The reason I have returned to La Paz is two fold, one there are a few excursions that I couldnt do last time as the wet season was upon us and two Ihave to make my way back to Peru for my flight home in a few weeks. (plus Chile was destroying my bank balance too!) The beauty of La Paz, is it's character. It has such a different feel to any of the other capitals and main cities that I have been to in South America. As the highest capital in the world at 3640 metres even a simple walk [View Full Entry]

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So those of you with a good memory, might recall that Chris and I had parted company, as I was hotfooting it up through Chile back towards Bolivia and Peru. First port of call was to get to the capital of Chile, Santiago. I left behind Argentina and headed 7 hours to Valdivia, where I would be changing bus for the 12 hour connection to Santiago. On arrival in Valdivia I have a few hours to kill before my connection, and so I go for a wander around the town. Not expecting much im pleasantly surprised when I get to the [View Full Entry]

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After the excitement of Torres Del Paine, our next adventure was to be a 4 day ferry ride along the coast Of Chile. The crossing is meant to be awesome as you navigate your way through glaciers and icebergs, unfortunately once again winter was proving to be a bit of a nightmare and so the trip was delayed several times. Operating on a deadline we had no choice but to cancel it and find an alternative way of getting north. The normal method would be by bus of course, but why go to all that time and trouble, when you can [View Full Entry]

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We spend our first aftenoon in Peurto Natales, Chile, trying to sort out excursions and things to do for the next couple of days. We are hoping to catch a ferry on the 1st July that will take us up the coast of Chile, navigating its way through glaciers and icebergs, so once again time is a bit of an issue. Or perhaps not. If we thought El Calafate was quiet, that is nothing of Puerto Natales. Even more quiet than the former, most of the agencies are not only closed but have boards over the windows. Our therfore proposed plan [View Full Entry]

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Here we are then...our voyage to the bottom of the world complete, see I go to the ends of the Earth to write blogs for you people!! From our last port of call in Rio Gallegos, we headed 12 hours south, th the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia. It's a bit of grief to get to actually, as you have to get an exit stamp on the Argentinian border, go through customs to get into Chile, followed by a short 15 minute ferry ride over the Magellan Strait and then get a Chilean exit stamp, followed by more customs [View Full Entry]

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A long day of travelling via Lima (again!) sees our intrepid adventurers arrive for visit numero dos into Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The last time we were here was pretty much just a stop gap for a couple of days whilst waiting for our flight to Ecuador. (That said we did still do quite a bit, so on arrival in BA this time I was pretty keen to hot foot it further south as soon as possible) One of the key differences between this time and our last visit, is that it has now turned winter in Argentina.....ouch. The [View Full Entry]

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Our final 2 weeks in Colombia sees us heading 5 hours further along the Caribbean coast to Santa Marta. At least it was meant to be 5 hours, as is the way with Colombia we were sat in a jam for two hours waiting for an accident to clear. This meant we arrived about 12.30 at night, with no idea of where to stay, brilliant. Fortunately we got chatting to an English guy on the coach who just happened to be travelling with a Colombian girl, so we headed to the same hostel as them and low and behold we ended [View Full Entry]

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So after a 7 or so hour bus journey to the Ecuadorian border town of Tulcan, we exit the bus, get our exit stamp and walk across the Colombian border hassle free. It actually felt pretty odd just walking from one country to the next, but to tell you the truth bearing in mind it was Colombia that was the last thing on our minds, we were just hoping to get across without getting shot or cavity searched. The one slightly un-nerving moment came as we were queing to get our passports checked. On the windows next to us were reward [View Full Entry]

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So after the Cotopaxi climb and winning quiz two, we decided to hang around in quito for a day or two to rest. As I have already mentioned, the Secret Garden in Quito is a really cool hostel. Its run on a day to day basis by two managers, Colin and Kate, who are American and English respectively. To assist in the smooth running of the place, they take on about 5 volunteers at a time, which are basically just other backpackers with a bit of time on their hands. The incentive for them is they get free board, meals and [View Full Entry]

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So with Caroline gone, we decided there was only one thing for it, thats right we decided to go and climb the worlds largest active volcano....Cotopaxi!! (you can see how the two are linked!) Cotopaxi presents a tricky challenge and Paul who runs the Secret Garden travel agency, Carpe DM, has attempted it three times already, only to be cruelly turned away from the summit like Oliver asking for more food at the orphanage. Well not exactly like Oliver, infact it was due to fatigue and poor weather not a nasty old man, so really I guess it was nothing like [View Full Entry]

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