We flew back from our 8 day trip to the Galapagos yesterday. It was a wonderful experience. We stayed on a boat called Intrepido, also known as the Free Enterprise. It was better than we expected & had a nice lounger area & sun deck. The rooms were ok, until ours flooded & we had to move. Food was ok, but nothing to write home about. Our guides Eddie & Raphael were excellent, very knowledgable. The itinery was fantastic & we saw different animals each day & got so close to them. We went to some beautiful white sandy beaches, swam [View Full Entry]

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Day 50 out of 270! We are all getting on very well, no upsets & still having a great time. So what we have we been up to since my birthday:- We left Quito on the 9th & got a lunchtime bus to Banos. Banos is known for its active volcano & thermal baths. Unfortunately, the volcano is covered in cloud most of the time, but we did manage to see it a couple of times & once it emitted a cloud of ash. The baths are pools of very cold, hot & very hot with mineral healing qualities. We went [View Full Entry]

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Thank you to everyone who sent me a happy birthday wish. Yesterday wasn´t my best ever. Heres why:- We met at 8am all with hangovers & Chris with a cold & Tina a sore throat. Our driver took us to Cotopaxi in a really old 4x4 which had a flat tyre at the entrance to the park. We had to wait around for a new guide & bikes to arrive. We finally got into the park & up to the car park where we could walk to a look out point at 4810 metres. We started the steep walk which should [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back from the jungle at 5am this morning after an 8 hour over night bus. Have had a few hours kip & Miles & Chris have gone out to sort out my birthday cards, so its an ideal opportunity for me to update my blog. We had a 3 day trip on the 28th October to a place called Otavallo which is famous for its open air market. It was about 3 hours on a day bus from Quito & well worth the visit. The town was lovely apart from it raining. The hostel had a real fire which [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone Just a short blog to let you all know that we have arrived safely in Quito. We had a long day getting here. 3 flights (again). Cuidad Guyana to Caracus, 2 hours delay there, then onto Bogota in Columbia for an hour or so & then finally into Quito. We are staying in a lovely hostel called ´Chicago´which is really nice & clean. Its really cheap too. 15$ per room per night. In fact everything here is so cheap. We had a set lunch yesterday which consisted of soup, main course of a meat or fish with rice & [View Full Entry]

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We are back from our 6 day trip & feel exhausted. Very tired legs & lots of bites, but feel a real sense of achievement. We left our Santa Elena hostel after breakfast & arrived at Paratepui village late morning where our trip would begin. We took a photo of Roraima (on the right) & its sister Kukenam (on the left) at the village & realised what a task we had ahead of us. Our guide Gideon & 2 porters Alex & Pablo let us start the walk on our own. It was just us walking out into the open countryside, [View Full Entry]

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Our first organised trip was to Angel Falls. We had to get a mini bus to a place called Paragua (it kept the price down) & then we got in a 6 seater plane to take us to Canaima. It only took 25 minutes. Thank goodness. I felt sick as a dog afterwards! It didn´t help that the pilot read a newspaper whilst flying the plane! Everyone else lunched at Canaima, I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to eat, then into a boat for the start of our trip. We went close to the bottom of 3 waterfalls & [View Full Entry]

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We planned on having a week on Margarita Island for some R&R, but after 4 days we had itchy feet so decided to move on. We got the ferry over to Venezuela mainland & then a 4 hour coach trip to Cuidad Bolivar. A beautiful town overlooking the Orinoco river. We have had 3 nights here & tomorrow we are off to do a 3 day trip to the Angel Falls. It sounds amazing & finishes on us sleeping in hammocks right near the falls. Full info on this to follow on our next update. Only a short entry this time [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone. Thanks for your various messages. We have arrived safely in Margarita after a very long day & 3 flights. We were travelling for 22 hours & Chris has worked out on his GPS that we are 4400 miles from home. The villa is quite nice, lovely big room, private terrace, swimming pool but no air con. However beers at 15p each we cant complain!! Just had lunch for 4 which cost 18 pounds, so our 20 pounds per day budget is easy to stick to. A few more days here & then a ferry to the mainland & the [View Full Entry]

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Just under 2 weeks until we start our 9 month trip. I left work last friday the 14th Sept having finally got a career break agreed. Thank you HSBC. You finally saw sense. I had a lovely leaving do & thank you to those who turned up or sent me their best wishes. Its when you realise who your friends are! This will be my last entry until we arrive in Venezuela. Watch this space. [View Full Entry]

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