JCann

My last week in La Paz is somewhat of a blur if Im being honest. After Le Gran Poder, and few friends and me headed up to lake titicaca so that they could move on to Peru and that I could tick the last of my bolivia boxes. Eliot and I ignored lonely planets advice about not taking the minivans and the rest of the group took one of the tourist buses. Im not entirely sure why lonely planet discourages these, as they were significantly faster and just as comfy, also your less likely to be robbed as theres only 10 people on them. We finally got to Copacabana about 3 hours later and whilst waiting for the others found a pretty decent hostel for £2.5 a night. That evening we headed up to the view ... read more

I landed in bolivia with a bit over a month until my flight out of la paz home, but having been told that a month was a perfect amount of time in bolivia. However because ive gotten used to traveling between places really quickly ive managed to do the entire of bolivia (apart from an amazon tour which im doing tomorrow for four days) in 17days. Bolivia has been awesome so far apart from a bit of altitude sickness that i blame on doing death road. This is largely because on the day of death road you drive from la paz (3600m) to the starting point at 4600m, then over 3 hours of biking you descend to 1200m and then drive back to la paz at 3600m. All this in one day took its toll ... read more

Since I last wrote quite a lot has happened. Cusco was a great laugh but unfortunately due to the miners strikes at the border with Bolivia, I ended up stuck there for a few days longer than i would have liked. After a few nights getting used to the altitude (3300m) i set off on my Inca jungle trek to Machu Picchu. The idea of this route to Machu Picchu was that it is based more on adventure sports on route rather than just trekking for 4 days. So the first day was a 64km bike ride, down an amazing road that started at about 4700m and descended to 2000ish metres. This was amazing as the road was a series of switchbacks with amazing scenery the entire way. Unfortunately the majority of my group for ... read more

this is the third time ive tried to write this blog so hopefully the computer doesnt crash. So last time i wrote i was in a very subdued Montañita, due to the election there was an alcohol ban. My plan had been to go to Puerto Lopez to see the poor mans Galapagos but i then managed to get food poisoning so thought id cut my losses and headed for my final stop in ecuador Cuenca. Much like the rest of ecuador this was a very beautiful city but had nothing going on. So after two days of wandering around i headed for the Peruvian border and the draw of Loki hostel in Mancora. After having to wait at the ecuadorian border for 2 hours at 1am I finally arrived at what is best described as ... read more

I´ve been in ecuador for about 10 days now and to say its been eventful would be both an under and an over-statement. Quito was great fun for the first few days and a good starter for what has been a complete culture shock. On the flight I was having my doubts about what I was thinking when i planned two months on my own in south america, but as we flew over the vast mass that is Quito at night that all vanished and was replaced by excitement similar to what I felt when I was driving through Bangkok for the first time. Only problem with Quito was that my hostel and seemingly all others in town were pretty empty (i was infact the only one in my hostel for the first night) this has ... read more

Really sorry this has taken so long for me to update but I've been a tad busy as of late trying to sort out my ear and other things that have manage to require some extreme reorganising. So incase anyone is out of synch, I have cancelled the ten week stay in the bahamas due to not being able to dive with a burst eardrum and edited my plans. Since I left LA I have visited San Francisco, the bahamas for a week with the parents, New York, and I am currently in Chicago staying with my lovely godfather and family. San Fran was amazing and by far my favourite american city that I have seen. The place is just so relaxed and open and there is so much to do there. Wandering the streets getting ... read more

Again apologies that this has taken so long for me to update but it has been a tad hectic over the past few weeks and the internet in Laos wasn't especially brilliant so I am currently writing in LA. So, We set off from Hanoi for a 10 hour bus ride to get to the border with Laos before spending a night at a tiny border town. The night before the complexion of the group had changed a lot so we had lost the two other english guys and the three austrian girls and gained 7 very very loud swedish girls. This wouldn't have been so much of a problem if they were the national volleyball team but they weren't. Anyway I digress. As we drove on the weather closed in, from being chilly in Hanoi ... read more

Again sorry for the delay in posts but its been crazy busy recently with a lot of long travel days. So we left the beach in cambodia after the best meal in cambodia- beautiful chicken amok curry cooked in a coconut, the journeyto the border took about 4 hours but we were all severly hung over from another late night in one of the beach bars. The border was literally a barrier across the road with paddy fields either side and a small office to sort out visa's etc. Once the formalities were done with we arrived in our hotel in the border town and after dumping our stuff we headed out for a boat trip along the mekong delta for an hour or so. Compared to the other boat trips we've done this wasnt ... read more

Sorry its been a tad long since i updated this but its been a bit hectic recently and cambodia doesnt have the best internet in the world. So i met up with my tour group for the next month around cambodia vietnam and Laos. Luckily there are two other english guys otherwise it would be all norwegians with a few austrians and a tocken frenchman. First night with the group was strange as we were staying in a nice hotel in bangkok compared to the cheapest hostels that I can find on Kho San Road. think i prefer cheap hostels to be honest. We left Bangkok at 7am on the 26th for the 6 hour drive to Siem Reap Cambodia with about an hour to get over the border. the change in country was immediately noticeably. ... read more

Finally managed to get off Koh Phangan after 5 very long days. The full moon was fun but the island is such a state that I was happy to leave. So at the time of writing I am in Koh Tao, which has become my favourite place straight away and can definitely say that i will be coming back here at some point in the future. The island is tiny but stunningly beautiful and the people are so friendly (polar opposite to koh phangan). Due to the diving here (considered the best in thailand) there is a big community of travelers living on sairee beach in one of the many diving schools. On arriving i had the daunting task of finding cheap accomodation on an island that is known for bungalows and few hostels (only ... read more