http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/bec chaffer/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from bec chaffer en-us Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:13:30 BST Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:13:30 BST 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 Ollantayta http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Cusco/Sacred-Valley/blog-63570.html 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 jus http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-61991.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Copacabana/blog-61314.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Puno/Lake-Titicaca-/blog-61313.html 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 wa http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-61312.html 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 tow http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Loreto/Iquitos/Amazon-Rainforest/blog-59630.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Leticia/blog-58113.html 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 GR http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/blog-58108.html 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 B http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/Manaus/blog-58105.html 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 o http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Amazonas/Manaus/blog-55612.html We have made it Praia de Pipa just south of Natal and when we were told that people come here for 2 days and stay for 2 months we scoffed a little.. we intended to only stay 2 nights.. we stayed for a week.. .. it would have been longer if we didnt have a time limit to get to peru.. Pipa is a beautiful place and after wandering the main street which is a tourist mecca and our first night maki http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Rio-Grande-do-Norte/Pipa/blog-54247.html We are now in Olinda a town on the outskirts of the busy industrial port city of Recife 14 hours by bus north of Salvador. The main objective here for me as Recife does not spark much interest is to relax and make the most of the sunny days and cross fingers that the periods of rain falling each day is shortening in duration the further north we travelOlinda is a bit of bohemian artsie sce http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Pernambuco/Olinda/blog-52934.html great little town fab hostel awesome people yummy ... no.. ABSOLUTLEY FANTASTIC food waterfalls lots of green trees..AND LOTS of rainAfter a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Lencois at about 7am.. found a great pousada a short walk from the bus station Pousada Casa de Helia with views across the valley and THE BEST breakfast spread so far... homemade bread tropical fruits mango juice p http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Len--is/blog-52440.html Ive still attached a few more photos of our time in Itapirica and Sacatar that are pretty nice... taken on the morning of departure Owen's birthday and of the celebrations the night before.Now in Salvador.... Salvador is divided into a lower city and an upper city.. both connected by a massive elevator which was in a photo in a previous blog and several cable carts along the cliff face out of http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-52437.html We are now very close to Salvador staying on an Island Ilha de Itaparica at a place called Sacatar in a town called Itaparica. To get here from the airport after our 2 hour flight we got on a bus and stayed on there for a VERY scenic trip into Salvador which took at least an hour and a half went down a VERY cool elevator Elevador Lacerda that has at least a 100m drop that leads onto the point http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Bahia/Salvador/blog-51383.html I've made it to BRAZIL..... After a sad departure from London I made it into Rio de Janeiro and to a hostel by the name of Stone of a Beach located a couple streets back from Copacabana. I had a few days to settle into the land of sunshine and skimpy bottomed bathing suits before being joined by a fellow seasoned traveller by the name of Owen. I met Owen about 7 months ago at the Okay guesthou http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/blog-50516.html Hey.. Kingston appears as a location on this bloggy thing.. we really did put it on the mapAs promised here are a few of the party shots from a great night out.. Big cheers for a great turn out and hugs to samantha for sorting it out... we know if it was up to me.. we would have ended up singing karaoke in the 6 bells.. well done http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Kingston-upon-Thames/blog-49771.html Before i finally depart London and head to Brazil South America here are a few party shots sightseeing shots and others that i feel are worth making an appearance on the world wide web I have put the explanations with the photos but will make a time out to say a HUGE thanks to everyone i have met up with and met while working in London over the last 6 months.. Huge cheers and cherios to my hous http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-48553.html While still based in London i managed to get away for a weekend adventure and to czech really bad pun out Prague.. for those that didnt make the connection or who had NO idea what country Prague is in.. it lies withing the CzechRepublic.... this is something i only discovered or had a need to know when looking at booking accommodation.. Accompanying me over the 3 days and 2 nights was Stephan http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Czech-Republic/North/Prague/blog-43649.html A warning to the grandparents that may be reading this... there may be things that might shock you. 2nd January our last day of holidays and back at work in a couple days...Arriving cheerfully early midday for Amsterdam we settled in at Bob's Youth Hostel. Pretty well located close to the train station with a 'Grasshopper' bar accross the road and a magical mushroom shop on the corner...sellin http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-34409.html