Don't worry, this man is not to be afraid of. He just wants to shine your shoes.... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Finally we decided to leave Peru and head over into Bolivia. Was a pretty tricky decision whether we would come over here or not as theres been a few protests and political disputes but after chatting to other travellers and checking the foreign office website we took the plunge and decided to stick to the westside and avoid the regions of Santa cruz and Beni where most of the troubles seemed to be. So we took our 'direct' bus (which involved a 2.5hr wait in the cold at 5am for a change of busses - clearly what we thought 'direct' meant!). [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we decided to brave it. We are going to overcome our fears of spiders, snakes and other kind of creepy bugs and venture into the amazon basin in the hope of seeing some monkeys. We decided a tour into the Manu national park was the best place for us to get into the jungle, and again our tour was a bright and early 4am start. The first day we travelled up to San Juan where our first eco-lodge was based. On the way we saw peru's famous national bird "the cock of the rock" - these are bright red bird, [View Full Entry]

---

---

"The Salkantay Trek was recently named among the 25 best Treks in the World, by National Geographic Adventure Travel Magazine. This amazing trek runs beneath the magnificent Salkantay mountain (6.271m/20569ft), one of the highest and most stunning in the Peruvian Andes. The first two days are dominated by the impressive "Apus" of Salkantay and Huamantay, in the high puna landscape. On the third day you descend to the warm cloud forest, to reach Aguas Calientes on the fourth day. The impressive Sacred Inca city of Machupicchu is visited on the last day of the program." Again this was an e [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived very tired in Arequipa after a massively delayed night bus from Nazca and our initial thoughts were to curl up and spend the day in bed. However, luckily for us we had managed to find the best hostel ever (House of the penguins) which has the nicest dutch owner and very comfy clean rooms (with the added bonus of peanut butter, cereal and yougurt for breakfast which was heavenly after weeks and weeks of jam and bread and eggs. Mmmmmmmm peanut butter....) She also helped us find a brilliant cheap tour into the Colca Canyon (which is the worlds [View Full Entry]

---

---

Whooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooo. This has to be the most fun so far and we both wish this was something we could do on a regular basis. Sandboarding is such good fun! After a ride up and around the massive sand dunes on a dune buggy (which feels not unlike some kind of sandy rollercoaster ride over the massive dunes at high speed) we were given a sand board and let loose on the slopes. This is so much fun, way warmer and softer than snowboarding. Magnus was a natural and San picked it up after a couple of goes. We wanna [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow what an amazing place. This has got to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It is so stunning here combined with a great hotel in Huaraz we have decided to kick back for a bit after what feels likes days on the road... Everywhere you look you are surrounded by beauty, there are 22 peaks over 6000m in this area alone and the snowcapped mountains are a fantastic sight. We decided to do some hiking, firstly a pretty short hike on the edge of Huaraz which walked us through a few tiny little peruvian villages and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Now that we have made it into Peru our first couple of stops in the North coast were Chiclayo and Trujillo. Chiclayo was where we finally decided to stop after 3 bus journeys and a border crossing which took about 15 hours. Immediately we were struck by the difference to Ecuador which seems so chilled and calm in comparison to the hustle and blaring horns of the local taxis. There is a crazy market in Chiclayo which houses a huge amount of herbs and sages displayed on the stalls of witch doctors. After a ton of travelling we were both pretty [View Full Entry]

---

---

Cuenca Cuenca, Ecuador's 3rd largest city (elevation 2530m) is firmly anchored in its colonial past. It is a charming small city and has a similar population and size as Gothenburg. We stayed in the best hotel we've had so far - very colonical, colourful and characteristic with excellent breakfasts and free tea all day too which made San extra happy :) Cuenca has been described as Ecuadors most beautiful city and we can see why, both of us love it here. There are cobblestone streets and domed churches along with little old ladies washing their clothes on the banks on [View Full Entry]

---

---

What a gorgous place Baños is - so pretty here and lots of outdoor activites to get stuck into. Baños gets it name as its next to Volcan Tungurahua (5016m elevation) which results in some lovely hot springs around. The volano is pretty active still, with a significant eruption in Feb 08, however nothing major to report when we were here. We stayed in a wooden cabin type place, cozy with an open fireplace in our room. Managing to avoid a lot of serious bugs so far except for a MASSIVE locust in our room which Magnus bravely defeated. Baños (elevation [View Full Entry]

---

---