Travel Blog Posts
May 26th 2006
Well I am almost home and it is a bit of a tease being so close but yet still another 4.5hour flight away from all the things familiar.. but absolutely awesome to hear that English is now the first language spoken and I can understand everything around me. I had my big bit of steak and have gorged myself stupid after realizing that I REALLY did miss the food that we have back at home!.. London just doesn’t quite compare with the meat quality we have here in Australia (unless you want to spend several pounds more on organic things that really cost a fortune) and I am a little over rice and potatoes being the staple diet…as much as I do love them! My time in Sydney is pretty much time to see family and ... read more
May 23rd 2006
Puno town itself is nothing much special besides having many places to dine and to book tours from and the facilities to change money. It does have a beautiful asset though, that being the base to settle and leave your bags in storage for the night while heading out to the islands on Lake Titicaca. I arrived by bus from Cusco late afternoon on the 19th May and booked into a tour the following day for a 2 day, 1 night venture to the closest 3 islands to Puno. They are Isla Uros, Isla Amantani and Isla Taquile.. (not to be confused with Taquila! so the guide kept reminding us). This is the package tour that pretty much every operator can book for varying prices… 40-45 soles was the going rate.. don’t pay much more than ... read more
Copacabana.. not quite like Rio!
Published: June 17th 2006South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » Copacabana
May 22nd 2006
It is sitting on the balcony of my 5 star hotel that I look out across Lake Titicaca and really consider the size of this Lake. To think that the day before I was in Peru and after a 3 hour bus ride with water the view from the window most of the way it is still the same water body that I am looking at and again, to the horizon, water is all that I can see. Copacabana is the border town of Bolivia adjacent to Peru and is the spot that I had planned to do absolutely nothing for the final 4 days before heading back to Australia. It is a sleepy little town existing purely as a passing point for travellers between La Paz, Bolivia and Cusco/Puno, Peru. There is the opportunity to ... read more
May 18th 2006
The Sacred Valley is a pretty common day tour that visitors to Cusco head out on. The tour itself leaves from Cusco town and takes in the sights of the Urubamba Valley, which is about an hour from Cusco and includes the area between the Inca communities of Pisac and Ollantaytambo. On the list of sights for the day are the markets of Pisac, several Inca ruins, lunch, a church, the town of Ollantaytambo and sunset over the hills. On the tour the first stop was Pisac and the markets and the option to walk up a hill and look at some ruins. I was more fascinated at the colourful markets and wandering through the little village of Pisac rather than a ruin on this particular morning... I just didn’t think it would compare to Machu ... read more
May 18th 2006
Heading back south of this massive continent Ive found myself in Cusco.... arriving on the 13th and all by my lonesome once again.... it feels wierd not to have a travelling buddy now and someone to share ALL the experiences with...!!.... although am happy to hear that Owen got back home safe and sound to his little Island.. and with his 6ft paddles!!.. My (second) camera (first and my good one was stolen while in Brazil) died the morning of the trip up to Machu Pichu so all of my artistic flair is now on the 3 x 27 800film in the disposible cameras that cost $20 OZ dollars a peice! .. it is with these that i will be finishing my trip on, hence the delay (and failure) of photos at this point.... The first ... read more
Iquitos ... back on the tourist loop
Published: May 26th 2006South America » Peru » Loreto » Iquitos » Amazon Rainforest
May 11th 2006
After waking at 3.30am on the 10th May for a taxi ride across the border again to Tabatinga, Brazil, we boarded a canoe at 4am for the short trip to Santa Rosa, Peru for the passport check and stamps and the departure of the fast boat to Iquitos, Peru for the 10 hour journey even further upstream as we both had flights out on the 12th of May. Arrived the 10th of May.. Iquitos is a cool little town. With a main central square and an eclectic mix of people we found that we were back on the tourist loop for sure now and it is great to be able to talk to people using a more extensive english vocabulary... i feel educated once again!.. In the middle of town there is a main Plaza de ... read more
Enter Colombia and head out on a jungle tour!
Published: May 17th 2006South America » Colombia » Leticia
May 9th 2006
After the boat journey that left us in Tabatinga we headed across the border to Leticia, Columbia. As advised by our travel bibles, Leticia is a little more established for tourist visitors and has far more facilities as well as being the place to book jungle tours from. After having limited time in Manaus we still needed to head into the jungle and do what almost every other tourist does while in the Amazonas region, a jungle tour... so we booked ourselves into a 3 day, 2 night adventure into the Colombian Jungle.... this was of course after one day of R&R and doing the necessary washing after the last weeks adventures. Our tour included a fast boat ride (pretty much over boats at this point!.. but glad to see the scenery whizzing past in this ... read more
May 7th 2006
As one of the previous blogs mentioned, we were a little dubious as to where our hammocks were going to be hung when on board the slow boat for the 7 day trip up the Amazon River to Tabatinga......and if, with all the cargo we saw being loaded on board it would not sink halfway through the journey.... as you can guess by recieving this email that we did in fact make it to dry land... and what a GREAT feeling that was!! The boat journey went like this.... April 28; 8am we arrived early (as advised by our travel bibles) to get a spot on board the boat.. at 4pm.. the boat was scheduled for departure.. We departed almost 2 hours later.. and I lost a bet... but we were finally underway and commencing our ... read more
Fortaleza and Manaus.. before we boarded our boat!
Published: May 15th 2006South America » Brazil » Amazonas » Manaus
April 28th 2006
Just a few photos from Forteleza where we spent a few days and the day trip out of Manaus to the meeting of the rivers before we boarded our boat.. ... the boat journey is in the next blog.. We only had a couple days in Fortaleza and thanked our lucky stars that there was sunshine to soak up on our one last day by the coast before heading inland to Manaus.. Fortaleza is in the state of Ceara in Brazil and is the furthest point north along the coastline that we set foot on. It is a pretty sleep town this time of year and there were not very many tourists out that we saw at all!.. when it is low season in brazil, it definetly is low season with most hostels appearing empty upon ... read more
a little bit dubious.. photos will follow
Published: April 28th 2006South America » Brazil » Amazonas » ManausApril 28th 2006
Just a real quick one, sorry no photos as many computers do not have cd drives. After a brief stopover in Fortaleza and pretty short flight that deviated through Belem we have made it Manaus. Manaus is located halfway up the Amazon, pretty much smack bang between the mouth of the river at Belem (coastline) and Tabatinga, the border city, Brazillian side to Peru.. Today we did a day trip to check out the point where the Amazonas and the Rio Negro meet, which is pretty cool phenomenon as the water from each river is a different colour - yellow & black. We also headed out on little motorised canoes just off the main river to inspect the vegetation and have a chance of seeing some wildlife. We saw macaques, an aligator, maccaws, parrots and a ... read more
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