Ecuador, Galapagos Islands - Snorkelling

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Scuba diving's more my thing, snorkelling's usually a poor substitute. But the snorkelling here wasn't usual. Nothing still beats going deep, but sometimes that isn't always where the action is. [Clare]

Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands

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Oh my god this place is phenomenal. You're literally served up wildlife from the moment you step foot on the islands, we were met at the airport by an iguana. It's like stepping into a David Attenborough documentary. We spent three weeks here, one on a liveaboard cruising round various islands, one scuba diving and one exploring the high and lowlands of Santa Cruz. We've seen some amazing stuff - mother sealions nursing newborn babies, bizarre mating rituals, giant tortoises, prehistoric looking birds, lava lizards fighting over territory and so much more - and all at a closer distance than we'd be from our tv's. Underwater, we've snorkelled with marine iguanas and penguins, and dived with hammerheads, sealions, giant manta rays, turtles and seahorses. Then there's the weird and wonderful landscapes. Amazing. We've been totally spoilt. There's been so much to see we've split our blog entries into three categories - land, snorkelling and diving. All show different stuff and we've tried to limit ourselves to only one or two pictures per species (difficult when they're posing at your feet). There's video too, you'll need to turn your volume on. Hope you like x [Clare]

Ecuador, Vilcabamba

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Another day, another hammock. It's hard work this travelling malarky. Having said that, we did have an epic 24-hour journey to get here in a piddley little bus along roads riddled with more holes than swiss cheese. Besides Vilcabamba is famed for its easy, relaxing way of life and longevity of its inhabitants, so it was only right to live like the locals. They seem to know what they're doing as there's more people here over 100 than any other place in the world. Can't argue with stats like that. So we took it easy, went horse riding, enjoyed the green valleys and breathed in big lungfuls of fresh air. We now expect to be turning cartwheels at 101. If not, we want our money back. [Clare]

Peru, Trujillo and Huanchaco

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Ahhhh Huanchaco, pronounced 'Wanchaco'. Where me and Clare became surf bums for a week. We spent our time surfing, visiting historical sites, playing around on the beach and general nothingness. The surf here is great, just up from where we were is the world's longest break, about 2km long and 2m high. Surfers can also pay 1 sole (about £0.50) to a local fisherman who will tow you out behind his reed boat. One historical site we vistised was Huacas del Luna & del Sol (600 AD), temples built by the Moche civilization. Having not heard much about these sites before hand, they really blew us away. The temples were absolutely huge, with beautifully carved multicoloured walls. Unfortunately most of this place is still being uncovered by archeologists, the del Sol pyramid hasn't even been started on yet. If this place was properly excavated (they reckon in around 15 years time) I'm sure it would be almost as impressive as the pyramids in Egypt. [Tom]

Peru, Huaraz

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After a particularly hair-raising bus journey through the Andes (I’m sure the driver was drunk), we arrived at Huaraz, a climber’s paradise surrounded by towering snow capped peaks and jagged rock faces. Had a fantastic day rock climbing with the sun beating down on us and waterfalls and white mountains as our backdrop. The mountain range here is called the Cordillera Blanca (white mountains), no prizes for guessing why. Another day was spent mountain biking, bloody knackering going uphill but fun zooming down. We also visited some Inca ruins which were ok but not a patch on the others we’ve encountered. Found a little gem of a restaurant that served the most amazing fajitas, curries and English organic cider, not really that much of a stop press event but after some of the meals we’ve had it was utter bliss. [Clare]

Peru, Lima

We came, we saw a bit and left very quickly. It wasn't that Lima was particularly horrible, just like every South American capital there's nice parts and dodgy areas, it just seemed exceptionally expensive. I'd had my sunglasses stolen in Colca Canyon but couldn't find a pair here for under US$100, which is just asking for them to be stolen again. So we headed to the cinema, watched Indiana Jones (so cultural of us) and hot footed it out of town. We did see a couple of other sights including a rather large prostitute standing naked by the roadside. Tom's face was a picture, never seen him so shocked. [Clare]