So as you can tell we are back safe and sound from our expedition into the jungle and I have to say it was the experience of a lifetime. I have never been on such a good trip. Unfortunately it has been marred by the fact that while I was getting off the boat when we got back someone stole my camara so I have no pictures. The group included Stav (Israeli), Paul, Emma, Will, Laura and I (all English) with our guides Kid and Giro. Some other guys joined us later on but I think they were just friends of [View Full Entry]

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After a late and slightly fraught flight to Quitos (at one point only Laura had a seat on the plane) we spent our first day relaxing and wandering around the city. It is surrounded by the Andes on one side and on the other it dips to the beginning of the Amazon Basin so the surrounding area is absolutely stunning. Quito itself however is much like any other city. On our second day we heading to the Cuidad del Mundo, the place the gives this country its name, the equator. At the site there is a large statue with a museum [View Full Entry]

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24th June- From Quito we headed north to a town called Otavalo which is known for its craft market. We arrived late afternoon on Wednesday (never believe them when they say the bus will only take 2 hours!) and having found somewhere to stay, we headed straight out into the market. It is colder than we were expecting in Equador so Alpaca socks, hats, blankets etc were the order of the day! You can get pretty much any craft that you want in this market, and in about any colour so we found it a bit too easy to part with [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Panama and planned to spend 3 days there before heading to Equador however soon realised that due to our own lack of organisation we were going to have to spend 5 days there before we could get a flight. As it turned out though we loved Panama City so this was no hardship. The hostel we were staying in was called Lunas Castle which was a massive restored colonial building with balconies and views over the bay. It was a really sociable hostel and we quickly ran into Stephanie and Sach who was had origianlly met in Ometepe, [View Full Entry]

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From Tamarindo we decided to head to Monteverde. 3 buses and serveral hours later we found ourselves stuck in a small town called Tilaran, we got off of the bus and found ourselves as usual fending off the local taxi drivers, on this occasion howver the were quite helpful and informed us that we wouldn´t be going anywhere until tomorrow unless we took up their offer of a $40 taxi! No thank you. So we had to resign ourselves to staying the night and on direction of the taxi drivers made our way to the Central Plaza (yet another one) where [View Full Entry]

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On arrival in Costa Rica we travelled to the nearest town of any size, and found ourselves in rainy Liberia. The hostel that we stayed in was apparently the only tourist information in the town and the owner was particularly knowledgable and helpful according to the guidebook. When we asked him for advice on where to go he told us to rent a 4x4 and go anywhere that was not in the guidebook. Great advice. So the following day we followed our original plan and went to Tamarindo. The hostel we stayed in was La Botella De Leche which was where [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday we made our way from Managua to the Island of Ometepe. The island is formed by 2 extinct volcanos and is surrounded by the Lago de Nicaragua. The lake was originally joined to the sea but was closed off due to volcanic activity, resulting in sea fish being trapped in the lake. As a result the Lago de Nicaragua is one of the few places in the world which has freshwater sharks. We arrived on the island and jumped on the last bus which runs around the island, luckily there was quite a group of gringo's on the bus [View Full Entry]

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When we arrived in the capital of Nicaragua from El Salvador we decided to head straight for the city of Granada for a few days. We both felt that we needed a couple of days in the same place and it also meant that we could do all the boring things like laundry etc. Granada is another colonial city and was very pretty. On our first full day there we explored the city, climbed up the bell tower of one of the churches for views of the volcano from the city (it was so lovely and cool compared to the humidity [View Full Entry]

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So we have been and left El Salvador but we loved it so much that we want to tell you all about it. We arrived on 17th May and spent our first few days at the beach. We managed to catch our first chicken bus and headed for Playa El Tunco which is THE place for catching waves in Central America and is a mecca for surfer dudes. Naturally that meant we had to pay it a visit, with the intention of having surf lessons. When we arrived we checked into Hostel Papaya which was in the estury but also in [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we arrived in Panajachel which is a nice little town on the edge of the Lago de Atitlan. The town is very small and the only things to do here really are hang out and shop for handicrafts...so thats what we have done. This morning we took the boat across the lake to a village called Santiago Atitlan which is between 3 volcanos. The journey over was in a Lancho Publico (public taxi boat) and when we got on we sat at the front for the best views. We heard some people laughing behind us but decided to ignore them. [View Full Entry]

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