We flew into Cusco from Quito. Another high altitude city - Cusco is at 2,400 metres above sealevel. Starting to notice that walking uphill is hard work!! Being organised we checked into the hostal that we´d booked online in advance, but after one night in a dark cell with people tramping round the corridors from 5am, we promptly checked out again! We found a lovely hostal just around the corner with nice rooms, windows (!) and a flower-filled courtyard. This would be home for a few days until we headed off on our trek. Cusco seemed like a nice town, very [View Full Entry]

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Back in Quito, and having been away for 2 weeks, it was time for our first trip to the lavanderia (laundry). Having paid as much as £30 in India to have laundry done in hotels, we decided to venture out to one of the lavanderias we’d seen in town. We had a whole bundle of washing done for $5 and were quite satisfied with the result, so this is definitely the way to get clean clothes in South America. (I know, laundry really isn’t that exciting, but it’s important when you’re travelling - so a small excitement for us!) We were [View Full Entry]

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Galapagos was probably top of the list of places to visit on our 6 month trip and it has proved to be a real highlight. The Galapagos Islands are 1000km off the coast of Ecuador, but are part of Ecuador and probably THE biggest tourist attraction the country has. We had decided to treat ourselves with our Galapagos trip, spend a bit more money and do something a bit more adventurous. So we booked an activity based trip, which meant that we were on land at night, but we travelled around between the islands during the day, covering quite a distance [View Full Entry]

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After a busy and fun summer, sailing, trips to Scotland and Turkey, 4 weddings, (including our own!), a brief ‘honeymoon’ in Hampshire, and months….. well no, weeks….. actually a few hours planning (never knowingly overplanned), it was time to pack our bags for the real honeymoon: 6 eagerly anticipated months in South America and a trip back via Down Under to see some friends. Our outline itinery will take us to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile - with the key highlights being a trip to the Galapagos Islands, to school to study Spanish, Machu Picchu an [View Full Entry]

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