We had already booked our hostel in Chile, so it was straight in a cab from the airport, which was handy because it was 7am and we hadn´t had much sleep. We are all taking it in turns to research a country and plan an itinery and I am organising Chile. So after a few hours rest I rounded up my tour group and we went to lunch, having a few bottles of white wine sitting in the sun. We then went to Santa Lucia park, for views over the city. On the way home we managed to find an office [View Full Entry]

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After a short flight from Rio, we got to Icazçu Falls. We stayed in a nice hostel with a pool, which was handy as it was 40 degrees and very humid. You can see the Falls from both Brazil and Argentina, but the better views are from the Argentinian side so we decided just to see the Falls from there. We went on an orgainsed bus, to make it easier getting through the border with Brazil and Argentina. There were lots of different Falls and they were all fantastic. It was quite refreshing getting wet from the spray as it was [View Full Entry]

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So my last blog ended with me having a few stomach problems and hoping I wouldn´t be the next one needing the doctor! After feeling rough for two days and frequent trips to the loo, we didn´t call a doctor but went to the chemist and managed to get the anti-biotics that Miles was prescibed for his diarrea. Three tablets to be taken one a day. We had a six hour bus journey to Rio de Janeiro the following day, so to be sure of no incidents on the bus I chose to not eat until we were in Rio. Thankfully [View Full Entry]

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So a brief update on the last few days. After a few days resting in Cusco we flew to Lima for Christmas. We stayed at a four star hotel, that had cable TV, a bath, hairdryer and bar. It´s amazing the things you miss when you stay in hostels. We spent Christmas Eve wrapping presents and Mandy and I also made Christmas crackers. Mandy also had her hair cut. I am still managing to cut my own. Christmas Day we phoned home and spoke to everyone. It was great to hear from all on my side of the family. Jason remember [View Full Entry]

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Well we are back from the Inka trail, with a few stories. Firstly the bad points, if anyone is reading this and thinking of doing the Inka trail don´t book it with Marlon´s House, APU travel or Jisa tours. It was the rainy season (which we knew) but all of the tents leaked meaning that our sleeping mattresses and sleeping bags got wet in the night. Miles sleeping bag was not good enough to keep him warm, so he was cold every night. There weren´t enough tents so one of the travellers had to sleep in the tent with the 2 [View Full Entry]

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So we left Arequipa by bus to travel to Puno. When we got to Puno we found out that the trains to Cusco only run a few days a week so we will have to stay in Puno until Saturday, my birthday. We decided that we will travel in style and have booked first class tickets. We went to Los Uros, which are floating islands made of reeds on Lake Titicaca. There are loads of these islands and we visited two of them. We saw how they keep the islands going by making new layers of reeds to replace the ones [View Full Entry]

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Well we have now been in Peru for 10 days and have seen loads already. After a night at a horrible hostel in Lima recommended by a taxi driver, we moved to another hostel called Lex Luther´s (named because the owner looked like Lex Luther as a child apparently). Lex was very helpful in booking our accomodation in Nasca and bus tickets and letting us use the internet for free. Whilst in Lima we went to Huaca Pucllana (an Inca site in the city) then went for lunch and watched Fulham lose to Man Utd. (I´ve just read that they lost [View Full Entry]

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After a few technical difficulties the photo´s for my last 4 blogs are now there. I think we have resolved our problems so hopefully pictures should appear with text from now on. We are now in Lima (Peru) and are here for a few days before we head off to explore the rest of the country. Happy Birthday to Hayley today, hope you got my text. Love to you all. Tina [View Full Entry]

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Well we are back from The Galapagos, and what a trip. We went to 9 different islands over 8 days, mainly sailing at night so we had the days on the islands or snorkelling. Our boat was OK (Mandy´s blog may have another view about this). The rooms were a good size but smelt of diesel and were very noisy being near the engine. The food was just about OK, but there was lots of cold beer and coke. But the trip was about the islands and animals and they didn´t disappoint. I snorkled every day, seeing turtles, reef sharks, sealions, [View Full Entry]

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So for Mandy´s birthday we decided to go to Cotapaxi volcano, then cycle down part of it. The only problem was that we forgot that we should be acclimatized to altitude before going so high. The result was that we all had in various degrees headaches, felt sick and generally felt a bit rough. It was actually snowing when we got to the highest point you could go without proper climing gear which was at 4810 meters. The cycle ride down was much easier than the walk up, although Mandy felt too sick to cycle for too long - not a [View Full Entry]

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