Ecuador & Galapagos Handbook by Alan Murphy

Many interpreted Alan Murphy's decision to leave Dundee's fleshpots and start his own seaweed-collecting business on a secluded island croft as a scream for kelp. But Alan not only made it through three severe Hebridean winters, but he also went on to build a seal pup refuge and spend the next ten years of his life to helping stray marine mammals. After meeting the editor of Footprint's South American Handbook at a seedy salsa bar in Soho, London, Alan decided to pursue a career in travel writing, leaving the rain-soaked peat moors of northern Scotland for the hot jungles of South America to research and produce Footprint guides to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Alan finally returned to Scotland to produce fresh Footprint guides to Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Scotland Highlands & Islands, but the tug of his motherland was too great. Alan, his wife, and their three children currently live in the bohemian Somerset market town of Frome.