Puerto Ayora, Ecuador, South America I had a pretty great day after a terrible night’s sleep. My bed in the hotel was really creaky, so every time I rolled over it made a noise and woke me up. That was annoying. So I asked this morning if I could change rooms and got a room with a much quieter bed, so I’ll sleep well tonight. I had breakfast at the hotel, that was just okay, and then I headed out…
Puerto Ayora, Ecuador, South America I actually got to do something today I’ve been dreaming about for more than twenty years, I flew to the Galapagos Islands. It is absolutely amazing to be here, I couldn’t be happier. My day started out with a really good breakfast at the hostel of strawberry-banana french toast with juice, and then a taxi waiting for me to bring me to the airport at 8am. Guayaquil has a pretty small airport, and luckily most…
Guayaquil, Ecuador, South America I had a pretty bad day today, but it ended better than it started. I got up this morning and found my insurance documents that stated I do need a police report for my stolen items if I want to make a claim. I headed down to the police station, and ended up sitting there for three hours and never got seen by an officer. In the three hours I was there, only two people were…
Banos, Ecuador, South America I had a really good today, until it was marred by finding out some of my stuff was stolen out of my hostel room. The day started out with a really good breakfast at a little cafe in town, then I rented a mountain bike, and met Katharina at 9:15am to go see some waterfalls. It was a really nice ride, almost all downhill, to see a series of waterfalls just outside of Banos. We saw…
Banos, Ecuador, South America I left Quito this morning at about 10am and got a taxi to the southern bus terminal, Quitumbe. From there I found a bus that was going to Banos in about ten minutes, so I hopped on. This bus was a bit nicer than the one I got to Quito, but still not as nice as the Colombian busses. It was about 3.5 hours to get to Banos, and it was a really nice ride through…
Quito, Ecuador, South America I had a good day checking out the old town in Quito today. I found a free walking tour of the city put on by another hostel that started at 10:30am. It worked out really well that the hostel was very close to mine, it was an Ecuadorean guide (who spoke perfect English), and there were 18 of us who all spoke English as well. It was a great chance to get to meet people while…
Quito, Ecuador, South America I went to the middle of the world today. I got a couple of local busses, one to the terminal Ofelia ($0.25), and then another one to Mitad del Mundo ($0.15). It took a total of about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there, and I was starving. I grabbed some lunch when I first got there, and then made my way into the park. It cost $3 to get in, and it wasn’t quite…
Quito, Ecuador, South America I had a pretty busy day today, without actually seeing too much. It started out with a bus ride ($3.60) out of Pasto, to Ipiales. As we were driving out of Pasto, I witnessed my first and only mugging in Colombia. It was hard to see what happened because we were driving by, but an old man in his 70’s or 80’s was carrying a bag full of plantains. A young guy, around 20 ran up…
Pasto, Colombia, South America I woke up this morning after getting about 4-5 hours of sleep on the bus. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s nice that my bus was direct from Bogota to Pasto, because it’s so annoying when you have a bus that is continually stopping to drop people off and pick people up. The only thing that woke me up was the coldness on the bus sometimes. They put the A/C up…
Bogota, Colombia, South America Today was my last day in Bogota. I spent the morning packing up my things and getting ready to head out. I left my bags at the hotel and went to the bus terminal to get my ticket for tonight. I’m taking an 18 hour bus ride from Bogota to Pasto. It’s a little expensive ($116,000 pesos (£40)), but I have a really nice bus with the company Bolivariano. It has wifi, that actually works, and…