After the quiet of the mountains I arrived in Lima to a cacophony of honking horns! I spent a day looking around the city centre visiting San Francisco monastry (where we got a tour of the catacombs), the cathedral Museum of the Congress and Old Tribunal of Inquisition and Museo del Banco Central de Reserva. I had my first try of ceviche in Peru - Mmmm spicier than I thought it would be. So the next morning I left the hustle and bustle of Lima and headed to Huacachina. After a 5h bus journey and a short taxi trip I arrived [View Full Entry]

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After two nights of bus journeys I arrived in Huaraz at 6am in the morning. After a days rest it was time to stretch my legs and get hiking amongst the spectacular mountains in the Cordilleras Blanca. At 6 am I was picked up from my hostel ready for the long bus journey to the start of the Santa Cruz trek. We stopped off for breakfast before heading up into the mountains. The weather was glorious (we were especially lucky considering its the rainy season at the moment) bright blue skies and most of the mountains were completely clear of clouds. [View Full Entry]

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I left Quito for Baños, a small town known for its thermal baths. On the first day I cycled along the Pastaza and Verde rivers (the ruta de las cascadas), a route that took us past a number of waterfalls. We took a small basket cable car to the Velo de Novia waterfall - there was only going to be two of us in the cable car until about 5 locals crowded in at the last minute. The most spectacular waterfall was the Pailón del Diablo, which on crawling through a thin passageway in the rocks we could walk behind. That [View Full Entry]

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I've just had a brilliant (though very tiring) weekend in Cotopaxi National Park. It started with a very early morning on saturday. I left the house at 6am and made my way to the South American Explorers Clubhouse in Quito. After introductions and a run through of the plan for the weekend we set off for Cotapaxi National Park. We arrived at Languna de Limpiopunga (3,800m the highest I'd ever been though not for long!) with the sun shining and blue skies. We set off along the lake towards Ruimiñahui (Central peak, 4,631m). Mark (one of the guides) setted a slow [View Full Entry]

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Along with my Spanish lessons (so much information and I'm definitely not a natural with languages!) I've been visiting the old town a few times. I visited the Monastery of Santa Catalina were I had a guided tour - definitely the most gruesome pictures I've ever seen in a religous place - jesus bleeding and sheep drinking his blood and various depictions of hell! I also went to the Basillica where I climbed up the towers which involved walking along a wooden bridge inside the roof and then climbing up steep staircases and numerous ladders - not for the faint hearted. [View Full Entry]

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So I arrived at Quito airport to be greeted by Olga (I'm staying with an ecuadorian family, Olga and Marcelo for 2 weeks). Communication was difficult with my non existent Spanish ( Spanish lessons started the day after - although still struggling I'm definitely not a natural at languages!). On the way to the house I experienced the craziness of the ecuardorian roads - it seems the way to indicate you are changing lanes is to honk your horn and at red lights we were entertained by jugglers and people were trying to sell chewing gum, newspapers,etc. That evening I met [View Full Entry]

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So after a great time in San Francisco I set off for Yosemite park on the Bugbus. I had already met a few people (Jonathon, Emma and Laura) from my hostel going on the Bugbus and knew it was going to be a good weekend. We arrived at the bug hostel (just outside Yosemite park) at 9pm so it was in darkness although we managed to have a look around the Spa (unfortunately there was no time to use it) and meet the other people over a beer. The next day we woke up to glorious weather and set off for [View Full Entry]

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I've just spent a great week in San Francisco seeing all the sights and meeting loads of great people both fellow travellers and locals. So I arrived in San Francisco last Monday afternoon. My hostel was just around the corner from union square and the trams so I had a wonder round that area walking up the first of many hills! The next day I woke up to a glorious weather and set off on a trolley car to pier 33 to catch the boat over to Alcatraz. On the boat over we had great views of the city and both [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone So I arrived in Vancouver over a week ago and have had glorious weather for the whole time. This meant that I could get out hiking and cycling and take full advantage of the beautiful scenery around Vancouver. I've been staying with Prem (a Uni friend who is now living in Vancouver) and so have had my own personal tour guide! On friday we had a leisurely day walking along the sea wall to Granville island where we checked out the market and craft shops. The next day we went for a hike to Eagle Bluffs - after a [View Full Entry]

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