Southbound Gnomads

Ecuadorian puppy love Also known as the Galapagos Hangover.... how could we leave the sea lions and tortoises behind? Onwards we go, much lay ahead of us in Ecuador! After landing back in Quito we stuck around a few nights and toodled around the old city before we made our way north-east (past the equator again!) to the sleepy cloud-forest village of Mindo . We've decided that these mountain towns are our favourite places to be- cozy, quiet, with beautiful nature all around. We stayed at the first (and cheapest) hostel we found, Hostel Henry's, which was all around pretty rough with a bad sleep, rain pounding the tin roof all night and a dodgy kitchen, but we did fall in love with their ginger cat Philippe, who snuggled us all night.  Mindo town Moving for our next night we found a much more agreeable place to stay with a cool roof-top hangout space overlooking part of the village. In between little cafe stops, a VW vegetarian food van, and walks around town we ...

We have arrived! Sooo... the Galapagos happened! It mayyy have blown the budget, but how could we pass up an opportunity like this? Giant tortoises, sea lions, blue footed boobies, sea iguanas, penguins... well you understand. We booked a last-minute trip with the wonderful Gabby at Ecuador Family Tours that we happened past in Quito on our rainy walking tour day. She was a bubbly sweet lady who helped us negotiate our tour price down a bit with the operator in the island, and was very helpful on recommending what to do and see. Just a flight to book and we were on our way two days later, west-bound to paradise. One of the giant tortoises of the Santa Cruz highlands Gabby was wise to suggest we leave a day before our boat left, since sure enough our 9:20 flight was delayed two hours. We arrived at the world's first Ecological airport on Baltra Island, on what looked like a barren wasteland from Mars. Turns out this is the dry season, and there was almost no green to...