http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Andie H/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Andie H en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:44:19 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:44:19 BST Today is my last day in Latin America tomorrow I will be boarding a Delta flight to Atlanta to connect for a flight to Manchester and home. It has been a fantastic year with its fair share of ups and downs and more injuries and illness than I have ever suffered in my life but overall unforgettable. I have been to so many places its hard to remember them all although I can with a little thoug http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Distrito-Federal/Mexico-City/blog-81994.html Creel in the state of Chihuahua is a town that seems to exist purely as a base for tourists who come to explore the surrounding country which is full of canyons and mountains valleys and settlements of indigenous people. The town is strung out along one street with its plaza at one end with everpresent church and otherwise consisting almost entirely of accomodation for tourists restaurant http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/Bocoyna/Creel/blog-79778.html Bit of a gap form my last entry and in that time I have covered 3000km very roughly distances are not my strong point across Mexico from the white sands and allinclusives of Playa del Carmen through the steaming jungle heat of Palenque the culture and beautiful historical buildings of Oaxaca and the cool airs and charming colonial towns of the Bajia region up in the Sierras of Mexicos hear http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Chihuahua/blog-76352.html Belize was not to be From the minute we entered the country until we arrived in Belize City on the Caribbean it rained. Our plan was to head out to teh Cayes and do some diving but with continual rain which the locals told us was the norm as this was hurricane season and the TV issuing a warning to small crafts due to light storm conditions we changed the plan. Visibility underwater would h http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Quintana-Roo/Chetumal/blog-73633.html Grrr just wrote this entry and then lost it as the session spontaneously closed that's what you get for not saving often enoughAnyway here in Flores to visit Tikal probably one of Latin America's most famous archaeological sites and rightly so. My second Maya site after Copan and with a very different flavour Tikal is fabulous not just for the ruins themselves but for its stunning location http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Flores-Tikal/blog-73623.html Antigua is a lovely colonial city and a great place to hang out and chill for a while as well as a good base for visiting the nearby villages and Lago Atitlan. We got here last Saturday and have enjoyed a mixture of good food footie shopping and an overnight trip to the Lake and famous market of Chichicastenango.Impressions of Guatemala so far are that the people are very friendly and the lands http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Antigua/Antigua/blog-73228.html Copan Ruinas which is confusingly the name of the town rather than the ruins themselves which are simply Copan is a small attractive town which pretty much owes its survival to the tourist attraction on its doorstep the ruins of theMaya city of Copan. Its pretty hot with a regular late afternoon downpour in fact the rain here has been some of the heaviest I have experienced bouncing with s http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Copan/blog-72215.html The journey from Granada took us through Managua Nicaragua's capital which seemed pretty unremarkable except that is was very hot and apparently lacking in any kind of centre having been subjected to several earthquakes in the course of its recent history. The bus ride north to Tegucigalpa the capital of Honduras too us through beautiful landscapes definately more to explore in Nicaragua.Teguc http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-70793.html I didnrsquot really have any preconceptions about Nicaragua except having a vague idea that there had been a lot of lsquoproblemsrsquo and lsquofightingrsquo. It is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the most underdeveloped. Crossing the border from Costa Rica was no problem we walked across as the bus dropped us on the Costa Rican side. As usual we had to pay to ente http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Granada/Hostel-Oasis/blog-70780.html We have moved pretty quickly through Costa Rica but still hae seen a good cross section of this the Switzerland of Latin Ameica so called because of its longtime political stability democracy and neutrality all rare in a region with a history littered with wars dicatorships and revolutions Costa Rica is beautiful safe and therefore popular with tourists. Prices are accordingly elevated http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/La-Fortuna/blog-63551.html Having heard that Bocas was a fast growing holiday destination I was expecting shiny hotels and the beginnings of overdevelpment. What I found was much better. Approaching the harbour of Bocas del Toro the main town on Isla Colon with the same name as the island group after a half hour boat ride by very fast water taxi from Almirante on the mainland we got an excellent view of the waterfront http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Panama/Bocas-Del-Toro/Isla-Colon/blog-62226.html Well to be honest I'm not sure exactly where the continental divide lies between South and Central America maybe not between Colombia and Panama as Panama was once part of Colombia until the early 1900s in fact. Anyway psychologically it feels as if I have left South America behind and moved onto the second part of the trip the journey northwards through Central America towards Mexico. Not f http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Panama/Panama-City/blog-62225.html Finally made it into the Amazon here in Colombia. I am in Leticia a small town of about 30000 people on the banks of the world's longest widest deepest and most voluminous river. From here its over 6000km to the river's mouth on the Atlantic coast of BrazilThe town is lovely not beautiful or anything but with a very friendly laid back atmosphere. The streets are full of scooters mope http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Leticia/blog-59088.html Almost 3 months after leaving last time I am back in Bogota only the third place I have doubled up on after Bariloche and Puerto Madryn in Argentina. The weather has not improved it is still cold and rainy but still a lovely city wth friendly people. We have travelled here from Ecuador moving pretty quickly through the south west corner of Colombia but taking enough time to appreciate the in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-57533.html Time to play catch up with the blog again we've been moving pretty fast through Ecuador trying to get past the bad weather unsuccessfully so here's what I've been up toAfter leaving Cuenca we travelled to Riobamba our original plan had been to get off the bus at Alausi which is where the train to the Nariz del Diablo Devil's nose a spectacular trainride through the mountains calls before http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Quito/Quito/blog-56713.html We have been lucky enough to spend the past couple of nights in the home of a lovely Ecuadorian couple here in Guayaquil it has made the comedown after leaving the Galapagos easier to bear We got the invitation after spending 3 days of our cruise with Yvonne a DutchEcuadorian who spent many years working on cruise ships around the world. On finding out that we were on the same flight back http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Guayaquil/blog-56694.html Coming to Cuenca well over 2000m up into the mountains brought a welcome drop in temperature after the heat of the Galapagos and the steaming humidity of Guayaquil. Unfortunately the bad guts I got immediatey after returning from the Galapagos to Guayaquil did not clear up and I got a cracking fever to go with so decided I had better see a doctor. Apparently my pulse sitting up and my pulse lyi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Cuenca/blog-54216.html We have spent a week and a half here in the Galapagos I feel very lucky and privileged to have been able to do so Before coming here I saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity but having spent time here I can't imagine never coming back The islands and the waters surrouding them are beautiful but the most amazing part is the wildlife the birds and animals on the islands have no fear of ma http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-54209.html Well this will be my last entry from Peru as tomorrow morning we plan to cross the border to Ecuador time for a new country and new currency.Mancora where I am know is a small town on the Pacific a couple of hours south of the border. Its steaming hot and humid and pretty quiet as the main surf season runs til the end of Feb and the Peruvians don't hit the beach in any numbers until Easter. The http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Piura/M-ncora/blog-48574.html The Inca trail whet my appetite for the mountains so from Cusco a mammoth bus ride got us here to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca White moutains so called because of their snowy peaks. Unfortunately the good luck we had with the weather in Cusco hasn't held and the mountains have been swathed in clouds the whole time we've been in Huaraz which is a real shame. Its been raining too although not http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ancash/Huaraz/blog-47774.html