Well finally I've got around to updating my blog... from the confines of my parents house in Dundee. Yes my trip has come to an end now! So Merida... where was I? After an afternoon wandering around the town I'd pretty much seen all that there is to see in Merida (a pretty town square, the famous Guiness Book of World Records ice cream store, x thousand flavours including things like spaghetti flavour, and diabolical traffic). That being said, the main reason for being there is the great outdoors, which literally surrounds the town on all sides. To the east you have the highest peak in Venezuela, yes, named after our favourite South American hero, Pico Bolivar at 5007m, with the worlds longest teleferico going up the side of it. And to the west lies the ... read more

Well after the Angel Falls so began a long unplanned trip across the far reaches of Amazonia in southern Venezuela. On impulse really I decided against the Gran Sabana figuring I´d seen enough Tepuis to last at least till the next trip, and that the 6 day hike I was planning up one would be tricky to arrange, tight timewise and also potentially unpleasant due to the rain season, allegedly huge biting insects, and so on. So for better or worse I said goodbye to American Kevin, and the Irish couple who were heading that way (albeit to get to Brazil) and tagged along with Damarise the spanish girl. It turned out to be a sequence of ´possibly-the-worst-bus-trip-ever´s. That night we headed to Puerto Ayacucho, a solid 13 hour trip (a bit longer than anticipated ... read more

On my last full day in Ecuador I headed for the nearby volcano of Cotopaxi for a fun day's mountain biking. It's the thing to do. For once the gods were shining on me and we (all 15 of us on the tour) had an amazing clear day - a rare thing I believe around Quito. We were driven up the mountain to near the base camp and then basically given our bikes, helmets and knee and elbow protectors and told to get on with it (the descent that is!). Well i'm glad i put the protection on, because the initial slope was loose gravel and had precisely no grip. Within 20 seconds a Dutch guy had catapulted himself off a 6 foot drop (by accident) but thankfully was ok. By some luck, there were ... read more

An interesting couple of days just passed... Firstly i´m happy to say that I´m off to the Galapagos tomorrow for 6 days in total, the first two days on the main island, then picking up a liveaboard (luxury class!!) tour for the last four days. Needless to say this is costing me an arm and a leg, in fact an arm and two legs more like!! Secondly, I sort of got over my illness yesterday enough to go for what turned out to be a fun day out to Mitad del Mundo, the ´middle of the world´ 20km north of Quito. Well it was all very touristy, but i got to straddle the equator and the photo to prove it. I didn´t notice any strange effects as I did it and I forgot to go to ... read more

Finally arrived in Ecuador yesterday, after yet another bus epic. This time a fan belt broke on the bus between Trujillo and Piura back in Peru. Somehow the onboard mechanic contrived to not know how to fix it, and we had to wait about 5 hours for the recovery truck to come and fix us. By which time all chances of getting my connection to Ecuador where scuppered. So, an extra night in Piura on my last 20 soles, not the nicest place in the world by any means. The following day was a long and hot one, about 12 hours in total in the bus, but not without some excitement, before finally arriving at a little mountain resort called Vilcabamba at about 8pm. Well I will sum up the last few days of my ... read more