Shaunbo
Shaun Jenkinson Joined: June 8th 2007
Logged in: November 26th 2007
Logged in: November 26th 2007
Travel Blog Posts
Having made the only bus of the day by seconds, it took over 4 hours to get to the small village we were planning on staying in. The small bus had over 50 people on it, and due to being late, I had to stand up most of the way which was interesting on some of the roughest roads we have seen since we´ve been here. The scenery was stunning, with the highlights of the journey being 3 brothers getting off the bus with loads of shopping, having been to town on their own (the oldest must have been 7 !!), and the stop we made in at a local hardware shop, where one of the passengers loaded on lots of 10 metre lengths of steel rods you see on construction sites. It was also pretty ... read more
Banos is a nice town famous for being a tourist centre for doing lots of activities, so we thought we´d have a few days to try some out. The town sits under an active volcano which last erupted properly in 1999, evacuating the town for about a year. The volcano still has mini eruptions regularly which make for spectacular, but safe viewing if you are lucky enough. On the first day we hired some quad bikes for 3 hours to ride about 20km out of town to a series of waterfalls. It was quite surprising, but inkeeping with South American health & safety that we were able to take the quads without supervision (and lightweight crash-helmets) out onto the main road and wherever we wanted. Obviously we got off the main road at every opportunity and ... read more
We left the jungle and headed on the longest journey yet to get to Ecuador, the last country before travelling back to London. A bit frustrating when you look on a map, as quite a short distance as the crow flys, managed to take a full 38 hours !!! We flew back to Lima, and boarded an overnight bus to the Ecuador border. The journey went quite smoothly until we hit the border, by far the worst and most scary border we have had to negotiate since we´ve been in South America. From what we understand, it is one of the most regular routes for drug / people / weapons traffic, with Peru producing a lot of the coca leaves used for Cocaine and Columbia the main producer before export to U.S and Europe. One of ... read more
Just made it back to Iquitos from our lodge in the jungle and had a brilliant time. The scale of everything is just beyond imagination, the main channel of the river itself must be over a Kilometre wide and the jungle is endless. Visiting in the dry season (only relatively speaking as it rained at some point most days) meant that the tributory that our lodge was on was quite low and the jungle wasn´t too boggy. Being such a large area of unbroken forest, it quickly became apparent that seeing wildlife is not so easy as the wildlife programs have you believe and it was going to require patience, luck and a lot of energy. Each group was assigned a guide, and for better or worse Rach & Me were assigned the top man from ... read more
Luckily we flew from Lima on Tuesday and are now 750 miles away in Iquitos. Are just about to get on a boat to go 100 miles down the Amazon to a lodge for 5 days where we are unlikely to have any means of contact. Having left a cold Cusco early on Tuesday morning, the temperature here is pretty uncomfortable with 90 degrees farenheit and 95% humidity. Had a bit of scare when my backpack did not arrive, leaving me once again with the snowboarding jacket and fleece !! I was extremely relieved that the airline found it in Lima and sent it on the next flight. Adios... read more
We went to the railway station to get tickets to the village below Machu Picchu and as expected we were limited with options. We took a bus and taxi to a really nice village on the river called Ollantaytambo where we had to stay over night in readiness for our 5.45am train to Aguas Calientes, a town about 8km from the ruins. It was raining when we got on the bus up to Machu Picchu but stopped shortly after Shaun bought a plastic poncho. Machu Picchu was amazing and better than any photographs make it look. After looking round the ruins we managed to get one of the last passes up Huaynupicchu, a large mountain at the end of the ruins which you can climb using old inca steps to look over Machu Picchu from above. ... read more
Spent the day on an island on lake Titicaca today. This is where the Inca civilisation is supposed to have started with the sun (and spiritual god) rising from a rock on the island..............yeah whatever!! We got to and from the island on the worlds slowest boat ride, you could see where we were going when it set off but it still took 2 hours. We spent the day hiking at altitude from one end of the island to the other, which took around 4 hours and a lot of energy. Based on the fact that the lack of oxygen means you are out of breath fastening your shoe-laces, you can imagine. After a last night in the honeymoon suite we boarded an eventful bus to Cusco in Peru which seemed to take forever. We had ... read more
Luckily the sickness had subsided in the morning to allow me to make the flight to Rurrenabaque in the jungle an hours flight north of La Paz. The flight itself was a real experience, on a 19 seat plane which landed on a grass/dirt runway in a clearing in the forest. Having spent the last few weeks at high altitude (and cold temperatures), it was nice to be greeted in Rurrenabaque by oxygen (only 105 metres above sea level), and sunshine that actually provided heat. We spent the first night in Rurrenabaque, before starting our organised pampas tour the following morning with a group of Dutch, Canadian and American people. We took a 3 hour drive down a dirt track, before getting on a wooden canoe with our supplies and guide, Oscar, for the next 3 ... read more
The Worlds most dangerous road as it is referred to was a brilliant experience. Apparently, before it was closed to general traffic 9 months ago, an average of 3-400 people died on the road each year which is enough to make people a little nervous. The road starts at 4,750 metres above sea level in the hills above La Paz, and drops to 1,100 metres in Coroica 64kms of riding later. Having been fully kitted out with equipment which included full suspension mountain bikes, trousers, jackets, helmets, goggles for dust protection and gloves we were briefed and set off down the top section which is straight forward tarmac for 20kms to get used to the bikes and kit. The group of 14 riders was made up of a whole range of abilities and experience which showed ... read more
Today we went on a horse riding tour in the Andean foothills above Mendoza with a group of comedy Americans. With it only being the second time either of us had ridden a horse we were pretty nervous to say the least, especially when we started doing some serious uphill and downhill that the horses seemed to struggle with. A red hot day and once again the ski jackets came in real handy! After about 3 hours of riding, Kenny´s horse (Kenny being the largest of the Americans) decided it had had enough and layed down like a camel and rolled over throwing Kenny into the sand. By the end of the ride all of the horses had done the same thing except Shaun´s as his was too busy eating at every possible opportunity. This wasn´t ... read more
