Panama City and the Canal And 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 few years ago was mostly off-limits to tourists. It had apparently become very rundown and was not a safe place to wander. But lots of regeneration has taken [View Full Entry]

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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 in at high speed. Give it an hour or two and it all calms down again... So we learned to structure our days around the weather. With [View Full Entry]

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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 kidnapped by FARC... Day 1 We were picked up early from our hotel in Taganga and taken by minibus and then jeep to the village of El Mamey. We took it easy there for [View Full Entry]

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We moved on from Bogotá 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 National Monument in 1954 and has apparently not changed much since then. The town has a lovely laid-back feel, and we enjoyed wandering around, snooping around old [View Full Entry]

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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 mis-represented by the rest of the world and that it is actually a country worth getting to know. So, it got added to the list... From Ecuador to Colombia The first decision we had to make was whether to fly into Colombia or to cross by [View Full Entry]

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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 Loja Our first stop in Ecuador was the pleasant city of Loja in the south. I was immediately struck by how "western" the city was, with lots of fashion shops, wide pavements (sidewalks for you American [View Full Entry]

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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 to keep us occupied for a few days. We stayed very near the main plaza and so were able to enjoy the vibrant [View Full Entry]

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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 amazing meals after we found a supermarket with gorgeous fresh produce and plenty of European treats (proper cheese and ham!). We also took an afternoon trip [View Full Entry]

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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 Incas and the Spanish Conquistadores there is an impressive array of architecture and sights to see and we fell in love with Cusco from our first day there. [View Full Entry]

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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 number of visitors. This was enough to whet our appetites and so, a few agencies later, we had booked ourselves onto a 4 day trek to [View Full Entry]

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