Follow the Gregs and Becs Road

Our last week before heading home. Guayaquil, Ecuador then Buenos Aires, Argentina before flying back to Aberdeen, Scotland!... read more

Galapagos- volunteer work on Isla Isabella at the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre... read more

There is never a bad time to learn a foreign language. At least that is what we thought. With this in mind, most of our time in Ecuador was spent taking spanish classes, which turned out to be pretty tough and intense. We did, however, manage to escape a few times to see what Ecuador had to offer. We were based in Quito for two weeks, where we lived in a homestay with a really lovely and patient old lady called Ana Maria. It was like visiting your gran. Quito is meant to be dangerous but we liked it and never had any real problems. The old town was beautiful, with lots of colonial architecture and imposing squares. A great thing to do is to climb up to the tower of the Basilica, via a narrow ... read more

You hear a lot of scare stories when travelling around South America and although nothing adverse has happened to us, it is sensible to take precautions. This is why Becky stuffed her bra full of our US dollars, which looked like a very strange boob job, when we crossed the border into Peru. As it turned out the crossing was quick, easy and hassle free. In case you were wondering, she now carries her money in a purse like everyone else. If Bolivia is the poorest country in South America then Peru could easily claim to be the most touristy. Mind you, as we were on the gringo trail then it wasn’t really a big surprise. We started off in Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. The town itself is nothing special, although we ... read more

It was easy to tell when we had left Chilean territory and had entered Bolivia, as we went from good surfaced roads to poor dirt tracks. Thankfully, we also swapped from a minibus to a 4wd at the Bolivian border. We spent our first few days in Bolivia crossing the Altiplano and the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) before reaching civilization again. The Altiplano is a desolate and dramatic landscape, with various Salvador Dali like strange rock formations, an enormous amount of sand and multiple coloured mountain lakes, including Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde and Laguna Colorada. It is said to be one of the driest places on the planet and as such only limited vegetation exists. The Altiplano and Salt Lakes are also at very high altitude - we reached 5100m! Nevertheless, we still managed to ... read more