After our unexpected long stay in Cusco we were eventually leaving! Although Cusco is a beautiful place with lots to see around the area, the constant hassle from touts and children selling postcards and finger puppets gets too much! As a treat with some of our wedding present we decided to book first class on the train journey from Cusco to Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titikaka in Southern Peru. We awoke with pleanty of time to get checked out of our hostel and down to the train station, but after having to wait for 15 minutes to [View Full Entry]

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The Lemon Meringue Pie The last time we left you we were on our way to Cusco and having been on a bit of a whirl wind tour of Peru so far, we decided when we arrived in Cusco we´d just take a few days to chill and aclimatise to the altitude and sus out the tours and sights we wanted to see. We also went along and checked out the local markets which were quite interesting to say the least everything is set out in trades, rows of fruit and veg, then rows of stalls selling chocolate, then flowers then [View Full Entry]

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We were picked up by our guide from our hostel at 6am on Sunday morning and then caught the public bus to Cabanaconde which was the start point for our ´trek´. The six hour bus journey passed through the suburbs of Arequipa and then through into open plains with grazing Aplacas and Llamas and surrounded by snow capped peaks. After been introduced to our group consisting of 2 Beligum girls a French couple and a Canadian we were taken to small restaurant at our starting point, we had lunch of Alpaca steak and fresh trout and then started off on the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Lima airport at 11pm and after a wait and a wander through a crowd of people and taxi drivers holding boards with peoples names on we found our pre-arranged lift to our Hotel in Miraflores on the outskirt of Lima. In the dark the sights of Lima didn´t look too inviting and the smell of air pollution was heavy. The next day we decided to head straight out of Lima and start our journey south. So we headed down to Pisco a town a 4 to 5 hour bus journey south of Lima. The sights on the Journey [View Full Entry]

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Well we left you last as we had just arrived in Santa Elena de Uairen. Santa Elena is an indigenous (Indian) town not far from the border with Brasil. When you first enter the town it doesnt look much and there are lots of raw Diamond and Gold trading shops and a few brothels but once you scratch the surface you find its a really friendly place. The population is mainly local Indian people but with a large influx of peope at the weekends who work in the nearby Gold and Diamond mines. There are ridiculous ques at the 2 local [View Full Entry]

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2So we set off Cuidad Boliviar via Valencia for our Angel Falls and Roriama trips, the 10 hour bus ride to valencia was quite a rough one due to poor quality and windy roads so after a quick read of our bible (Footprint guide to Venezeula) we decided that we would catch the 2.30 bus instead of jumping straight on to another bus for a further 10 hours and visit the Plaza Bolivar as iguanas and sloths roamed the park, except when we got there the sloths and iguanas had been replaced by drunks and squirrels, other than that Valencia is [View Full Entry]

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Hello Guys, At the end of our last blog we had booked tickets to go to Merida, so following the 12 hour luxury coach journey we arrived in Merida. Straight away you could tell that Merida was much more relaxed and a slower pace than Caracas. It was also cheaper than Caracas. Merida is a town in the Andes with easy access to Sierra Nevada and hence nestled in between towering mountains. It is a university town and is much friendler than Caracas. Merida is much cooler than Caracas. We stayed in Posada Montana our first night, a lovely colonial style [View Full Entry]

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Hola, We arrived in Caracas with our taxi waiting for us to take us to our overnight posada, the airport is right next to some, what can only be described as slums and our posada not in an area that much better, we didn´t venture to far out that night and we were quiet glad we had pre-booked our first night in advance. After experiancing the most disorganised airport terminal we´ve ever enountered we managed to board our rickerty 19 seater plane for the jouney to Los Roques. The views from the plane of los roques were something else hundreds of [View Full Entry]

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