After having an excellent couple of weeks on the Galapagos, we returned to Quito, and the ridiculously sociable Secret Garden hostel. Of course soon after arriving we headed to the rooftop bar for a soothing beverage overlooking the bright lights of Quito, and the first person I saw was Dawson, a guy who I haven´t seen since high school (jen) - crazy crazy small world! So, after chatting over a few beers, we decided that we would join forces the following night for the hostel trivia quiz - having not done any form of trivia for about 7 months, we were [View Full Entry]

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A trip to the Galapagos Islands was always one of the big drawcards for Jen and I choosing to travel in South America. Renowned for world-class wildlife viewing, their variety of animals and of course as the origin of Darwin's theory of evolution the Galapagos Islands were always going to be an exciting destination for us science nerds! We arrived on the islands by plane from Quito, with the first visions of the islands showing them to be remarkably dry - almost barren; while the first animals we saw were a few sneaky finches feeding on crumbs in the airport. Soon [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Ecuador without actually knowing we had done so. Yep somehow we had missed the Colombian exit stamp office and gone straight through to Ecuador. Not even the massive flagpole was a giveaway as the flags of both countries are remarkably similar, really they are! Fearing that any future prospects as international diplomats may be quashed by our failure to have a Colombian exit stamp on our passports we asked the friendly Ecuadorian entry guy how we get back to Colombia. Remember at this stage we hadn't even realised that we had left. 'Easy', he replied, 'just walk across [View Full Entry]

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We had such a good time in the north of Colombia that we managed to get ourselves a bit behind schedule. So we decided to pick up the speed, but that is easier said than done as Colombia is such a relaxed and awe-inspiring country. Having heard countless stories of robbers targetting gringos, we entered Bogotà, Colombia's capital of 8 million people, with a tight grip on our bags, and constant looks over the shoulder. For the record, our vigilence in all matters security saw us through unscathed, unlike one of our room mates who was relieved of 40 bucks and [View Full Entry]

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San Gil is probably not the best town to decide to ditch the taxi and walk, heavy with packs, from the bus station to find accomodation. San Gil is built on one of the steepest hills known to mankind, and what the guidbook maps don tell you is that the bus stops at the bottom of the hill and the hostel we were after was at the top of it. Having recently experienced bouts of homesickness we decided it was worth the uphill effort to this Australian run hostel, if only for our mental wellbeing. A couple of guys standing outside [View Full Entry]

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So after enjoying all that Venezuela had to offer, much to our parents´concern, we headed across the border into Colombia. Despite the bad reputation Colombia has had for quite some time now, they´ve poured money into fighting crime and promoting themselves as a tourist destination, and here we have found more backpackers, and particularly more Australians than in any other place on our trip (with the notable exception of london). We crossed the border between Colombia and Venezuela in a little old van with about 10 Colombians and Venezuelans, and our bags taking up more than their fair sh [View Full Entry]

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Having never seen, let alone swam in the Carribean before, we decided it was about time this was remedied, so headed to the north and somewhat east coast of Venezuela, where we had heard the sun shone and the beer flowed....oh, and there was a spanish school. Life had been a bit frustrating for jeff, not being able to communicate, and I was feeling pretty rusty myself, so we decided to lock ourselves in for a week of spanish classes. This may sound strenous, but by a week of classes I mean 4 hours a day, and living and learning in [View Full Entry]

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Venezuela has it all. From the caribbean beaches and deep dark caves of the northwest of the country we took yet another overnight bus - our longest to date at 22 hours - up and up into the Andes and the town of Merida. And just because our bus trip was so long we got to see a bit of scenery in the daylight hours. A couple of hours in we came across a very bizarre, but very Venezuelan landscape - petroleum and gas fields. It looked how sci-fi movies present human attempts at habitation on other planets, with massive machines, [View Full Entry]

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What a way to spend a final day in Brazil. Not caipirinhas, not samba, not anacondas, not even musical park fountains, just bank queue after bank queue trying to sort out our finances for Venezuela. Even still, it was with a touch of sadness that we were leaving such an amazing country. It blessed us with sunshine and rain, city groove and jungle adventure and more wildlife than you could poke a stick at - and we´re quite the stickpokers! But hey, this is supposed to be about Venezuela... Santa Helena An overnight bus trip from Manaus took us through the [View Full Entry]

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So if you´re thinking after our last few blogs, that we might be getting a bit overwhelmed by too much nature, and need to sit inside with a tv for a while - guess again! We´re headed to the forest and river that is the stuff of legends....THE AMAZON! (dah dah daaaaaah)... Our original plan to get to Manaus, the launching town for many amazon activities, involved a 17 hour bus trip, followed by a four day trip up river on a transport boat, which may sound nice, but we have heard the novelty wears off after the first day, and [View Full Entry]

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