I didn't have a fixed itinerary of what I was going to do when I was here which is nice on one hand but on the other sometimes you spend too much time deciding between one thing and another - in the end you just have to not be stressed about it and go with the flow. I decided to hire a guide and go on a 3 day hike around Kathmandu Valley. As I still have some problems with my ankle I am not allowed to do a full on trek so thought this would be a good alternative. We spent the first day hiking only about 12km but it was all up up up hill!! Bit of a shock to the system but my ankle held up. We stayed in a guest house on ... read more

Before I left Switzerland I thought I would be organised and book my trains around england as they are so expensive. I pre-booked my train from London to Leeds and had given myself 3 hours to get from Heathrow to Kings Cross to allow plenty of time. Even though I had pre-booked my train it still cost me £90 for the trip. My flight from Geneva to London had only cost me $80 and I paid £28 for my flight to Stockholm which comes later. I flew with British Airways which you would have thought would be a reputable company but we sat on the tarmac in Geneva for 2 hours while they were changing an oil filter which meant I missed my train and then had to pay another £111 to get to Leeds! British ... read more

I had not realised how much I had missed being with old friends. It has been great to meet so many new people from all walks of life while I was away but it is really really nice to be back with people who have known you for years. I met Eli at University when I started 13 years ago (god that scares me!). He married Berta who is from Madrid and set up home there with her. I just missed their wedding as it was 2 months after I left for Australia, 6 years ago and I have not seen them since. Robin, who most of you know now lives in Australia but me, Robin and Eli have all known each other since then. Robin just so happened to be in London with work so ... read more

Well, I finally made it to Mompos with my new companion Carlos. Now for anyone wanting to go there I highly recomend staying at La Casa Amarilla. It is a fantastic hostel and is of a really high standard with really friendly staff, great rooms and even has an English owner (sorry but it is nice to be able to speak english as well as my terrible spanish) and is in a house which is 100s of years old. Mompos is 250km from Cartagena and as you will now understand very difficult to get to. It is bordered by the Magdelena river on one side and vast swamps on the other. But, it is well worth the trip. I think one of the (many) reasons I had wanted to visit Colombia was because of Gabrielle Garcia ... read more

Wow - finding words to describe the last couple of weeks is hard. Taganga is a place that I found very easy to get stuck in. I call Taganga a holiday within a holiday because when you are travelling life can sometimes be hard. You are constantly on the move, going to new places, carrying all of your worldy possessions on your back, trying to communicate in a foreign language, make decisions and make them quickly and arriving in a new place on a regular basis where you don´t know a single soul. Taganga is a place where the living is easy for a traveller. Anything you think you could possibly want you can get very easily. There are restaurants gallore, fruit juice stalls everywhere, lots of dive schools, bars, walks in the mountains, people selling ... read more