http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kev-and-Tash/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kev and Tash en-us Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:11:59 +0000 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:11:59 +0000 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 occasionallySo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Chubut/Puerto-Madryn/blog-199991.html After exchanging numerous emails with Andres and Michelle we finally arrived in Ecuador and checked our messages to find an email saying the sooner you get here the better in our inbox along with some bus directions to find our way to the Black Sheep Inn. The bus trip was about 6 hours half on a normal road and the other half on something that could only be called a road because cars attempted http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Chugchilan/blog-139641.html 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 co http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Magallanes/Torres-del-Paine/blog-181059.html It was obvious as soon as we had arrived into El Calafate that we had found one of the those super tacky touristy places that we try to avoid and we immediately wanted to go back to the cosy little mountain village of El Chalten. Unlike in El Chalten where tourists have to hike to see the glaciers here in El Calafate you are driven to the glacier it is 80km away so hiking is a little out of the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/Perito-Moreno-Glacier/blog-166852.html 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 atmos http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/San-Jose/blog-135346.html After much searching for plane tickets and not finding anything cheaper than nearly 500 we had to admit defeat and turn to our favourite form of transport the bus After leaving southern ecuador we crossed the border to Peru and made our way to Lima making a brief stop in a costal town along the way. From Lima we planned to do a pretty much nonstop trip down to southern Argentina only about http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-153949.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Cruz/El-Chalten/blog-166845.html We had bought a two busone boat combo ticket in the capital to take us into the depths of Costa Ricarsquos Caribbean jungle A the end of our first bus ride we arrived at the tour company office to discover that our second bus to the river had already left So the manager squeezed us and our luggage into the back of a typical white van on top of a huge fridge freezer to make the bumpy journey t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Limon/Parque-Nacional-Tortuguero/blog-134650.html We left the Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary in the making to continue on a quest to see more of Costa Ricarsquos celebrated wildlife and less of its expats. Santa Elena was our destination a small town at the end of a beautiful bus ride up into the highlands. We arrived just as the sun was setting behind the hills and we headed straight to our hostel of choice Pension Santa Elena where we hop http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-127961.html Yes thats 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/South/Vilcabamba/blog-151921.html After nearly 3 months living and working at the Black Sheep Inn in the highlands we had a week left on our Ecuadorian tourist visas before we had to be at the border so we decided that for our first stop on route we would go to the Amazon jungle. Ecuador is a fantastic place to travel as the country is small so quick to get around and its landscape and people so varied we left the central high http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/East/Tena/blog-145844.html We didnrsquot go far after our surf bumming or at least it doesnrsquot look it on a map in true Central American style the direct route down the coast was not passable unless you happened to be driving a tank or a boat so we had to go round the long way inland and then back out againWe eventually arrived in Montezuma in the early evening which was a much nicer smaller coastal town than Ta http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Nicoya-Peninsula/The-Rainsong-Sanctuary/blog-123682.html 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 Mar http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Central-Highlands/blog-149326.html Crossing the border into Costa Rica was a culture shock to say the least. The Latin American language indigenous villagers beautiful old colonial towns small local lsquotiendasrsquo shops locally owned hospedajes hotels and intriguing cultural differences were instantly replaced by the North American language sprawling rapidly growing towns and developments of condos only affordable t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Playas-del-Coco/blog-116316.html Ometepe is a small island in a huge lake Nicaraguarsquos biggest lake. It was formed when two neighbouring volcanoes erupted and joined themselves together. We had planned to go to stay and possibly work on a small organic farm on the smaller half of the island. The ferry docks on the larger island so we needed to catch a couple of buses to get across to where we wanted to be we ended up spend http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Isla-de-Ometepe/blog-114799.html San Juan del Sur is all about surfing it is the town most frequently mentioned by fellow travellers in Nicaragua as the place to ride some waves so we headed there to see if we could actually get upright on a board. Our mission in San Juan del Sur was to learn how to surf or at least try so as soon as we had found a place to stay we were out on the streets hunting down the best surf deal. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-107829.html We have bumped into so many people again and again on our trip through Central America and Granada was no different. As soon as we checked into the Bearded Monkey hostel we bumped into Blake an aussie we met and worked with on our turtle project in Guatemala. Funny thing was we were just about to email him to see where he had got to on his trip and he was right behind us Later on our first eveni http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Granada/blog-107529.html After spending a few extra days on Utila snorkelling after we finished our diving we had to head straight for the border and on to Nicaragua. This was a little too far to go in one day even for us so we had a stop over in Tegucigalpa the Honduran capital. We arrived late and left early the following morning so not much to say about that really On our way to the Honduran border we wanted to sto http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Leon/blog-107526.html Thats the number one rule of diving as we found out in our first class of our open water dive course. We arrived in Utila with numerous recommendations for a dive shop called Altons this was good as it saved us having to wander round with all our stuff checking out what everyone was offering Altons was right at the end of a long sweeping bay that comprised the main town of Utila a little out http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-104697.html The next stop on our trip was Gracias and from there a hike out to the Celaque National Park and Honduras' highest peak at 2894m. We only spent a night in Gracias trying to organise ourselves for our trip. We had been told that a lot of the hotels rented camping equipment so we went round to have a look. The first two places we went to didn't have anything and then we saw a pricelist for equipmen http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Gracias/Parque-Nacional-Celaque/blog-102192.html