After spending eight days in the Galapagos coming back to the ‘real’ world was difficult. Some of the group that I met in the Galapagos came back to Quito, so we arranged to have a few drinks on the Friday evening. That turned out to be a few drinks too many and Saturday morning I woke to a feeling of being hit by a train. It must have been the 2 for 1 Cuba Libres. A good night nonetheless and it was good to have a drink on dry land instead of a rocking boat The rest of the weekend was [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Huaraz at 6.30am. The weather, or should I say the temperature was a chilly 2 degrees outside. From my comfortable semi-cama seat, covered in the blanket I questioned my reasoning for leaving the coast of Huanchaco. Even thought it was overcast, the temperature was warmer than Huanchaco. I couldn’t judge a town solely on its temperature could I? Well, the answer was no on this occasion, I came to Huaraz to do some trekking. It has some of the best treks in the world close by in the mountainous region of the Cordilleras Blanca. There is one trek, [View Full Entry]

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Cali was mine penultimate stop in Colombia. I only had Popayan to visit before I needed to leave for Ecuador. I planned to spend about four days in Cali. During my time here I have found that, especially in somewhere like Colombia, it is the smaller villages which have the most character, and definitely the best people. Whilst I Rio, I met a guy from Cali, Andres who told me to look him up when I was passing through, and also I met a guy from London, Faisal who was also in Cali, so at least I had a couple of [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, Hope everyone is well. This is a slightly longer blog than my previous ones. If you havent got a drink of any description, then I recommend you grab one. If you have one, then as in Jackanory, are yu sat comfortably? Then I will begin. The Galápagos Islands form the Galápagos Province of Ecuador and are part of the country's national park system. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of around 40,000, which is a 40-fold expansion in 50 years. The islands are geologically young and famed for their vast number of [View Full Entry]

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If I am honest, I was happy to be leaving Bogota. The weather was overcast and grey, the city was huge and I didn’t feel safe in La Candeleria. Three days in the capital was plenty. My next stop was San Gil, which is supposed to be the adventure capital of Colombia. Before I talk about what happened in San Gil, I missed out my previous stalking moment from my Venezuelan part of my blog. So here is the story. The day before I was due to fly to Angel Fall, I was staying in Cuidad Bolivar. I needed to grab [View Full Entry]

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God I am sick of buses... Night buses when you are a traveller serve two purposes. One, they get you to where you are going, and two, they save you the cost of a hostel for a night. Unfortunately, I was sat next to a guy, who even though we were travelling at night wanted to look out of the window (at what I haven’t got a clue), but didn’t feel anyway about leaning over me to wipe the steam off the window every 20 minutes or so, whilst I was trying to get some much needed beauty sleep. I got [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Cartagena one day late due to missing the last bus from Santa Marta. From speaking to other travellers I had met in South America about Cartagena, they all described it as this magical city, so expectations were high. Cartagena is on the Caribbean coast, four hours drive from Santa Marta, so the weather was exactly the same as Santa Marta. I met a guy, Henry, in Santa Marta who left for Cartagena a couple of days before me, so we arranged to meet up when I got into town. The hostel everyone tries to stay at in Cartagena [View Full Entry]

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Salento is a small town, population of about 3,500 people, in the Zona Cafeteria. You guessed it, the area which they grow coffee. Being a coffee lover, this was a must see place on my trip around Colombia. From Medellin, it would be a five hour coach journey through the Zona Cafeteria, climbing mountains, speeding down mountain roads to Armenia, and then it would be another hour by local bus to Salento. I met a group of travellers from the UK, Rory, Jimmy, Leonie, Katie and Leila from my hostel in Medellin and all decided to head down together. Well, Rory [View Full Entry]

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The Medellin Cartel were a network of drug dealers / smugglers founded by Pablo Escobar. At their peak they earned $60m a day through narcotics. In 1989, Forbes magazine named Pablo Escobar as the 7th richest man in the world. He was killed on a rooftop in Medellin after a shootout with police. After 16 years of Pablo Escobar, Medellin, as has Colombia changed lot. I picked a hostel in the Panito Bonito district of Medellin, which is London equivalent would probably be somewhere like Hampstead. The area is full of designer stores, shopping malls and trendy restaurants. It shows how [View Full Entry]

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After going to Rio and Salvador, I needed somewhere to go and not spend money and charge the batteries a bit. So after 4 flights, I finally got to Georgetown, Guyana, which is on the north tip of South America. Guyana borders Venezuela to its west, Brazil to the south and Suriname to its east. For the whole time I was staying in Guyana, I was staying with family, so that meant not having to find my own food, washing being done for me and most importantly, not having to spend money on accommodation. My daily routine was very simple in [View Full Entry]

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