It was finally nice to touch-down after 3 days of traveling. I can´t say I was a happy bunny though.....having come from Ecuador´s sunny smile to arrive in Argentina´s winter I started to feel climate-related depression....& I think it reminded me of the days to come (& look forward to!?) at home!! I´ve been so lucky on my travels because I´ve had sunshine for most of the journey.....so finishing off my last 2 weeks in winter was a tough come-back to reality. I stayed in a hostel in Iguazu that comes highly recommended by lots of travelers. It´s a massive place [View Full Entry]

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Fresh off the beach with a tan to go I thought that I´d tell you about Monatñita before the memories slip away with the last grains of sand!! I arrived in Ecuador to a big busy city in the south called Guayquil. It´s not somewhere you go to look at the architecture or marvel at anything in particular....just a pass-through to get you to the next place. I was sitting in a salad bar the day I arrived & a lady came up to me to tell me to be very careful & watch out......apparently it´s a dangerous enough city with [View Full Entry]

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Mancora, Peru. Beach. The first beach I´d seen since Australia really.....first beach that had all the neccessary factors for a proper beach experience. I´d forgotton how much I love the beach & was sorry that I didn´t get there earlier. Trekking is so over-rated!! Mancora is a small town where you´ll hear the blow of the passing buses at regular intervals as they steam through on the main Panamerican highway. The sun was shining with not too many tourists littering the beach & with handfuls of people jumping, flipping & spinning as they kite-surfed their way out to sea. It was [View Full Entry]

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Huaraz is a city nestled in the Andes mountains from where a lot of travellers set out on various types of treks, from 3 to 10 days or more....depending on time & adventure! For me this was to be my last trek......the Santa Cruz trek over 4 days...although in retrospect I probably would have done it in 3 days because it isn't very hard...there is only one pass to cross & after that it is a walk in the park!! What I have found in Peru more than any other country is that the people are much more opportunistic & will [View Full Entry]

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There isn´t a whole lot to say about Lima from my experience I´m afraid.....not because it has nothing to offer but I was still on a go-slow after the trekking in Cusco & couldn´t bring myself to traipse around in search of the billion museums that are dotted about the city. After listening to the woes of other travellers I decided to fly there as apposed to the 25 or so hours it can take by bus.....the long bus-trips I can handle but living on my nerves for that length of time isn´t fun......all this finger-printing & smiling for photos before [View Full Entry]

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Like most bus trips in Peru, arriving into cities in the early hours of the morning is part & parcel. Usually I just go to the first hostel I see or with the people toting at the station....it doesn´t always work out though. On this occasion I ended up in a complete & utter s***hole....now it wasn´t expensive but you couldn´t pay me to sleep here. So after a few minutes I loaded up again in search of somewhere that would be less offensive to all the senses!! And I did find somewhere. The city of Cusco itself is a major [View Full Entry]

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After just a night in Puño I was on the early morning bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is a big city in the southern parts of Peru & is famous for the Colca Canyon that is located relatively nearby. It is one of the biggest canyons to be found in South America & apparently makes a great trek. But after day in Arequipa I realised that my uncharacteristic lack of appetite was indicative of dark days to come. I suppose I should know by now that a bout of the worms is always followed by a gastrointesinal infection.....thought I was getting quicker [View Full Entry]

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After arriving in the early hours of the morning in La Paz I went about my business....first stop the market for a bite of brekky....the delicious fruit-salads & then Alexanders for the mega rich & big hot chocolate. Ready to face the world!! After I´d things sorted in La Paz I headed to Copacabana. It´s a small little tourist town about 4 hours from La Paz on the border of one of the largest lakes in South America....that is those that are at high altitude.....situated at about 3800m above sea-level. Lago Titicaca. It is absolutely massive.....like a sea & very blue. [View Full Entry]

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Take 2.......had just finished the blog for this place & then kicked the off switch by accident & so lost it....so here I go again. So much for automatic saving!! Rurrenabaque is a town in the northern part of Bolivia with jungle & grasslands (known as the pampas) all around. It is also papaya & banana-growing country too......so even if there wasn´t a whole lot to do I was happy out sitting in the market slurping papaya shakes!!! Most travellers come here to do a pampa tour &/or jungle tour. I arranged to do a tour of the pampas & after [View Full Entry]

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Gringoes....as the South Americans call us tourists, stick out a mile. Not just by the colour of our skin but we are the people standing in various states of respiratory stress gasping for breath as we climb the hills. And La Paz is a city built on the hills so it´s not so easy to avoid the panting as it is set at over 3000m. You can´t help but be impressed by the scenery......it´s like the city is built in a canyon with the walls on either side stacked high with houses, with narrow streets, congestion & chaos lurking in between. [View Full Entry]

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