Although it's possible to do trips to the Amazon basin from many of the South American countries, I chose to visit from Bolivia mainly because it's the cheapest place to do it from! To get to Rurrenabaque you either have to take a hellish 20 hour bus ride or grab a quick 45 minute flight from La Paz for 70 pounds return. I chose to splash out on the flights, with the only problem being that the flights are often delayed or cancelled due to bad weather at Rurrenabaque (the runway is made out of dirt so they can't land safely [View Full Entry]

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My final stop in Peru was the town of Puno where I booked a 2 day tour to visit some of the islands of Lake Titicaca. My first stop was on the unique Islas Flotantes (floating islands) which were very bizarre indeed! The islands are built by layering the reeds which grow on the lake. There are new ones layered each week as the bottom ones are continually rotting away. This means that it is a weird experience walking on the islands as the ground is really springy- I was a bit scared that my feet would fall through, but luckily [View Full Entry]

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I was feeling a teensy bit guilty about not doing the Inca trail, so when a few people that I´d met recommended trekking in the Colca Canyon, I thought "Why not?" I was assured that it wasn´t a hard trek. Hmmm.... they obviously hadn´t met someone with my poor level of fitness before! The canyon was not at all what I expected a canyon to look like. I think I had a image of the Grand Canyon in my head, but instead it was more like walking from the top of a mountain down into the valley and up again. It [View Full Entry]

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Well I finally made it to the main tourist attraction in Peru- Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. Many backpackers choose to arrive there on foot after spending 4 days trekking the infamous ´Inca Trail´. However, the idea of spending 4 days walking did not appeal to me at all (and luckily, was booked up until August anyway!) so I chose to get the train there instead. In my opinion, the sensible (although maybe lazy!) option! Before getting to MP, I spent a few days in the lovely town of Cuzco. Here I had probably the most uncultural days [View Full Entry]

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I´m in country number 10 now- Peru. I think that the local people that I´ve met here in the past 5 days have been the friendliest of my whole trip so far! So many people have come up to me to just chat in the street, including lots of students wanting to practice their English for their Easter holiday homework! After a few days pottering about in Lima, I´ve moved further down the coast to the desert. HUACACHINA Huacachina is a tiny little town centred around an oasis and surrounded by sand dunes. It really looks like the kind of oasis [View Full Entry]

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Wow! The Galapagos Islands were truly amazing and one of the highlights of my trip so far! I did get the nervous shakes when I had to hand over a month's budget for an 8 day trip, but it was definitley worth every penny! Many thanks to the people who gave me birthday and Christmas money which went towards my Galapagos fund! You can get so close to all the animals in the Galapagos, whether on the land or in the water. One of the things I was most looking forward to seeing was the famous bird- the blue footed boobie. [View Full Entry]

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Well I arrived in Quito, Ecuador last week in my shorts and flip flops expecting some balmy, tropical weather, but instead found a lot of rain and British temperatures. Boo! What is going on with the world? Over the course of 4 days I had to buy a wooly hat for the evenings, thick wooly socks for bed, another fleece (after losing my last one) and some bingly-bongly trousers to wear as pyjama bottoms! I also signed myself up for another week of Spanish School after accidently buying shampoo for straight hair and conditioner for curly hair- whoops. I can officially [View Full Entry]

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I´ve been rocking around the country for the past few weeks trying to see as much of it as I possibly can! MEDELLIN The hostel I was staying in was in a very trendy, rich area. Lots of cool, well dressed people, lots of silicone implants! The best thing I did there was to go paragliding. I never thought that paragliding was something I´d want to do, but for 20 quid for a tandem ride, I couldn´t say no! It was so much fun! It was a little bit scary when you had to run really fast at the beginning to [View Full Entry]

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Oooooooh! I was very excited when I learned that one of the best places to celebrate Carnival in Latin America (apart from Rio and Salvador, obviously!) was in Barranquilla in Columbia, woo hoo! Barranquilla is a town that absolutely no tourists go to at any other time of the year because it is quite an ugly port city with not much to do. The only good thing about it is that it is where Shakira lives!!! I was very dissapointed not to see her! However, over the 4 days of carnival Barranquilla comes alive with floats, parades and people generally partying [View Full Entry]

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After meeting lots of other travellers who had already been to South America, the general consensus seemed to be that Colombia was pretty high on the list of their favourite places. Although my original plan was to fly straight from Panama to Ecuador, I decided that it seemed a bit silly to miss out on a country that was so close to where I was already. After a quick phone call to my mum to check she wouldn´t disown me, my new friend Jenna and I booked a flight to Columbia and off we went the very next day!! First stop [View Full Entry]

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