Since leaving Mexico, we´ve travelled south, passing through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The Belizean island of Caye Caulker was our first stop, a friendly place to hang-out. Given the absence of good beaches, days are spent diving or snorkelling, with evenings filled with reggae music, dancing and cocktails. We spent our two days on the island snorkelling, as the world´s second largest reef (Australia´s great barrier reef is the biggest) lies just five minutes off-shore. On our first day, we snorkelled with numerous sting-rays (fantastic) and with hundreds of beautiful fi [View Full Entry]

---

---

It was just too much. After almost ten months of damp walls, cold showers and shared accommodation (not necessarily simultaneously), we checked ourselves into a five-star all inclusive resort on Mexico's Caribbean coast and relaxed. We enjoyed ten days of over-eating, swimming, and sun-bathing, with the evenings spent sipping cocktails and enjoying the entertainment. It was wonderful. Sarah even had a go at merengue lessons (a local dance), but that may have been because I'd disappeared to play football and the dance instructor was young, tanned and athletically built! Prior to our [View Full Entry]

---

---

We had a fantastic two weeks in Ecuador, spending several days in and around Quito, and also venturing into the Amazon jungle. The undoubted highlight, however, was our seven nights sailing round the Galapagos. We woke early each morning, typically for a pre-breakfast stroll round one of the islands - an opportunity to practically rub noses with the sea-lions, iguanas and boobies! After breakfast, we often snorkelled, before sailing across the beautiful waters to our next destination - a chance for some sunbathing and a leisurely lunch. Afternoons were spent exploring our new surrounds by [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in La Paz early on 29 April, and after a short taxi ride from the bus station, found a nice place to stay close to the centre of town. La Paz (at over 3,600m) is often cited as the highest capital city in the world, but whilst the city is the seat of the national government, Sucre (located in the south-central part of the country) remains the constitutional capital. Certainly, you can feel the altitude in La Paz. We had already spent a number of days at altitude in northern Chile and on the Bolivian altiplano, but the climb [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Bolivia on 22 April at the dusty border town of Villazon, and immediately booked a bus north to Tupiza. Tupiza is a pleasant town, lying at an altitude of almost 3,000 metres, and ringed by an amazing landscape of rainbow-coloured rocks, hills, mountains and canyons. By the time we arrived, we had been travelling for almost eleven hours, having left Salta in Argentina before dawn. We were in no mood to spend ages searching for a place to stay, so having tried a couple of pleasant-looking hostels that were both full, we settled for a more ´basic´option (the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived back in Buenos Aires on 7 April for a final two nights in the city. Unfortunately, two of the sites we had wanted to visit (the Fundacion Proa art gallery and the Teatro Colon) were closed for renovation. We did visit the Caminito, an area of the working class Boca district that is home to artists and a variety of coloured buildings. We also took the opportunity to catch up on emails, and spent a long morning extracting Pesos from ATMs (each transaction is limited to about GBP45 worth) so we could acquire some US$ before we travelled north. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We left Bariloche early on the morning of Sunday 16 March, travelling to Puerto Montt, the regional centre of Chile´s Lake District. The bus journey took us through some pretty lake and mountain scenery - indeed, the scenery was such that the driver stopped the bus several times so he could take photos! Puerto Montt is an unattrative hub of commerce and industry, but (as it is the embarkation point for the Navimag ferry) marked the start of our Patagonian adventures. The Navimag is a transporter ferry, rather than a cruise ship. It sails regularly through the Chilean fjords to Puerto [View Full Entry]

---

---

The frenetic pace continues as we travel down through South America, enjoying superb scenery, wonderful wildlife and fabulous food. The birds were at Colonia Pellegrini, a tiny village at the centre of the Reserva Provincial Esteros Del Ibera, a wetland wilderness covering 13,000 sq km. The most notable wildlife species include the cayman, howler monkeys, capybaras and swamp-deer (all of which we saw), alongside anaconda and wolves (which sadly we missed). The park is most famous, however, for its abundant bird-life, with over 350 species present. One of the best aspects of the village [View Full Entry]

---

---

It was a fantastic start to our time in South America, as we enjoyed three world class attractions in our first three or so weeks on the continent - Easter Island, the Rio Carnaval and Iguazu. Easter Island is now known as Rapa Nui by its inhabitants, but one of its early Polynesian names was ´Te pito o te henua´ or "The Navel/Bellybutton of the World", so-called because of its isolated position in the southern hemisphere. The island is part of Chile and lies 3,600 km off the west coast of South America, and over 2,000km from the nearest inhabited landmass, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Aotearoa, or the Land of the Long White Cloud, the Maori name for New Zealand. We have had an amazing but exhausting time here over the past six weeks. We've driven over 6,000km, completed a number of New Zealand's tramps, boated on both Milford and Doubtful Sounds, and kept my parents entertained for the 1st three weeks of our time here - no easy task! There's a lot to tell you, so put the kettle on, settle back and relax - you may be here some time. We arrived in Auckland early on 18 December, on an overnight flight from Hong [View Full Entry]

---

---