Having crossed from Santa Cruz overnight, at 6:00 a.m. we dropped anchor off the island of Floreana – the smallest of the inhabited islands with a population of around 200 people. A panga cruise took us around a bay west of Punta Cormorant. Here the lava flows had either slowly cooled or reached the sea […]

After an overnight journey anchored off the harbour at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. The highlands of the island have a rich variety of plant life – dense forests including the local lechoso trees, orchids and mistletoe, sugar cane, cacao, coffee and bananas. The first visit was to the Charles Darwin Research Station opened

We arrived at Punta Vicente Isabela at 06:00 after an overnight crossing of this part of the Pacific and at midnight the Equator taking us into the Southern Hemisphere. We took a panga (dinghy) cruise along the coastline where we saw the remains, following a destructive collapse of the Volcan Ecuador. A caldera is formed

Today we flew from Quito to the islands and at lunchtime embarked upon the MS Santa Cruz II and moved to a remote part of Santa Cruz Island for our introduction to the area. The Galapagos Islands were formed by volcanic activity around 10 – 3 million years ago. In geological terms they are very

Quito’s Equatorial position meant that sunrise was at 5:56 a.m. and a sunset expected at 6:05 p.m. and varies very little over the year. The apparent movement of the sun between the two Tropics mean that shadows are short. The view from the hotel room and the tour bus journey showed the geographical and morphological

The following morning we embarked upon a 5,948 mile journey to Quito. The Great Circle Route to South America crosses the Atlantic so far from land that this is only spotted when reaching the Caribbean. We landed at the World’s highest capital city at 9,350 feet in thick cloud and heavy rain before transferring to

The journey to the Galapagos Islands started with a short hop to Amsterdam, an overnight stay at the airport. We were disappointed that the original main entrance that showed how the airport is below sea level has been replaced with a simple IATA airport code.

The long journey home started with a flight from Arequipa to Lima. Then onwards to Amsterdam where plans were thwarted by a technical fault on the 737 to Manchester which led to us transferring to another plane that had just landed. We arrived in Manchester about 2 hours late after around 16 hours in the

We had a relaxing day, wandered around the local area and ended it in an Indian Restaurant. A hole in the wall essentially, with glorious food cooked by a chef who was originally on a cruise ship. Fantastic!

Our tour started at Carmen Alton, a viewpoint in a former colonial suburb, Yanahuara. The terrace commanded views over the whole city, always with El Misti as a backdrop. At another viewpoint we saw the pre-Inca terraces and irrigation schemes that are still in use. The production of market garden produce was in full swing