We left BA on a Saturday morning on an internal flight up to Iguazu. We were flying in a type of plane we had never heard of before (McDonnel Douglas - dont they make burgers!) and we werent quite sure about the durability of the plane as it made some really strange noises that even Joe thought were odd. Having landed safely though we headed to our hotel. The Iguazu falls are on the border between Argentina and Brazil (and the Paraguayan border is also just next door). We had opted to stay on the Argentinian side as the town of [View Full Entry]

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So next stop on our tour was Buenos Aires - which felt a bit like coming back to civilisation after parts of Peru! We arrived at about 5 in the morning and made straight for our hostel. The original plan was to head to an Estancia (kind of like an argentinian farm where you can do horse riding, trekking etc.) but due to the aforementioned food poisoning we thought it would be best to get some rest instead. After a long schleeeep, we decided to check out the city. Over the three days we were there we saw some of the [View Full Entry]

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So we left off the story as we were leaving Lake Titicaca, with Sarah suffering from suspected altitude sickness. For a brief moment we thought it might actually be swine flu (the symptoms are similar to altitude sickness and Sarah is a massive hypochondriac) but it soon became apparent that it was in fact food poisoning. We are not sure what the culprit was but it made for a pretty torrid last 5 days in Peru. Between bed rest and numerous toilet stops we did manage to squeeze in a couple of touristy things though. We stopped first in Arequipa, which [View Full Entry]

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After one night in Lima, in which we saw only a supermarket and the hostal, and a 21 hour bus journey on a luxury bus (still doesn´t change the fact you´re on a bus for 21 hours!) we arrived in Cusco. This city is the ancient capital of the Inca empire, which at one time covered much of Peru, Ecuador, and parts of Brazil and Argentina. It is apparently the finest example of Inca architecture in the world, and the city certainly is very beautiful. We spent the first night recuperating from the bus and went exploring the next day. We [View Full Entry]

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From Cusco we got up early in the morning (again) to get a bus to Puno (which is situated on the shores of Lake Titikaka, the highest navigable lake in the world and c. 8,000 sq km in size). We had not booked a bus in advance so rocked up at the station at 7.30am (which was reportedly when the buses generally ran from). After a bidding war between two rival tour operators we eventually got a bus for 10 Soles for the 6 hour journey to Puno (about 2 pounds vs the 55 dollars we spent getting from Lima to [View Full Entry]

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Between trips to the Amazon and Galapagos we spent a few days in Quito staying in both the Old City and the New City. The Old City is the older, colonial part of the city (funnily enough) so has lots of cobbled streets, plazas, government buildings, cathedrals etc. We stayed in a lovely hotel in a colonial building centred around an inner courtyard here. The New City is home to much of the commercial sector and most of the hotels and tourist oriented restaurants, although in truth we didn´t find much else to amuse us in this part of the city [View Full Entry]

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On the third full day in Galapagos we sailed to Espanola Island, which has the greatest number of species of all the islands as it is the oldest and most remote of the islands so the one least impacted by humans to date. We began the day at Gardner Bay, the longest stretch of sandy beach in the archipelago where again there were many sea lions to admire. After a walk along the length of the beach to see some more marine iguanas, we took to the water for another snorkel. We swam out to a rocky outcrop in the bay, [View Full Entry]

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As there are so many fab photos and stuff to tell about the Galapagos Islands, we´ve split the blog in two and this is part 1, in which we visit Santa Cruz, South Plaza and Santa Fe. We were very, very excited about the Galapagos trip and we have to say that we weren´t let down, it is an experience like no other if you are a fan of wildlife. As the many species on the island do not consider humans as predators (as the islands were only discovered relatively recently in the grand scheme of things) they are not afraid [View Full Entry]

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Destination two on the world tour is Ecuador. We arrived in Quito from Mexico City, via a short stopover in Panama City and spent the first night in the old town of Quito. Quito is the second highest capital in the world at nearly 3,000m (that's 3 times the height of Ben Nevis) so it is cold here at night and breathing is a little harder than normal. The old city is situated on the hillside with cobbled streets, plazas, cathedrals etc. The next day we headed back to Quito airport to embark on our tour of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The [View Full Entry]

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As the first blog was "details lite" we wanted to write a bit more about what we have seen and done in Mexico City. We have summarised our stay in Mexico City below: Day 1 = Centro Historico and Chapultepec Park In the morning we set off into the manic city in search of breakfast and some historic sights. After a traditional Mexican breakfast feast we headed to the Zocalo, the main plaza in MC, where the Presidential palace, the oldest cathedral in Mexico (which is sinking every day) and the 700 year old Aztec ruins of the ancient city are [View Full Entry]

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