t. It was a great place, but if only I wasn´t an idiot; within a few seconds of getting there I realised there were huge spider’s webs everywhere and biting ants all around our feet. I ended up wrapping the dress round my legs to stop anything crawling up and within 5 minutes of getting there the heavens opened and I was left soaking wet, the dress stuck to me and my flip flops were buried under the 3 inches of mud that had been the path. I learnt the hard way, the jungle is not a place for dresses.

We headed back to the lodge, to try and get dry and sit down for some local grub. The first course had us all a little confused; Plantain soup with popcorn on the side. We were then informed that its Ecuadorian tradition to put popcorn in soup like croutons, don´t know if he was winding us up or not but it tastes pretty good. We then headed off to bed early for a good nights kip ready for the next day, or so we thought...

In bed, pitch black, the sounds of the jungle penetrating the small hut, I heard more humanly murmurings. “Someone’s ripping out my inners, I´m going to be sick” came Ollie’s pitiful cry. Trying to light the candle on the bedside table I got the (forgotten) mosquito net wrapped round my head. When I eventually found the matches by scrambling around on the floor in the dark (not thinking about what the fluffy thing was that I picked up thinking it was a match box), I looked at the bed to see Ollie clutching his stomach and looking the worst for wear. He spent the next hour in the loo. Both ends. Having been not so well myself for the last week I felt sympathy towards him, which quickly ran out when I had to fight him for the toilet. All night we battled for the use of the toilet or clutched our stomachs and moaned. I think we scared most of the animals away, or intrigued them with our animalistic cries.

We are not blaming the food that night, on closer inspection of the 'fresh natural water' we had purchased from a shop a day prior we realised it was two years out of date and had white floaters in it. No we didn´t check the sell by date before drinking it, that would take common sense.

As dawn broke we had fallen into a restless sleep and both knew today we weren´t going to be up to much. We appeared at breakfast, touched nothing and both left to fight for the loo. An hour later we forced ourselves out into the jungle on the day trip (thank you immodium!). It was still heavily raining and had been from the afternoon prior, all the paths were muddy streams and the river had risen by 2 meters overnight. We boarded the canoes and headed to a local Quechua village. A short walk through secondary forest, passing many cocoa and banana trees we arrived at the local school. It was pouring with rain but the kindergarten toddlers just ignored it and played barefoot outside in their t-shirts and shorts. The classroom was a hut, with walls 1.5m high with the rest open to the elements. It was extremely damp in there and posters on walls had long since faded and worn. The teacher was a lovely man who explained about the school, all the children from this island attend (government funded) from the age of 5 to 12. They have two classes for all children with two teachers. The government runs a vaccination programs and once a year a doctor and dentist visit the school. The children buzzed around as intrigued with us as we with them. As we entered the older children’s classroom we found the teacher was off sick and so no children were around, school is just cancelled and the kids would go to work with parents instead. Unfortunately, he said this happens often.

We then went to visit a local family. We found the mother out in her field tending to her Yucas, a principal food in this area. She had a huge machete that she was using to cut down the yucas, weed the area and replant new ones. I like to think I helped her, I dug some up and put a few stems in the ground so they could re-sprout but I got the distinct impression I hindered her operation. After collecting the yuca roots we then peeled them and took them back to her house.

Her house was again a hut construction on stilts as the whole island is prone to flooding due to the unpredictability of the Napo river. The house actually houses 3 families; it had only 3 bedrooms, one for female children, one for male children and one for all the adults. When I asked about ´parental intimate time´ the guide said they just got on with it, even if others were present!

In the centre of the hut a wooden square structure housed an open fire and onto this she put the freshly peeled yucca to boil. 10 minutes later, it was mashed then mixed with sweet jungle carrot and left to ferment for a couple of days, and guess what you were left with? That not so lovely but potent drink chicha. The yuca-based chicha tastes even more rank than the maize form, like gone-off watery yogurt with fibrous strands in it. I have no idea why they spoil something that tastes as good as yuca (like sweet potatoes) by letting it ferment for a couple of days. Actually, sharing a house with 2 other couples and 12 children, I see their point.

The guide, originally from the very village we were visiting, was explaining how Quechuan people are known to eat anything and in the vicinity it was hard to see animals now, as the populations had declined rather dramatically after firearms came into the area making hunting easier. I thought he was joking until I noticed the turtle shell and monkey skull on the kitchen shelf (gulp). There was also a baby chick in a small grocery bag hung on a hook next to the kitchen counter, I´m hoping it was because it was being hand reared.

It was still raining, we were soaked to the bone so started making our way back to the canoe through the muddy jungle paths. We came across more cocoa plants and a small caiman lurking at the edge of a large puddle. Back at the now vast river, the guide gave us the option of making a raft and floating back to the lodge. The river was fast flowing, murky, and had what resembled rapids. After my last experience with water and rafts I politely chickened out (never, ever, ever again) and left Ollie to it. Within minutes a raft had been constructed out of balsa tree trunks and rope and 3 of them were precariously sat on it making their way downstream. After an hour of floating, Ollie decided he wanted to go for a swim. The current quickly pulled him to the other side of the river, away from the boat and he travelled for 2.5km bobbing up and down in his life-vest. When the current shoved him into the side of the river and he got stuck we rescued him with the canoe and it was left to me to pull him in. Thats quite a task I assure you.

The afternoon for me was spent in bed, I still wasn´t well and Ollie went to another town to see some pottery (rubbish apparently) and some balsa wood carving (really good apparently). The guy used a machete and took only 10 minutes to carve a balsa wood parrot. If you so wished, you could buy a shaman hat made from armadillo skin and vials of dragonfly blood. Nice.

Needless to say, after the previous nights debarcle we skipped any food that day and got an early, restful night.

Feeling more like ourselves, the rain had stopped as we headed down river to the primary forest to do some jungle trekking. It was still hot, but this time I was ready for the jungle, long pants tucked in, adamant nothing was getting up my legs. We walked in total for around 4 hours, through dense valleys of primary forest and up to high viewpoints where the massive expanse of jungle was mesmerising. It was amazing and mystical but predictably we didn´t see any animals, only insects. We heard white mouthed monkeys above our head but they moved quicker than we did. My highlight was seeing the poisonous tree frogs that they make the poison darts from, really small with red backs, so cute. I managed to avoid all tarantulas, the yellow and black spider, the biting sun ants and anything else tha