Kev and Tash

Ok, so we are obviously no longer traveling and are still catching up with our blogs, but we know you guys want to see the photos (well, the ones that weren't stolen) and we want some way of remembering our fantastic trip as it already seems like a long time ago..... being back in an office just makes you want to do it all over again though, but I suppose you have to earn a living occasionally! So we had just done loads of trekking in Chile round the Torres del Paine circuit last time we blogged and after that we thought we would head back over the border to Argentina's east coast and catch the end of Orca spotting season at Puerto Madryn. Now full-time campers we took a bus to the end of town ... read more

This was what the mammoth bus trip had been in aid of: trekking in the world famous and extremely beautiful Torres Del Paine national park. We were just scraping in at the end of the season but the bonus to this was that we were able to pick up a load of cheap second hand equipment to buy rather than waste money hiring stuff. Fully kitted out with tent, sleeping bags, roll mats and an alcohol cooking burner that I'd made out of two beer cans we were set. Our bags were pretty heavy but it was largely because we had to carry sufficient food for 7 days; we only took one change of clothes - didn't see the point in taking any more as we wouldn't have access to a shower anyway! We took ... read more

After our mammoth journey all we wanted to do was find a place to crash out and relax. This proved to be rather difficult with El Chalten's growing popularity with climbers and trekkers; the first few hostels we tried were all completely full! We eventually found a little place after wandering around for a while, right opposite where we'd gotten off the bus in the first place! We had come to El Chalten to go trekking and climbing and spent the following day wandering around checking out the options available. We soon discovered that the local tourist information could give you all the maps and information you needed to go trekking in the surrounding area, which was great as it meant no need for guides etc. Whilst walking around we did find a few other ... read more

Yes that´s right the date for this blog is my birthday, thanks for all the birthday messages everyone sent. We spent my birthday in a little town called Vilcabamba near the border of Ecuador with Peru, as our visas were due to expire a few days later we wanted to make sure we did not have too far to go to leave the country. Supposedly it is a $100 dollar fine if you leave the country even a day late! On hearing that we actually left the day before our visa expired, just in case, you never know if the rumors you hear are true! We stayed in a beautiful hotel called Izhcayluma recommended us to various people who had stayed the Black Sheep Inn as our guests. It was a little over our budget, ... read more

After the manic period over Christmas and New years we had a week off work at BSI so we decided to cram in as much as we could in the northern / central area of the country. We based ourselves in Quito to start off with and the first thing on the agenda after having a largely vegetarian diet for the past month and a bit was to get some meat!! We found a really nice Argentine restaurant in the Mariscal area of Quito and had some excellent steak and treated ourselves to a really tasty bottle of wine too. Andy and Michelle had very kindly given us some money to treat ourselves on our week off so we put it to good use!! From Quito it is possible to visit lots of places on ... read more

The rainy season had finally caught up with us and we decided to forgo a visit to the carribean where they were having even more rain than the rest of the country and instead went to San Jose for a bit of city life whilst we waited for our flight to Ecuador. We arrived and went to Hostal Pangea one of the hostals recommended by the guide book but only stopped for the one night as there was no atmosphere and the rooms were quite prison-like! We moved the following day to Tranqillo´s backpackers hostal round the corner where there were lots of cool friendly people and pancakes for breakfast every morning! We went out for a few drinks on our second night, without any recommendations for bars we just went for a wander to see ... read more