HeatherandPaul

We feel a bit like frauds filling this in now we are back in the UK, but here is the last entry for your enjoyment! After another night in Cuzco we headed off for the Amazon basin and Manu Biosphere Reserve. After another early morning (seems to have been too many of them this trip!) we started out on what would be an 8 hour bus journey up and over the Andes and into the jungle. On the way up we stopped at the highest point to see some pre-inca tombs. There was a restoration project in process which was rebuilding some of the ruins. Seems a little pointless to me - surely the point of the tombs is that thay are there and they are old. Who wants to see new replicas.... Anyway, after this ... read more

Ok folks, here we go again with another enthralling entry...La Paz was fun, a little crazy, muchos traffic, muchos fumes. The old buses crawling, and i mean crawling, up the steep hills were a sight to see.Travelled to Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Not quite the Brazilian version but it did have a beach and it was our finest views of the lake. Took a boat over to Isla Del Sol and spent 2 nights on there. The island is very important from an Inca point of view. They believe it was were the sun was born and where the king inca was spawned from {but dont quote me on that}. Anyway it rained the first night we were there. The views on the island were magnificent as were the sunsets. We walked from ... read more

Hello campers. Well, started again. Had a decent journey over, well as decent as a 12 hour flight can be. I have a new method of flying - tranquilizers! Slept for nearly 10 hours without having to resort to alcohol. Heather was out for even longer. If i hadnt woken her she'd probably still be on the flight. BA was as cool as ever, ate about our own body weight in cow and drank some more fantastic wine. Bought a beautiful painting of La Boca (a colourful area of the city) from a market. The artist must have been in his eighties and was obviously well respected by all the other artists selling their wares. He was so happy when we bought one of his pictures. We both got big kisses and had to have our ... read more

El Calafate - Into the Andes! Moved further west and into the foothills of the Andes and the Los Glaciares National Park. El Calafate very much like Banff in Canada so Heather felt at home. Took a day trip to the Perito Moreno glacier - a small chunk of ice of only 20Km long, 5km wide and 60m high......! Although its not advancing, it is the only one in the world not retreating. Its growth is in equilibrium with that lost as melt water. Saw enormous chunks falling off into Lago Argentina (3rd biggest lake in sth America and all glacial melt water). The lake feeds the Rio Santa Cruz which makes its way through Patagonia into the Atlantic. Saw our first Condors soaring over the foothills. Strangely also saw loads of European hares. Patagonia is ... read more

Hola We left Iguazu and headed for the Iberas Marshes - this was kind of my idea because of the fantastic wildlife on offer. We knew it would be a long trek but not quite as bad as it was - a ten hour bus journey, followed by a 3 hour bus journey, followed by another 3 hours bus journey (this time in a very old, beat up bus on a very rough gravel track that kept dissapearing into vast pot holes). Anyway after all that i can say that it was utterly worth it. The wildlife was unbelievable - Capybaras (or brown moomins as Heather called them), Caimen, marsh deer, howler monkeys and loads of different birds species. To Heathers delight there were also hundreds of frogs and toads, including a huge toad (the size ... read more