So like we said, there is no road between Colombia and Panama. Also the flights are outrageously expensive. We decided to make our way across the Caribbean to Panama at a more leisurely pace--about 5 MPH to be exact. We originally planned on carefully selecting our captain and vessle for the trip but it didn´t quite work out that way. The reality is that the sailboats leave very irregularly and you must work around their schedules and demand for spots on the boats. For the dates we needed to leave Cartagena, we had one choice: Remi. Glorious Captain Remi. Remi´s reputation [View Full Entry]

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Our expectations surpassed ten-fold, we ended our three week journey through Ecuador with an overland border crossing to Colombia. Yes Mom, Colombia. Colombia is a country that was not even on our radar when left the States last September, but conversations with fellow backpackers convinced us that we had to see Colombia. To most Americans ( who, let´s face it, are not the most adventurous people), Colombia is a place to avoid. But why? I guess most people think of cocaine cartels and FARC guerillas, both of which are not nearly as prominent as they were 20 years ago. Apparently Presiden [View Full Entry]

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We officially nominate Ecuador as the most underrated country in South America. We are actually doing it a huge unjustice by only writing one blog for the entire time we spent there, but we are now finally caught up (so you are reading this in real time). You have to know we really liked it, because despite an armed robbery, a brush with tetanus and some of the worst altitude-enduced hangovers imaginable (we spent the better part of our 3 weeks here in the highlands, at an elevation of 9000 ft.), it still managed to be one of our favorite countries. [View Full Entry]

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After about a week in the Sacred Valley, our oxygen-starved bodies returned to Lima, the coast, sea-level, 0 feet! The oxygen filled air, however polluted, was abundant and never tasted so sweet. For whatever reason, we never realized the 8 million of people of Lima lived right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. I guess that, on some level, we imagined that all of Peru was situated in the mountains and only indigenous cultures existed. Not true. While the majority of Lima can described as slums, the area of the city we visited was quite Westernized. Miraflores, the upscale neighbo [View Full Entry]

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We had been worried that after so many months of build-up, of seeing other people´s photos and hearing over and over again how incredible Machu Picchu is, that the reality could be a little bit of a letdown, that we would feel like we should be more excited than we actually would feel upon seeing the world´s most famous pile of stones for ourselves. We had nothing to worry about. The reality of Machu Picchu was so much more incredible than we could ever have imagined. The geographical setting is absolutely mindblowing, with the "Lost City of the Incas" nestled in [View Full Entry]

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We know we already claimed we found Paradise two blogs ago, and we hate to sound like brats, but we are pretty sure this time, we found Paradise. For real. The final leg of our Brazil trip was spent on the famed Costa Verde, the coastline between Rio de Janeiro and the Sao Paulo state. The Costa Verde can be described as hundreds of miles of tropical coastline and islands with one perfect beach after another. After a 2 hour drive south from Rio down the Costa Verde and a 1.5 hour boat ride, we arrived at the lush and laid [View Full Entry]

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La "Ciudad Maravillosa," the Marvelous City. That´s what Rio de Janeiro is known as, and we have to agree...it is pretty spectacular. It´s hard to argue for a more impressive geographical setting for a city. Long stretches of soft sand beaches framed by huge green mountains jutting out of the sea line the city on one side, while the rest of the city wraps itself around Parque Nacional da Tijuca, the largest urban park in the world. Seen as a whole--which we had the opportunity to do from two of Rio's most famous landmarks, Sugarloaf (1325 ft high) and Corcovado Mountain [View Full Entry]

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Imagine this...a huge tropical island off the Southern coast of Brazil. This island is encircled by massive, green mountains full of exotic flora and fauna. Surrounding the island are 42 beautiful beaches, one for every person´s taste. On the east side of the island is a crystal clear lake, big enough for every kind of watersport imaginable, or for just relaxing in the knee deep water that seems to go on forever. The only things separating this lake from the Atlantic Ocean are huge rolling sand dunes with warm, oasis-like pools and lush pine trees. This is Florianopolis. More accurat [View Full Entry]

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Elaborate costumes. Sensual dancing. Colorful floats. Exuberent music. Body glitter. Plastic breasts covered with bejewelled pasties. Carnaval. The biggest, craziest celebration in South America. We had arrived. Everyone knows about Brazil's famous Carnaval celebrations, but most people probably don't know that pretty much every country in Latin America has their own unique way of celebrating. Since these are all officially Catholic countries, they use this opportunity to go wild before Lent and its fasting begins. While Brazil's celebrations may be the most elaborate, it is als [View Full Entry]

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After 46 hours of busing in 3.5 days, we finally arrived. The southernmost point of our adventure: El Calafate and El Chalten, both situated in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. These glaciers are another example of Argentina´s national wonders that we had no idea even existed until we got down here. That's one of the coolest things about traveling, you get to see and experience amazing things that you had no idea even existed. Sure, everyone knows about Maccu Pichu, The Great Wall, Mount Everest, etc. but for every one of those places, there are 10 more just waiting to be discovered. [View Full Entry]

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