We have finally come to the last country on our tour...Brasil. We crossed over the border from Peru at Inapari, had a few problems getting any further as there were no buses and the car collectivo refused to leave until he had four people (there was no sign of anyone else turning up in the next day or so). So we put our rucksacks back on and trekked it over the bridge to the border crossing outside Assis Brasil. Luckily, a bus going to the next town pulled up at the same time as us and our first (but definitely not [View Full Entry]

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After our trip to the Incas we decided to take it easy for a few days before beginning our trek across the Peruvian border to Brasil. So we headed down the coast to the Ballestas Islands to check out the wildlife. We stayed in Ica for a couple of nights and took a boat trip out to see what turned out to be a very interesting mix of Sea Lions, Penguins (sometimes sitting on the same rocks!) Cormorants, and many other birds that sadly the guide in the boat couldn´t help us out with. The sealions were making the most amazing [View Full Entry]

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Wow, we have just finished our 15 day tour with Gap Adventures which started in La Paz Bolivia and ended at our current position, Lima in Peru. Soon to head to the south to visit the Ballesta islands and then on to Porto Maldonado and the Brasil/Peru border. But first this.... We had a real struggle to get from Argentina to Bolivia in the end as farmers in Argentina started a month long fight against the Government for raising taxes and blocked all the roads. This meant instead of heading north via buses and getting across the border to our tour [View Full Entry]

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We´re combining our Chile and Argentina blogs as sadly we didn´t have time to stay long in Chile, definitely going back, the little we saw, we liked! After touching down in Santiago, we spent three days recovering from Jet lag and wandering around the city, eating (sorry the theme keeps coming back...) and visiting museums, we did a lot of walking around, Santiago lends itself to that, climbing up every hill we could find in practice for the trekking in Machu Picchu. We spend Paddy´s Day there too, which was a little bit wierd, didn´t bump into any Irish people, [View Full Entry]

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On arrival on the South Island we took ourselves directly to the wine country and booked ourselves on a bike wine tour. Great fun, definitely recommend it, just need to remember after lunch is most definitely harder than before. Our bikes were great, we each had six little holders on the back for any wine that took our fancy en-route and the bike tour company gave us some tips on where to head. All in all a lovely way to spend the day, we even came across a winery that uses cow horns and crystals to get the best results, turns [View Full Entry]

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This is just a short one covering our time in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before we head to New Zealand. We ended up staying in China Town in KL which was fine, a bit of a shock hitting the backtracking trail again after being spoilt on our Borneo tour, our bathroom was infested with little ants making a trail across the room every morning, nice. Better than the cockroaches in Bangkok I guess. We had fun exploring KL and eating very good very reasonable food in China town. John bought a huge watch from some dodgy Del-Boy which he is very [View Full Entry]

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Ok, here comes the first half of our blog from New Zealand, focus on the North Island. To be honest we have taken so many photos it´s going to be really hard to pick the best, but I´m sure we´ll struggle on through. We arrived in Auckland on the 17th February, pretty smooth but sleepless flight (too many good films to watch), we were met by Andrew and his friend Dave and whisked off to Helensville for our first night (not before answering questions concerning which drugs we had taken in Thailand by a random immigration officer at the exit, which [View Full Entry]

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Ok, here we go, we're currently two weeks into our trip in NZ, but first, pictures of Borneo have been promised! Especially for those at Defra with a lack of photos, hoping some of these might be of help. We got to Borneo on the 2nd Feb, staying one night at the Beverley Hotel in Kota Kinabalu (KK) before heading out early the next day to Mount Kinabalu. We found out we were sharing our tour with only one other couple, Jon and Kelly from Melbourne. Jon had done a lot more trekking than all of us which was a saving [View Full Entry]

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7 ish Days in Thailand flew past, after a wobbly start getting into the country (wow the immigration is laborious after the smooth entry into Cambodia) and a hellish 2 hour mini bus ride across Bangkok to the Southern Bus terminal, we were on our way to Ko Pha Ngan. Or so we thought! At 5am we were unceremoniously dropped off at Surat Thani nowhere near the port, kidnapped by a taxi driver and taken to a dodgy travel agent who tried to charge us double the price to get to Ko Pha Ngan. To be honest, despite what the guides [View Full Entry]

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OK, well the Temples of Angkor really need no introduction. If you haven't been there, book a ticket and go now, it's amazing. We flew there from Hanoi, away from the freezing cold rain and my cough and cold and into 35 degree heat. Wonderful. We stayed at the Empress Hotel which was lovely, but miles away from the centre which meant a 3 dollar tuk tuk to get any where. Although we only visited Siem Reap so I'm not sure what the rest of Cambodia is like, they are really only accepting dollars there. Even the bank machines only hold [View Full Entry]

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