http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ruth-from-Wales/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ruth from Wales en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:07:34 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:07:34 +0000 As our feet got itchy again we decided it was time for another holiday. This time we headed off to Paris for a long weekend just 3 days. With the new Eurostar station at St Pancras in London Paris is a crazily close 2 and a half hours from London. So we took full advantage leaving early on Saturday morning and getting back late on Monday evening.Our time in Paris was everything that you might http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-459937.html As a treat before starting my new job Barry and I took a nine day trip to Andalucia. We had been to this part of the world before but were keen to return to see the places we had missed as well as to brush up on our Spanish. And to eat lots of nice food of courseWe flew into Mlaga and hired a car. As Barry can't drive it was up to me to do the hard work whilst he sat back and navigated.. As http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/blog-442088.html So after our weekend in Dubrovnik we got our hire car and headed for the Montenegro border. The border crossing was easy enough although the sun pounding down did make the car turn into a bit of a sauna Some 40 minutes saw us leave Croatia and enter Montenegro. I am guessing that most people don't know too much about Montenegro the second newest country in the world and I am happy to admit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Montenegro/blog-422681.html Time is not on my hands these days. I would love to be able to blog as much as I did when we were travelling for a year but it is just not possible Therefore our recent few days in Dubrovnik followed by a week in Montenegro will exist in these two short but sweet blogs...Some of the highlights of our couple of days in Dubrovnik included the weather I loved the blue skies and sunshine. W http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-422665.html Whilst I do live in London and therefore this is not strictly a 'travelblog' I couldn't resist putting up some photos from today's pretty exceptional events. London rarely gets snow and it very rarely gets snow that sticks for more than 5 minutes. This has been one of those rare daysWork was more or less called off but I braved the cold and snow to walk in just to quickly turn on the computers http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-369639.html I have been home for over three months now and it has taken this long for me to build up the courage to produce my final Latin America blog. I think it is a bit like an electronicmental block. Once I complete this blog then the trip is officially over. No more exciting adventures But such is life. Below is the final for now Latin America blog.We took a long but sometimes fun crossing from http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-314452.html From Honduras we cheated a bit by taking a direct shuttle bus to Guatemala. This went against our usual method of cheap chicken bus travel but even we need some luxury sometimes The shuttle was significantly faster than the alternative although still took nearly 6 hours. Distances here look so short on the map but seem to turn into mini epics every time we travel.Antigua Our first proper stop i http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/blog-314450.html A long journey including 5 different chicken buses took us from Matagalpa in Nicaragua across the border to Honduras' capital city Tegucigalpa. We had head many bad things about Tegucigalpa and would have avoided it if we could but it was too late to move on and so we found ourselves taking a taxi into the city centre to get a hotel. Well I don't know if it is directly because we weren't mean http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/blog-308800.html Nicaragua is a country I could not help but love it is a fascinating place full of history culture natural wonders and good food. It is also very cheap We left Monteverde Costa Rica at 6am in order to start our epic move to Nicaragua. Well maybe epic is too strong a word but it was certainly a bit of a trial involving 4 different chicken buses a taxi a boat and a long border crossing http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-303376.html Costa Rica is probably one of the world's best travel destinations but only if you have the money to be able to afford it. We spent the majority of our week in Costa Rica being shocked by the price of things especially after 10 months in South America. Sadly as 'budget' travellers I don't think we got the most out of the country but still we did manage to do some very cool things and have lef http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/blog-299874.html Panama City and the CanalAnd so after 10 months of travelling we left South America and headed up to Central America. We took a flight from Cartagena to Panama City and apart from big security checks on the Colombian side it all went very smoothly and we were in our Panama hotel by lunchtime ready for some exploring. We spent the afternoon discovering Panama's historic old town which until a f http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Panama/blog-297180.html When we arrived in Cartagena late one afternoon it was raining and a big thunder and lightning storm was getting under way. Not the most auspicious start However over the next few days we realised that this is just the pattern of weather in this part of the Caribbean hot and sunny in the mornings and during lunchtime then at some point in the afternoon the sky clouds over and the rain comes http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-293989.html To finish our mad treks of South America we decided to take a 6 day trip into the Colombian jungle to visit the Ciudad Perdida Lost City. Whilst it was not quite Indiana Jones it was still pretty exciting with us hiking through the rainforest struggling across a raging river on multiple occasions visiting a 'cocaine factory' and finally arriving at the Ciudad Perdida having avoided being http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/Ciudad-Perdida/blog-292493.html We moved on from Bogot reluctantly knowing that we had not seen everything but feeling that it was a good idea to keep up the travelling pace. We headed north to the city of Tunja and quickly caught an onward collectivo connection to the small town of Villa de Leyva.Known as being one of the best examples of a colonial town in Colombia Villa de Leyva did not disappoint. It was declared a Natio http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/San-Gil/blog-287664.html When we first came to South America back in September of last year Colombia was not even on our list of countries to visit. Why would anyone visit a place known for terrorist guerrillas kidnappings and drug trafficking But the more people we met during our travels the more we heard that Colombia is seriously misrepresented by the rest of the world and that it is actually a country worth gettin http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-285967.html Whilst my blogging has always been relatively up to date I seem to have fallen behind a bit in the last month or so the travelling life is just too exciting So instead of covering every bit of Ecuador individually in different blogs I am putting all of our Ecuador experiences into this one blog. So it may be a bit long...Vilcabamba and LojaOur first stop in Ecuador was the pleasant city of Loja http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-283519.html We finished our time in Peru with a visit to the north of the country. We based ourselves in the city of Trujillo for a few days whilst seeing the surrounding sites before moving further north to the city of Piura and then on to Ecuador.Trujillo is the third largest city in Peru but very welcoming and easy to get around. It has kept plenty of its colonial charm and had lots of sites in and around http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-277290.html From Cusco we took a bus to Peru's capital city Lima. This was just a quick stop off for 2 nights before moving on for more trekking. Lima is a massive metropolis and we weren't there long enough to get to grips with the whole place. Instead we spent most of our time in the posh Miraflores district next to the Pacific Ocean. We went shopping sipped pisco sours by the sea and cooked ourselves amaz http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ancash/Huaraz/blog-275963.html We ended up spending just under 3 weeks in and around Cusco and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. I have written separate blogs on the Salkantay and Choquequirao treks so here I will just concentrate on Cusco city itself and the nearby Sacred Valley.The city of Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire and has therefore been around for over 500 years. As it was an important city to both the Inca http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/blog-271016.html After our Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu both Barry and I were feeling fit and ready for another challenge. When visiting the Inca Museum in Cusco we came across an exhibition on Choquequirao said to be a sister city of Machu Picchu. We also read that it was a tough trek to get there but well worth the effort as the site is as impressive as Machu Picchu but receives a small fraction of the numb http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Coquequirao/blog-272766.html