As I mentioned in the last update, we flew from Ecuador to Panama on 26 May 2009 on our penultimate flight of the trip. Leaving Ecuador marked the end of our South American leg and as our passports were scrutinised by customs officials at the airport, it also became the most difficult Country to leave! I can’t imagine who the customs staff thought we were as we just had our scruffy back packs and looked like typical “gringos” on holiday but as they tried in earnest to peel our passport pictures away from the paper backing, all we could was stand [View Full Entry]

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Following a very slick border crossing from Bolivia to Peru we arrived in to Cusco late on the evening of 30 April. Cusco is a colonial-style city featuring beautiful cobbled streets leading away from the numerous Spanish-style plazas. There are plenty of museums and churches scattered around the city which can be explored over a couple of days so along with that we also visited some of the tour agencies that specialise in guiding Inca trails. After visiting several different operators we decided to book our “Inca trail” with a company called Q’ente travel as the staff th [View Full Entry]

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The lofty latitude of Bolivia makes it the highest and most rugged of all South American counties. Landlocked between Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru, Bolivia has some of the most extreme weather conditions around. Warm, dusty days to cold windy nights mean that travellers to Bolivia have to come prepared for anything. Due to the altitude of this amazing country, the weather can change very dramatically so whilst t-shirts are good for the sunshine, in the shade you need at least another layer, a fleece and a scarf. We arrived in to Bolivia on 1 April after having travelled from [View Full Entry]

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Hola again chicos! After a 7 hour bus journey from Puerto Varas in Chile we arrived safely into Bariloche on the west coast of Argentina on 5 March. The bus journey was a pleasure in itself as we were fortunate enough to drive through a long stretch of the magnificent Andes mountain range. Argentina has contributed to our ongoing passion for South America not only because of its natural beauty and exotic wildlife but also because of its geographical and climatic diversity. In Argentina we have seen vast glaciers, immense mountains and gigantic snow capped peaks. In contrast, we have t [View Full Entry]

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Hola! Well, we are now in South America after having arrived safely in to Chile from Auckland. We flew in to Santiago, the capital city, a thriving hub of unexpectedly western living and culture. We have just finished in Chile after spending 3 weeks there and in all honesty, we have been continuously surprised by the level of development and progression both economically and socially. Santiago for example is a vibrant metropolis that offers tourists a huge variety of attractions and services. With free “wifi” spots in chic coffee houses, a clean and efficient metro service [View Full Entry]

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Ok, ok, I know, before I start, we’ve (I’ve!) been pretty terrible at updating the blog recently! We’ve just spent the last 5 weeks in New Zealand and in absence of any other reasonable excuses; we’ve basically been having way too much fun to do it before now! Whilst 5 weeks sounds like a long time, it’s flown by during our stay here in New Zealand. We both can’t believe that on 11 February we will be flying out to Chile because it feels like only yesterday that we arrived here in this beautiful country. For those of you whom we [View Full Entry]

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G’day everyone! We’re now officially “down under” and have just finished travelling down the east coast of Australia from Cairns to Melbourne. We started in Cairns on the northern side of the east coast back on 10 December. Our flight from Singapore arrived at about 8am local time and after collecting our luggage, we were both surprised to be stepping out of the airport into temperatures of 32oc! We had arranged a local hostel to pick us up from the airport so the transfer was relatively painless and only took 15 minutes door to door. Unfortunately, when we check [View Full Entry]

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Well, we’ve now reached the end of our “Asia” trip and are looking forward to heading on to Oz tomorrow. Since the last blog update, we have been via the Islands in the south of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Before we fly out to the “land down under” tomorrow, we wanted to briefly update you on what we have been up to during the last few weeks in Asia. After arriving back in Thailand following our trip to Cambodia, we had a long bus, van, truck AND boat journey to Koh Tao! It seemed like the longest journey so far and [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Since last updating, we have visited another three countries in South East Asia!! It's been a rather tight schedule over the past few weeks so now that we have finally reached the Islands of South Thailand, we can look back and reflect on our whirlwind trip through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I remember saying that Thailand was the most beautiful country I had ever visited. However after having seen Laos I now have to retract that statement! Laos was the first country we visited after leaving Thailand. As we previously mentioned, our trip from Thailand to Laos took three [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, We thought we would update the blog before we head off on our trip tomorrow when we leave Chiang Mai and head over the border to Laos. It's also a good opportunity to give you an update on what we've been doing over the past couple of days/weeks. We are currently in Chiang Mai, staying in a wonderful family-run hostel called "Libra". Deep stayed here 7 years ago when he came travelling with his friends so it's nice for him to be back here and to see the family who run it again. I can honestly say that Thailand [View Full Entry]

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