Our final trek in South America was a sweat inducing, blood pumping, mosquito infested trek through rain forest to get to the Lost City or Ciudad Perdida as the locals refer to it. It is an archaeological site of the ancient Sierra Nevada city in Colombia and is believed to have been founded in 800AD. It was discovered by a group of grave robbers in 1972. To get there you have to do a trek for 6 days that leaves from Tayrona National Park on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The area is a yellow fever and maybe malaria zone and [View Full Entry]

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We got off our overnight bus from Medillin to Cartagena and got a taxi to the main plaza, Plaza Santo Domingo, in the old town of Cartagena. The old town is easy to recognise as it´s the first part that doesn´t look like a shanty town. Niamh sat down for a coffee and minded the bags while I headed off with the assistance of one of the locals looking for a room for a few nights. The idea being he takes me to places where he´ll get a commission if I take a room. Unfortunately it was a public holiday weekend [View Full Entry]

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16th - 30th May: After flying back to Quito from the Galapagos Islands we had a few days in Quito and thankfully the sun came out for half of one of those, but the muggings didn´t stop. The sun finally appeared on the Sunday morning and we got to see the Old Town in all its glory as the streets are closed to cars on Sundays. As for the muggings, well the chef (a Quito local) in the Secret Garden got stabbed on the Friday night. Don´t think we´ll be going back to Quito in a hurry. We hit the road [View Full Entry]

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After a three hour flight from Quito we finally arrived in Galapagos and were met at the airport by Peter our guide for the week. With the rest of the group we were taken to our home for the next 8 days, a Catamaran called Nemo 2. At the docking point we were greeted by 7 or 8 sea lions which were just lazing about shooting the breeze. We were then taken on board where we met the 8 crew members which were there to assist 14 people and told we could look around the boat. The boat was special, very [View Full Entry]

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April 27th - May 4th: Strolled across the bridge into Ecuador to find the Ecuadorian immigration official having a game of cards and wearing a muscle vest and track bottoms. Nice and relaxed start. Unfortunately we didn´t have a clue what he was saying to us as he seemed to speak Spanish with the local equivalent of a Kerry accent. Asking him to speak slowly made no difference. Still he did give us a banana each. Imagine getting a bag of potatoes as you come into Dublin. Now that would be a welcome. The other official came in a few minutes [View Full Entry]

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Our final destination in Peru is Chachapoyas. Chacapoyas is the town which serves as an access point to Kuelap, pre incan ruins beaten in grandeur only by Machu Pichu. Twenty seven hours after we left on what should have been an eight hour journey, we arrived in Chacapoyas. To get there we encountered land slides and had to spend a whole day holed up in a very unexciting town called Pedro Ruiz. When we finally arrived the taxi driver of course ripped us off driving us to the hostel, but at least he had the decency to drive around the block [View Full Entry]

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After an arduous eight days trekking our next and one of our final stops in Peru, was Huanchaco which is a beach side suburb in Northern Peru. The plan here was that there was no plan (except Colm had to watch the Liverpool V´s Arsenal CL game) and we were going to do absolutely nothing. After eight days of walking in Huaraz our limbs were a bit tender. After getting picked up by another supposedly ¨reputable¨ taxi driver at the bus station we shared the cab with two Americans to the beach side suburb. The taxi driver lit a cigarette (which [View Full Entry]

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April 11-20: After eventually leaving Lima a night later than originally planned we got to Huaraz early the next morning and got talked into taking the 'free tourist bus´ to our accomodation. Only catch was they had no intention of taking us to where we wanted to go, but instead they took us to where they wanted us to stay. Eventually checked into a place that was further out of town than we would of liked but at 5 Euros for a double room who could complain. We then had to fight off a concerted effort to sell us a tour [View Full Entry]

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Early-Mid April: We got an over night bus from Cusco to Lima, but the first 14 hours were on twisty mountain roads, with the longest straight seeming to be no more than 100m. So instead of sleeping we spent the time getting thrown from side to side as the driver used all the road to keep his speed high. Thankfully the last few hours into Lima were on a straight road, so we got a few hours kip. We checked into our hostal, Home Peru, in the salubrious (no, really) beach side suburb of Miraflores. The warmth and additional oxygen available [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Cusco on an overnight bus from Arequipa. We had booked a nice bus and were looking forward to the trip. As we departed a Swedish bloke sat beside us and we engaged in idle chit chat. He seemed nice enough however this perception quickly changed as the bus took off. First of all he proceeded to snore like a caged gorilla and if that wasn't bad enough his digestive system all of a sudden became very active. They were not of the silent nature and would have put most blokes and perhaps animals to shame. Our sleep was [View Full Entry]

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