ACE2

We went back to San Jose again to spend a few more days here befre we moved on to Nicaragua. The main reason for going back was for water raftng. Our friend Sebastian told us that we couldnt not go to San Jose and not got water rafting as the rivers are rated top 5 and number one in the country for rafting. So we booked our trip and apprehensively went on our tour. I was so nervous and excited to water raft as its something i have always wanted to do. And i was not disappointed. It was such an exhilarating experience and i enjoyed every minute of it. Our guide was amazing and he made the trip really fun and exccitning. It was us 5 girls and Sean in our boat with the guide ... read more

I was very pleasantly suprised when we reached Puerto Viejo as we had been recommended a hostal called Rockin J´s by our friend and the place really lived up to our expectations. The hostal is a mix of dorm rooms, camping and hammocks and is completly covered n mosaics. The tablñes and chairs all have weird random items stuck to them such as lighters, swiss knives, old books and playing cards. The hostel is literally on the beach with a really cool bonfire area ready for the guests to use. It must be the most chilled out hostel i have stayed in and the town was even more relaxed. You could instantly tell that you were on the Caribbean side of the country as there was reggae music playing all over town, the sounds of waves ... read more

Myself and Anna had a little bit of a set back on our way to Costa Rica as we realised on our stopover in Panama that we had been booked on a different flight to the rest of our group which was 3 hours later. So we had about 4 hours to kill by ourselves in the airport (very reminiscent of Delhi experience). We made the most of it by eating sushi and drinking alot of coffee while reading our books spread out over the airport chairs. When we finally arrived we met up with the rest of the group and proceeded to get ready for our one big night out in the capital. We were really licky as our friend Sebastion lives in San Jose so he was on hand to be our tour guide ... read more

If im really honest by the time i got to Bogota i was pretty exhausted from the previous week so all i could really think about was sleeping. However, i did manage to explore a bit and what i saw was realy cool. I didnt rate Bogota as highly as Medallin as i feel that Medallin has a more fresh, modern vibe which i personally prefer whereas Bogota seemed a little souless and dull in comparison. Some of the plazas in Bogota were really beautiful and some of the older buildings were pretty cool but i feel like Medallin and Cartagena had the edge in terms of amazing architecture and a more vibrant atmosphere. Bogota reminded me a not of central London. I went to the Museo De Oro which was really interesting. There are literally ... read more

I had high hopes for Taganga as i had read and heard really good things about it from people i had met. I did really like it, its this cute little sunny fshing village full of backpackers on te varibbean coast but i didnt think it was as amazing as people had said. It had a really good vibe as Reggae music literally courses through the whole place and everyone seems really chilled out and relaxed the whole time. The nightlife was really good on the weekend, we went to a bar overlooking the bay and it was really nice to dance and drink outside looking out over the ocean with the stars all around us. I loved all the salsa music that is played throughout the bars and clubs and the locals salsa dancing with ... read more

Getting to the park was not as easy as we thought ad we ended up having to stay a night in Santa Marta which was a bit dodgy. We arrived at night and to be honest all we could see were a few men who looked like drug dealers, a few prostitutes and some questionable looking street vendors. So lets just say we wanted to get out of there at the first available opportunity. We did just that the next morning and got an early bus to the National Park. The bus ride to the Park was pretty horrific as it was boiling hot outside, the bus had no air conditioning and the bus driver packed the bus full to within an inch of its life. I couldn't wait to get off and i was so ... read more

Cartagena is simply stunning. I loved everything about it from the New Orleans vibe, to the hundreds of balconies, to the cobbled streets, to the vibrant, salsa dancing plazas. It is a city that is so full of energy and life, i could of happily spent months hear rather than a few days. The houses are all painted bright, vibrant colours with old wooden balconies. There were a number of huge white cathedrals that are spot lit at night and change colours every few minutes. The streets are lined with street sellers selling everything from fried balls of egg to brightly coloured knitted Columbia bags and home made lemonade. The first night we were there we went to a bar called Cafe Del Mar which overlooks the ocean and drank cocktails while we watched the sun ... read more

Medallin is a really cool city. Its young and vibrant and modern. Im not going to lie, the nightlife in Medallin is so good i didn't actually manage to see much of the town during the day unfortunatly. But the clubs and bars at night more than made up for that. We went to a really cool area called La Strada on the first night which is full of really stylish and sleek clubs and bars. The clubs all seemed to have circus performers of some kind performing in them which really made the night. The city seemed to never sleep when we were there (which may have been the reason that i didnt make it out in daylight). The second night we went to a club called Carneval which was amazing. It is in a ... read more

Cusco is such a cool town, the architecture is amazing as its filled with tall colonial buildings and huge cathedrals along cobbled streets and plazas. Plaza De Armas is such a beautiful square and i quite happily spent a lot of my time sitting on one of the benches next to the fountain and watched the world go by. We went along a street called 'The street of 12 sides' which is a street lined with the original walls from the Inca Period. A guard stands by these walls all day dressed as a very colourful Inca to ensure that no one touches the walls. We discovered this on our first visit when the guard yelled at us in spanish for 5 minutes, we only realised who he was or what he was doing after about ... read more

The bus ride from La Paz to Lake Titicaca is amazing!Its a really short ride and you ar driven through huge green mountains overlooking the lake which is srtunning!I couldnt beleieve how huge the lake was, iv never seen anything like it!We stopped in Copacobana on our way to Puno so that we could see two sides of the lake!We had such a nice lunch in this little cafe on the edge of the lake!We spent a few hours drinking beer and eating trout from the lake which was delicious!We then moved over to Puno which is a more established town. We spent the day visiting the floating villages!They were so cool, the people live on these huge islands made from straw!This sounded insane to me before we went but the villagers showed us how they ... read more