Quito has a few good restaurants. ‘Mea Culpa’ is supposed to be the best, and indeed we had a very good meal there, seafood, kid and suckling pig. It’s on the Plaza Grande inside an old palace with other restaurants. There we also had a simpler, and cheaper, but very good meal at a restaurant called, “Hasta la Vuelta Señor”. Prawns, lobsters, and fish are of excellent quality and fresh. And the ceviche is even better than earlier.

 

We wish we had had more time to visit Quito and some other regions of Ecuador. It is a delightful country, but... beware of very resourceful pickpockets working in gangs of three. One distracts you, one smiles at you, the third makes off with your belongings!

 

 Of course the Galapagos are the highlight of any trip to Ecuador and cruises are so safe that you happily leave your room door open all the time. We booked our seven day cruise of the islands with a local operator via the Internet – with Metropolitan Touring, who own a few touring boats as well as acting as a local mine of information on Ecuador itself. The food on the ship we chose to go on, the Santa Cruz, was good, and the seafood included excellent fresh lobsters. You need no less than seven days to visit most of the islands, which are not only a safe paradise for so many breeds of birds, sea lions, iguanas tortoises, lizards, etc., but geologically are a wonder. Here we have an iguana, a frigate bird courting and some blue-footed boobies plus a lonely penguin. The array of unspoilt wildlife is a wonder to behold, the only drawback could be the number of other tourists at popular times of the year. But nevertheless, it is a trip of a lifetime.

 

To get there it is best to make your own arrangements for flying to Quito – there are so many Internet sites where you can book flights these days. But it’s always best to check on the airline’s own web site as well once you have decided which one suits you best. We flew with Iberia, mainly to avoid flying via the USA with all their tiresome security procedures even for travellers who are just passing through, but there are several options. For internal travelling within Ecuador and for getting to the Galapagos, you could do no better than leaving it in the capable hands of Metropolitan Touring,

www.metropolitan-touring.com.