The Inca trail was awful but also AMAZING! I'm not an experienced hiker or even particularly fit and if you add in the altitude and a stupid cold caught the day before then i am surprised i even made it to the end without collapsing! My group members were all really young fit people (i.e. 19 or PE teachers!) and they stormed through day 1 and i (almost) managed to keep up with them. Our tour guide Gladys said we were one of her fastest groups too. Day 1 is 11km over mixed terrain and completely do-able. They estimate it will [View Full Entry]

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Due to a strike we had to leave Puno 1 day early which was a real shame as my mate Alex was due in town just as we were getting on a bus and we had hoped for a night out together in Puno. Cusco is the most touristy place we have been so far on this trip and that's because it's the main gateway for everyone going to Macchu Picchu. As a consequence our usual good standard of hotel went down slightly - our room was like a cell which had been painted yellow, with only a tiny skylight! thankfully [View Full Entry]

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After a very long journey we got to Lap Paz and our rooms weren´t ready so we headed to a bar that serves traditional english breakfasts. i know i´ve only been away for 3 weeks but it was too tempting not to have one and a proper cup of tea! We had a quiet evening as everyone was shattered but not before a Curry. 3 of the boys decided to brave the Vindaloo and you get a free T-shirt if you manage to eat all of it. i´ve never seen anyone cry so much as ben whilst he was eating it [View Full Entry]

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We left our nice hotel in Uyuni and the group headed off in 3 separate 4WD jeeps. Our reg plate was STU and we had Stu in our car an therefore know as the Stu mobile. We headed straight for the Salt flats and they were amazing fun. We had a quick stop for some photos and then went to a Coral Island and explored and saw all the Cacti. We have 2 cooks who make our meals so we had a lovely lunch and then spent the best part of 3 hours taking lots of silly perspective photos as you [View Full Entry]

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Our stop in Potosi was a quick one as there is not much to do there except the excursion to see the working Silver mines. It was an awesome experience and I promise never to complain about my working conditions ever again! The local people spend up to 36 hours in horrible conditions using just a hammer and chisel and some dynamite. The larger mines have drills but they do not work on a sunday as there is no electricity. After we got kitted out in our very sexy gear we headed in to the mine with our guide. there are [View Full Entry]

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Iguassu Falls was amazing and we were glad to be able to see it from both the Brazilian and Argentinian side. I was also very chuffed to get the Argentina stamp in my passport! Unfortunately it is dry season right now and there wasnt as much water as normal but we were still impressed by the main waterfalls even though we couldnt do the boat trip. The sun even managed to put in an appearance and there were a few rainbows which i managed to catch on camera. Unfortunately all the girls came down with a vomitting bug (now named Melinda-itis) [View Full Entry]

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Bolivia has been a bit of a surprise and I´m really liking it so far. Sucre is a pretty whitewashed Colonial town with lots of tourist facilities. there´s a great market for fresh food and traditional Alpaca & Bolivian crafts and it´s very cheap! Although it´s quite cold in the evening we have had lovely sunny days. Alex, Mel and I have ben out shopping for the perfect Alpaca jumpers and we were so excited to head round the shops and do our bargaining. Alex and Mel went a bit mad but i just bought a jumper and some leg warmers [View Full Entry]

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Bonito is a small 1 street town which is geared up to the tourists but it is still pretty nice. As we are in the low season it was like a ghost town. We booked on a trip snorkelling which takes you 2.5km down a crystal clear river and has lots of colourful fish. After a short truck ride there was a 40 minute trek through the wilderness and we saw a Capuchin monkey playing around and some of the guys ate termites which apparently tasted like peanuts! The current was strong in the river so you didn´t need to swim [View Full Entry]

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Parity is a lovely little seaside Colonial town with lots of pretty churches, buildings and cobbled streets. When we arrived it was still raining unfortunately but we did a tour of the town and went out for a beer, listened to some live music and then had a superb fish dinner in a nice restaurant. It was great after the amount of red meat we have been eating at the BBQ style restaurants. the town cam alilve at night with street performers, markets and i had my tarot cards read by an Argentinian gypsy woman - nothing too earth shattering in [View Full Entry]

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Hello all from the lovely island of Ihla Grande. After a few hours on a private minivan and a short boat ride we reached our colourful little hotel on the small island. It´s a pity about the weather as it has been slightly overcast but at least it wasn´t raining! The Island is very small with a few nice restaurants, bars, hotels and jungle walks, boating activities. We didn´t have a great deal of time here so we went on a boat trip which did 3 lagoon stops for snorkelling and to hit the beach before having a huge Barbeque and [View Full Entry]

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