Mebs and Paulo

After eight short months in Dublin, the travelling bug crept right back up on us and bit us hard. Although we only had a two week break from work, we decided to take flight to the one continent we missed out on in our round the world trip, Africa. We landed in Dar Es Salaam at midnight and headed straight to the hostel we had booked days previous. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were told that the hostel was fully booked and that they had “forgotten” to make a note of our booking. Left with no other option, we drove around the city looking for a room until eventually, we stumbled upon a remote guest house. Some things never change; it felt like we had never been home at all. We were right back into travelling ... read more

The weather improved with each day we spent in Rio, leaving us free to explore and enjoy what has turned out to be one of our favourite cities of the trip. For us, Rio has it all. We stayed in a hostel in Ipanema, a really safe, central and fun area of the city. Our first adventure to Rocinha, the biggest favela in South America. We got there on the back of a moped, or on a 'mototaxi' as they're known here. Kids lined the perimeters of Rocinha, armed with fireworks, which they would set off if any rival gangs or police tried to enter. We were brought up to the top of the favela and shown around the streets, shops and even inside some of the houses. The slums are built on the side of ... read more

Santiago is quite a nice city to explore, with lots of different neighbourhoods all within walking distance of each other. There are plenty of historical parks in the city with little treks leading up to beautiful views over the snow capped Andean peaks. We strolled around countless craft stalls and watched football matches in the plazas, soaked up the atmosphere around Barrio Bella vista, where all the young people hang out in cafes and bars before returning back to the small cobble stoned street to our hostel. We enjoyed the time we spent in Santiago, but seen as neither of us are all that keen on big cities, we were quite content to move on to Pucon, a little village south of Santiago. World cup fever was well and truly heating up at this stage and ... read more

The Bolivian border was one which we approached with apprehension and anxiety, given that I had no passport and was travelling on an A4 piece of paper with my photo 'pritt-sticked' onto it and my name and details hand written with little care. Fortunately we crossed with little hassle and headed straight for the small town of Copacabana where we spent an enjoyable day hanging out with Ian and Daragh. We set off on a walk up to a viewpoint at a height of almost four thousand meters above sea level over Lake Titicaca, where we had a picnic of wine and popcorn and chilled out for the afternoon until sunset, descending just in time to avoid the heavy downpours that followed. That same rain continued to bucket down throughout the night and into the morning ... read more

The date of Caoimhe's scheduled departure came and went, but Caoimhe didn't. She was having way too much fun traversing the globe with us. Although we had already packed so much into the two weeks we had together, the time had passed too quickly, so it seemed only right to more than double the length of her trip and continue on travelling. We arrived into Quito on high alert, having met countless travelers along the way who had been mugged (some more than once) in Ecuador's capital city. Based on this, we were not intending on spending too long there, but were very pleasantly surprised by it’s beauty. The huge city, divided into two very distinct areas, is located down in a valley surrounded by fabulous mountains. The churches, monasteries and well maintained plazas of the ... read more