Leaving the Enchanted Islands

We bade farewell to the "Islas Encantadas" this morning with an early Avianca flight from the airport on nearby Baltra. This involved a bus and short ferry trip to the island, before retracing our steps via Guayaquil to Quito.

A worryingly close fly-by of Cotopaxi revealed it to be spewing ash. Obviously there was no concern of the potentially hazardous effects of an ash cloud such as the disruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.

Putting on a show

Back in the familiar territory of the Ecuadorian capital - albeit only for one more night - the strange landscape, flora and fauna of the Galapagos already seemed a world away. We took the opportunity to return to the vegetarian restaurant El Maple in La Mariscal and indulged in a milanesa napolitana, washed down with an excellent jar of Cherusker porter.

Milanesa napolitana