I arrived in Ecuador very excited and rather exhausted after 2 days of travelling day and night, on 4 different buses, wearing and sleeping in the same clothes and not washing - apologies to those who sat next to me!! Totally safe and easy border crossing, had been told it was a nightmare but think it depends on the bus company you go with, luckily i'd picked a good one, although at the time i didn´t think it was as i stepped on the bus for an overnight journey and was the only gringo on a bus full of men. I went straight to the toilet and started hiding my bank cards and money around my body in my clothes and sat with my handbag wrapped around my leg ready for anyone who dared try to ... read more

Jo and i arrived in Cusco extremely early at 4am after our overnight bus because the driver was speeding so had 4 hours to kill until it was a decent hour to turn up at hostels. Managed to pass the time huddled in the cold bus station covered in sleeping bags and ponchos drinking tea and then spotted the internet which killed another couple of hours! Before i came to South America I'd pictured there being lots of plazas and cafes and Bolivia didn´t disappoint on that front but Cusco was by far the best! Arrived in the morning sunshine to find quaint cobbled streets surrounding the stunning plaza along with a huge cathedral and church. It felt so different to being in Bolivia, it was like entering civilisation again and it made us realise how ... read more

Hi all, Having been a bit of a hermit and not really spoken to anyone for a couple of days while i was having Spanish lessons i was looking forward to seeing who i´d be with on my pampas tour and was hoping to meet a nice girl to travel with but i boarded the minibus and was faced with 7 Irish boys! They all introduced themselves and we headed off to the airport ready to catch our flight to the jungle. The plane was tiny and claustrophobic with a single row of seats either side of the narrow isle and it looked like the propellas had been taped up in places which did not fill me with confidence! We eventually took off and it was a very noisy, bumpy, stomach lurching flight! I looked back ... read more

We all got up early the morning after the "Extreme Fun Pub" shenanigans despite the late night and said goodbye to Max from France which left 5 of us from our trip (Max - Chicago, Max - Belgium, Nico - France, Romain - France and me) to catch a bus from Uyuni to Potosi at 9am. We had been told that the views are amazing on the 6 hour journey so we had all booked to have a window seat so we could make the most of it. Our bus pulled up not looking quite like it was in the photo we were shown. It was about half the size, very rusty and old and didn´t have any aircon, completely unlike the bus i was spoiled with in Chile! We boarded the bus only to find ... read more

Hi all, very behind on my blog now as i´m in Bolivia so hope i can remember as far back as New Zealand.... ....We were due to fly out of Auckland to Santiago on 24 June but just as we were at the gate and about to board the plane we were given an arrival card and told to collect our luggage! Not very informative at all but we eventually discovered that the plane we were due to fly on had been struck by lightning on it´s way in to Auckland eeekkkkk - don´t worry Carolyn, no one was hurt and the plane landed safely :o), so our flight had been cancelled and we were then transported in coaches to a very posh hotel called Rendez-Vous where we spent the night and had a 3 course ... read more