http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Couchies/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Couchies en-us Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:28:30 +0000 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:28:30 +0000 Pitch Black Arrivals and Coughing Fit HellArriving in Guatemala didn't go quite according to plan. Instead of getting to the capital in plenty of time to find somewhere to stay or even better to move straight on we arrived in Guatemala City in the dark and in the rain Guatemala City isn't exactly a great place to wander around with a backpack during the day never mind at night so we placed ou http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/blog-418648.html Three Countries In One Day Ok we have to admit we told you a wee fib. In our last blog we took you on an adventure overland from southern Nicaragua directly into Honduras and the town of La Esperanza. This was not exactly true in fact it was not at all true as we actually passed straight through Honduras and into El Salvador. The reason for this massaging of our geographical whereabouts is http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/El-Salvador/blog-403598.html Small Beginnings To actually get to Honduras required a chicken bus ride of the bumpiest proportions more dust than the Australian Outback oh and the best border we have been to yet There is no official immigration post on the El Salvador side due to some kind of dispute so we merely bumped on through and up the hill to the Honduran side. There everyone piled off the bus and we duley followed http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/blog-395917.html The Six Headed No Tail Snake When you think about cities with historical rivalries what comes to mind Auckland and Christchurch... pretty tame. Cardiff and Swansea... theyre definitely not friends and as for Barcelona and Madrid that hostility can be down right nasty. But here in Nicaragua we discovered two leading contenders for rivalry of the millennium.Before we get to them this story http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-389834.html A Damp Basement and Two Crazy Yanks We arrived overland from Panama to a cloudy San Jose which was handy as we ended up walking about 20 blocks with our backpacks to find the hostel where we wanted to stay When we arrived we chose the dorm we hoped would be the lesser of three evils. All had windows onto the street so all were going to be noisy two also had windows into the communal area so we http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-387157.html Roads Where We're Going There Are No Roads If like us you are undertaking an incredible journey through the whole of South and Central America there is one slight hitch when it comes to linking continents on this road trip...there is no road.The Panamericana is a continuous series of roads that starts in Alaska and finishes some 48000 km 30000 miles later at the bottom of the World in Argent http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Panama/blog-386463.html Cambio What CambioWe made it across the border without another genital exposing search by the military but did have another very strange experience. There was not a single money changer on either side of the border. Normally we are inundated by people wanting to change currency as we are trying to get through immigration but that evening there was a money drought. Luckily the bus driver let us http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/blog-385517.html Borderline Worries It's not every day you get the chance to thrust your naked genitals into the face of a machine gun toting soldier so when the opportunity arose David took it with both testicles. This blog begins on the border of Brazil and south eastern Venezuela. Information in the guidebook plus stories from other travellers had made us unusually nervous about crossing this border. App http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/blog-379692.html The Peoples CarnivalSo we left Rio the day before carnival and every single person we met seemed to think we were mad especially when we said that no we werent going to Salvador instead but would in fact be in Manaus. Of all the places Oh my god Their carnival is crap were among the comments we got but along we went anyway as the ticking travel clock keeps us heading ever northwards http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/blog-376560.html PythagorasMoney Theory It is very fitting that in a country obsessed with soccer our adventure in Brasil is a story of two halfs and if we may say so ourselves a game well played. To kick off we actually have to take you back in time to before our Paraguay trip see previous blog when we crossed the border from nothern Uruguay into Brasil here it is spelt with an S not a Z. With both of u http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-374839.html Bridging The GAPI Tracey am stuck in a Paraguayan timewarp. It has been 12 years since my last confession. On Friday 30 January I found myself back in Paraguay 626 weeks or 4384 days since the first time I landed there aged 18 on my Gap Year between school and University. I might have changed but thankfully Paraguay has not.Back in 1997 I spent 4 months working in a childrens home run by http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-371716.html So Nearly Not UruguayTo get to the border with Uruguay you can take various boats from Buenos Aires to Colonia or Montevideo but we decided to take the slightly slower more scenic and cheaper route from Tigre to Calama. This meant leaving the house on Saturday morning before Daniela had even come home from her Friday night out in BA. The train ride out to Tigre was uneventful but very busy and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Uruguay/blog-371713.html A Very Bendy Beginning The journey from Valparaiso in Chile to San Luis in Argentina made us very happy we had waited until the second of January instead of travelling on New Years day. It was one of the curviest windiest and bendiest roads we have ever been on. We had forgotten the one tiny little thing in the way of a nice straight road through...The Andes It was a beautiful trip though and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-366157.html Think Of A Price... Double It... Then Double It AgainAfter weeks travelling at altitude it was finally time to come down waaaaaaay down to warmer climates and thicker air. The road from Bolivia wasted no time doing this decending almost 3000 metres into a brown desert valley. Clearly this scorching hot nonstop descent had caused some serious issues in the past as the roadside was littered wi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-363037.html The Sun Was Born Here But Don't Expect Us To Tell You About ItLeaving Peru was simple enough and two border posts and a bit of rain later we found ourselves arriving in Bolivia. What was the welcome An entry tax to our first destination Copacabana. Not the Copacabana of cheesy disco fame but a tiny border town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. From here you can visit the Isla Del Sol the birth http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-355628.html Time Travellers With all the zen we could muster we agreed to leave the trauma of the stolen bag behind us as we excitedly crossed a new border into Peru. Rather handily insert sarcastic tones here the border post is pretty much in the middle of nowhere roughly half way between two border towns. As it was now dark and with no local buses in sight we decided to take a taxi to the nearest town http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-351615.html But First...Were not going to dwell on this for too long... but our bag got stolen... from right above our heads Were not sure how it happened save to say that the bus was packed with plenty of people standing. It was on the way to the EcuadorPeru border at Huaquillas and we now know that professional criminals work this route. That is why there are no pictures with this blog. Our camera and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-351603.html Living in a Toilet Bowl Having travelled in India we now truly appreciate why it is a country that polarizes opinion. Surely no other country offers such vast social religious and sensory extremes. On one hand India is a vile putrid and diseased cesspit. We saw a dead body in the street and there are millions more starving to death on every corner under every bridge and in every train and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-327125.html Ah Nepal. Land of landslides and power cuts fledgling governments and knackered buses. What a shame we didn't have longer to enjoy it Though thanks to China and the small issue of a closed Tibet border we did have an extra two weeks and they have been fabulous.Introducing ChaosKathmandu really is the dirtiest noisiest city we think we have been to though in spite of that it has a charm that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-315514.html Part 2 The Revenge As the saying goes everyone deserves a second chance so almost two months after we scurried out of Thailand with faces like thunder we returned this time to the far north. We decided that perhaps rude modern and excessively commercial Bangkok did not necessarily represent the best of Thailand especially as it is possible to say the same thing about London. Our plan this http://www.travelblog.org//Northern-Thailand/blog-309302.html