Our overnight bus ride from Puno to Cusco was not exactly a good idea. We had tickets on this huge double-decker tourist bus and initially thought that it would be great! No one told us that there would be absolutely no heat and the Andean nights are freezing cold. So Shane and I were absolutely freezing. All the locals were wrapped in five blankets - I kid you not! Luckily, one of the kind locals offered us a blanket which Shane and I gratefully accepted. We stopped in every little small town along the way and our bus also broke down. [View Full Entry]

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We took the tourtist bus from Cusco to Puno on May 20th. The usual bus ride is 6-7 hours, but we opted to take the First Class tour in which we stop at various villages and ruins along the way. Total time was 9.5 hours and costs $25 US each. We arrived in Puno at around 5:30 PM. Puno is the closest city to Lake Titicaca, which is the highest navigable lake in the world. About 70% of it belongs to Peru and 30% to Bolivia. Puno houses around 100,000 people and is overflowing with markets - I have never seen [View Full Entry]

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We made it back to Cusco this morning, a little worse for the wear, but quite enjoyed the trip! Peru is approximately two-thirds jungle. The most pristine and protected of the jungle is an area called the Manu Biosphere Reserve consisting of 20,000 square kilometers. It is also the most virgin/pristine jungle probably because it the hardest to get to and the most expensive to get to! There are 13 species of monkeys here (more than anywhere else in the country), 15,000 plants, 1,300 butterflies, and more than a milion insects that have not been even close to documented. To visit [View Full Entry]

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I've had an amazing number of requests by people to keep another blog of our latest adventure... Huh! Didn't think anyone really read this stuff... Or maybe you guys are just being nice?! Well, here we are in Peru. It was a pretty rocky start, but smoothed out quite nicely once we actually got out of Calgary. I stayed up until 1 AM yesterday cleaning and packing and got up at 3:30 AM to do some last minute stuff. Shane worked all night and finally came home at 4 AM to pack. We left our place at 5:30 AM. Our flight [View Full Entry]

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Well, our last day in Egypt! Finally we were going to see the Great Pyramids... the only standing ancient wonder of the world. Pretty wild stuff. Incidently, I have discovered a term that is used for Shane's and my style of travelling. I always thought that we were "moderate budget backpackers." Nope, the actual term is Flashpackers. Yes, flashpackers. Backpackers with a little bit of money. It's quite a growing phenomenon. Here's the article in the Sunday Times: http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10296-1339393,00.html. Fits me to a tee. We got up early and went down fo [View Full Entry]

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Today is Shane's birthday! Won't tell you how old he is (most of you know anyways), but I think he's still looking pretty fine... Anyways, after staring at the fascinating the view of the Great Pyramids in the morning and having a huge breakfast buffet, we headed off to see the world's oldest pyramids. First off was Saqqara (by private taxi, of course)... Saqqara is about 25 km south of Cairo and is a huge cemetery of ancient Memphis, which is where the legendary pharaoh Narmer founded his capital. Narmer is credited with unifying the two lands of Upper and Lower [View Full Entry]

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It was quite sad leaving Dahab. As with Siwa, Shane and I wished we had more time. I managed to spend a couple of hours in the sun before we had to pack up and head back to Sharm El-Sheik for our afternoon flight back to Cairo. Ahh... The famous Oberoi Mena House. This was quite the splurge to stay here but we justified it by saying we were celebrating Shane's birthday by staying here. I am not sure how you could ever top celebrating your birthday by staying in a hotel that was a mere 37 meters away from the [View Full Entry]

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Our trip out to dive in the Red Sea was actually termed a "diving safari." It was to Ras Abu Gallum Protectorate. There are no roads to it so we took camels. Yes, camels. I can honestly say that I never, ever pictured riding through the desert on a camel carrying dive equipment. I wish I could describe what it feels like climbing up on top of a camel and holding on for dear life as it gets up - first you go flying backwards and then flying forwards. I found it quite comfortable sitting on top of one as it [View Full Entry]

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Shane and I got up nice and early (5:00 AM) to catch our taxi to the Luxor Airport where we caught our flight to Sharm El-Sheik. At the airport, we met up with a family from Denmark who we met on the train from Aswan to Luxor. We ended up splitting a taxi with them from Sharm El-Sheik to Dahab (160 LE). They were a very interesting family - she was a nurse and had travelled all over the world working. I think he worked in aviation engineering. They had the most darling children - a boy and a girl around [View Full Entry]

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Shane and I got up early this morning to catch our flight on EgyptAir from Aswan to Abu Simbel. The flight left at 6:30 AM. We didn't want to travel by convoy with the millions of tour buses for the 4 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel. It was a very comfortable and short 30 min plane ride and then we were transferred by bus to Abu Simbel. It is very strange at the airport as they don't let you walk from the plane to the terminal entrance. We had to all pile on a bus to drive us to the [View Full Entry]

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