Its good to be back!! [View Full Entry]

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The journey to San Diego took me via Guayaquil (Ecuador), San Jose (Costa Rica), Los Angeles, then finally San Diego. On arriving in the USA it was a pleasure to be in the modern world again, to be able to speak English and be understood, to be able to brush your teeth with tap water, and have a toilet seat on the toilet! I came to San Diego not only because I like the city but principly to catch up with an old school friend of mine, Topher Woelk, and his wife Anne Celine. They live about a 15 minute drive [View Full Entry]

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If you have come this far you may as well check out the equator! The last time I stood on the equator was about 9 years ago in Indonesia and there was no more than a plaque to say that I was there. The Ecuadorians have gone much further and put in place a sizable touristy complex. The only problem is they missed the exact equator by about 200 meters!! As the story was told to us, about 50 years ago a group of French scientists came to Mitad del Mundo to use the stars and whatever else they could [View Full Entry]

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It was 10pm on Monday night and we heard that there would be a protest by the locals, involving road blocks, starting in 2 hours. At this point we were settling down to a few beers and on to our 3rd round of shit head (a card game!). We had planned to leave the next day (Tuesday) at midday but things all changed very quickly. Some of our group had flights out of Quito on Wednesday and my flight to LA was on Thursday. The locals are (the strike is still going on!) protesting against the the oil company drilling [View Full Entry]

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Now I see why they call it a "rain" forest! Whilst I was in the jungle it rained every day numerous times. Sometimes for five/six hours non stop. Its also hot so it gets very humid as a consequence. Once wet, its hard to get your clothes dry again. It is the wet season currently which in part explains why I experienced so much rain. The rivers where high and there was much flooding which I understand is usual. I visited the Cuyabeno National Reserve which is a 12 hour bus ride East of Quito. It is a protected area [View Full Entry]

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First full day in Ecuador and I set off with two Dutch (Onno and Angela) and two Italians (Andrea and Laura) to see the highest volcano in Ecuador called Cotopaxi, about 80km south of Quito. We drove with our local guide in our 4WD truck through the stunning ´Avenue of Volcanos´to get there and then drove up the side of the snow capped volcano to 4500m. We then trekked up 300m to 4800m where the climbers´refuge is located. Whilst not the toughest climb I have done on my travels it got me to the highest altitude I have ever been. [View Full Entry]

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So I´d made it to Ecuador, the second smallest country in South America with a population of around 12 million. This is the last stop for me in South America. Ecuador has a history quite similar to Peru, Bolivia and Argentina when it comes to being taken over by the Spanish in the 1530s and then getting independence in the 1820´s. While Ecuador was part of the Inca Empire all the ruins in the country were trashed by the Spanish invaders. The country went to war with Peru in 1942, while the rest of the world was fighting its own [View Full Entry]

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Charlie, who I met in Lima through Andy Fyfe (an old school friend of mine), has done something that so many bored and frustrated office workers think about but very rarely do. He jacked his job in at a top accounting firm, sold everything, and is building a fine hotel / hostel on one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen, circa 3600 above sea level in the Cordillera Blanca. The hotel is perfectly situated very nearby Huascaran which is the highest mountain in Peru at just under 6800 metres high. I can see that over [View Full Entry]

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Huaraz is the main stopping off point for travellers wishing to do some serious trekking and outdoor activities in the Cordilla Blanca, part of the Andes and the second highest mountain range in the world after the Himalayas. The range has a whopping 22 summits over 6000m. Huaraz itself ain´t too pretty so there was no point in hangin´around there. I headed straight out to Chavin which is a village about three hours SE of Huaraz. At Chavin is the remains of one of the oldest cultures in South America called unsurprisingly the Chavin Culture! At the site is a [View Full Entry]

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I turned up at the bus terminal in the La Victoria district of Lima at about midnight. La Victoria is a dodgy part of town and so I stayed in the refuge of what was a very pleasant bus terminal until my old school friend, Andy Fyfe, came to pick me up. Andy, for those of you that know him, is now a pilot for Lan Peru, the main airline in Peru. The slight technical hitch was that Andy's flight back from Miami was several hours late due to bad whether in Miami so I chilled out in the terminal [View Full Entry]

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