guayaquil

after the nightmare iberian*air flight, we finally made it to guayaquil. it's not a pretty city, and our hotel warned us of the perils stepping out would put us in. it was as bad as not even being able to take a taxi that wasn't pre-ordered by the hotel. we thought it was just the hotel being, well, ameri*can and paranoid but we later heard from independent sources first-hand accounts of being car-jacked. hadn't heard of the city till we took off from madrid, and can't say i missed much by not knowing .did an obligatory city tour and was satisfied after two hours that we could safely bypass the rest of the city. nice hotel, albeit dated. felt like we were going back in time to the early 90s. 

against the hotel's manifesto, we headed out for a local brunch. our first meal (tell a lie but i guess argentinian steak in the hotel doesn't count!) was plantains with cheese, covered in deep fried pork and lard in what felt like adam*road hawker*centre. yumyum.

saw this little fella on the city tour, not to be confused with his aquatic cousin, the marine iguana endemic to the galapagos.

on the morning we linked up with the rest of the group and flew to st. cristobal in the galapagos, we'd a slab of crackling each (amazing buffet breakfast!) and knew straight away it was going to be a good day.

goodbye guayaquil, helloooo galapagos!