We tried to visit the Amazon Jungle while we were in La Paz but the flights we had booked could not not land in the town we were supposed to start our tour from because of to much rain. Apparently the runway was some sort of gravel, and turned to mud in the wet weather. I thought maybe stupidly, that because the airstrip was in the Amazon rain forest they would have forseen this problem, but hey who am I to judge. So next activity was a little bike ride.They have a gravel road in Bolivia that goes down into a [View Full Entry]

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Well our bus journey from Puno to La Paz was pleasant and really scenic. Other than the nerve racking experience at the borders, we had no problem. The drive took us all along Lake Titicaca which was beautiful! Unfortunately we had to head straight to the British Embassy first thing on the Friday morning, so stopping and spending a leisurely few days on the lake was out of the question. (Isla del Sol, a big destination for most was given a big skip.......maybe next time!!!) Our first view of La Paz was incredible. It is a huge city, nestled in the [View Full Entry]

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Thank you to all of you for writing to us via the travel blog , it is really good to know you are enjoying our travel stories. Please keep them coming! I will have to split this next story into two parts. First part, is the trip to the floating islands. Quite an amazing idea, these locals who where trying to escape from Spanish persecution decided to tie a bunch of these reeds together on the edge of Lake Titicaca to create floating islands then to build houses, boats and other useful things out of the stuff. Nowadays they make money [View Full Entry]

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Well that hot humid air of Panama is certainly far away! It is freezing here! We caught a long 10hour bus from Arequipa and arrived to the sprawling, cobbled stoned city of Cusco. Our first night we stayed in a really basic hostel ($5 a night each including breaky!) but the room was so small and cold that we only lasted one night there! The bed had three massive blankets on it, the covers so heavy that once you were in bed you were almost pinned down under the weight! Cusco though is lovely. Full of windy narrow cobbled stones calles [View Full Entry]

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One of the trips from Arequipa was a guided hike in the Colca-Canyon, apparently the deepest canyon in the world (for 100 kms averages 3400 meters deep), so obviously Mel wanted us to walk down it. The trip took us from Arequipa at 6am on a local bus to a town called Cabanaconde, we crossed over the mountain tops at 4500m. We had a quick lunch at local restaurant and we were off. The walk was 4 hours down into the canyon on day one, 5 hours hiking along the bottom of the canyon on day two, and a 4 hour [View Full Entry]

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We left Lima on a 4 hour bus ride down South to Ica. A few kilometres away is a oasis town (Huacachina) know for its huge sand dunes which you can sand-board down. The town was tiny with a few places to stay and not much to do but play in the sand. We booked on a tour that promised a thrilling adventure, and they delivered. We drove out over the dunes in a 5 seater dune buggy at great speeds. We got taken to a "small" dune for a bit of practise which proved that we would not be gliding [View Full Entry]

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Well! Lima surprised us both. We had planned to stay just two days, thinking we would probably hate the place. We booked a hostel and a pick up over the internet and so after a very decent flight, we had a driver with our sign ´Schenk Home Peru´. Oh so civilised! We met a great couple on the flight, Becks and Ben and the four of us made our way to the lovely hostel Home Peru in Miraflores. To be honest, the great hostel (and of course great people we met) made our stay just brilliant. The hostel, was on the [View Full Entry]

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Well after being deprived for 2 months we jumped at the chance of movie watching and 1st world shopping centres! I know ...sad! But hey we loved our 4 days here. We arrived in that tiny 16 seater plane (after a fantastically scenic 1 hour flight from Bocas) to our hotel transport waiting for us. Love being organised! Daniel at the hostel at Bocas had given us the name of a cheap but decent hotel that very conviniently offered free transfer from the airport. Our first walk around to orientate us took us to the promanade along the sea and past [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunatly we left the beach without me learning how to surf properly, but I will definitly be giving it another try. We spent an uneventful night in San Jose on the way across to Carribean side of Costa Rica, most of the worlds bananas are grow here and man there were millions of them. A short walk across a very rickety bridge and we were in to Panama. Bocas del Toro is a small town on a group of islands just off the East coast of Panama and it took us about 20mins in a water taxi to get there. The [View Full Entry]

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Just a few Kilometers up the coast was the small town of Santa Teresa/Mal Pais the reason for the two names is that both towns just comprise of the beach road and they merge into each other at some point...exactly where, we are not sure. Unfortunately we jumped off the bus at the start of the one town and the Funky Monkey, where we were going to stay was at the end of the other town. We walked with full backpacks, on the dustiest road ever in 30degree heat. Can you imagine how I was bitching! We arrived after walking for [View Full Entry]

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