cat and jamie
Cat and Jamie's diary of their 6 month trip around South America. The plan is Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Equador, Colombia and Venezuela. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.. so it's best if we just keep you posted!catandjamie
Travel Blog Posts
August 30th 2006
We started our time in Colombia with open minds but I think we were all secretly a little scared. Made the mistake of checking the foreign office website the day before and it didnt do much to make us feel better. The jist of it was, you can go to Colombia we recommend it only on business, dont go here, here or here, dont use roads,fly everywhere, and dont do the trek to the lost city. Hmmm... Anyway the border crossing went without a hitch and we even met a friendly policeman who had a 10 pound note he was trying to change for dollars! It was weird to see english currency after so long, I guess he must have taken it as a bribe for something! We had been told that the section of road ... read more
August 12th 2006
Have been in Equador a couple of weeks now and been on a bit of a whistlestop tour! First stop was Vilcabamba a beautiful mountain village where we did a day of horse riding up the hills. The ride was great but a little scary for me as despite having not ridden for about 6 years I apparently had the most experience in our group and so ended up riding an enourmous horse called Inca who was a bit of a handful to say the least! Two weeks later my blisters are just about disappearing! From Vilcabamba we went to the fishing village of Puerto Lopez and went out whale spotting. Its high season for whale watching there because its mating season for humpbacks.. cue lots of jokes about humping! We managed to see 4 whales ... read more
July 26th 2006
On our last day in Huanchaco we went surfing.. or at least we hired surfboards and spent a little while splashing around embarassingly in the sea! Then we set off for Yurimaguas, a mere 22 hours away by bus. When we arrived we checked into a hostel and ate and wee just about to start exploring when it began to rain. It rained torrentially for 2 days. At one point we went to an internet cafe which was having the water removed from the floor by the bucketload as we typed! The rain stopped on the evening of the second day and we started to ask around about how to get to the port. After a lot of confused looks we ascertained that the river was an hour and a half away. Our bus delerium had ... read more
Lima and the Ballestas Islands
Published: July 11th 2006South America » Peru » La Libertad » Trujillo
July 11th 2006
We eventually managed to leave the desert and Huacacina behind, a few days behind schedule as i managed to get ill AGAIN! We set off to Pisco the port near the Ballestas Islands and managed a while 2 hour bus journey without a hitch! The Ballestas Islands were great, we saw penguins and loads of other unidentifiable sea birds! We also saw hundreds of sea lions, they are hillarious creatures and look so ungainly slipping about on the rocks, yet in the water they are almost graceful. We spent a long time watching one heaving itself up onto a rock, only for a big wave to wash it straight back into the water again! We also saw quite a few dolphins in the harbour and one swam right under our (very small) boat. From Pisco we ... read more
June 30th 2006
Eventually managed to leave Cusco and went to Arequipa.. where we did very little apart from drink too much and hung out with our french friends in the irish bar there playing pool! We did go to visit the nunnery in Arequipa however which was suprisingly interesting. Its huge and all the important nuns have their own sort of apprtments with bedrooms, sitting rooms and kitchens and some with sun terraces. We went around like estate agents sizing up the different ones! Sadly didnt get to see any nuns, they have now been moved to a new wing. After Arequipa we went to the Colca Canyon. Found a brilliant hotel that was pretty cheap and had stunning views and llamas grazing on the lawns. Spent a couple of nights there and went to the local hot ... read more
June 18th 2006
After Machu Picchu we met up with Jamie´s friend Crump and went rafting for a couple of days on the Urambamba river in the sacred valley. The rafting trip was great and on the second day we did up to level 5 rapids which is the highest you can do as a beginner. Crump fell in at one point which was a little scary but he was fine and seemed quite pleased with himself! We also went on a day trip to Pisac to see the ruins there as Crump missed out on MP. They were almost as good and much quieter, and the market in Pisac was huge and quite interesting as well. We have spent the last few days in the jungle, got a bus form Cusco to Puerto Maldonado (23 and a half ... read more
June 3rd 2006
After the island we spent one more night in Copcabana then got a bus to Puno in Peru. We spent one night in Puno and went out with an American guy we met for lots of pisco spurs. Played an absolutely awesome game of Jenga which went on for hours and got very tense! From Puno we got another bus to Cusco and arrived late and tired and grumpy. Ended up staying in a crappy hostel but moved the next day and started exploring. Its a really beautiful city although quite touristy and a theres a lot of people who hassle you all the time to get you into restaurants etc. On Wednesday we started our four day Inca trail to Machu Picchu. There were about 20 of us in our group and nearly all the ... read more
May 26th 2006
Just got back form a couple of nights on the Isla Del Sol. The island was great, really relaxing as theres no cars there, lots of donkeys though! It was really hilly though so pretty exhasting to get around. The restaurant we had dinner in on the first night was half way through construction! The sign on the wall said ´Welcome to the´ so we spent a lot of time inventing names. We had a lot of time as it took them about 2hrs to make our dinner! It was nice though, still eating a lot of the fresh trout from the lake.. its yummy. On our full day on the island we took a boat to the otehr end and found ourselves in the middle of a fesival! There were lots of locals in fancy ... read more
May 23rd 2006
we went from corrorico back to la paz where we did some shopping.. and yes bough jamie some shoes.. then went from la paz to sorata which is a really pretty little mountain town. from there we did a one day hike to a cave where we saw some bats and jamie went swimming in the underground lake. the walk to the cave was awesome and the scenery was stunning, some of the mountains looked like they had been painted because of all the different colours in the rock. we walked along one side of the valley quite high up and you could see right down to the river running along the bottom. we had a little dog as a companion for the first part of our hike which was ncie.. he was an odd ... read more
May 15th 2006
Yesterday we got the bus form Rurrenabaque to Yolossa, on the way to Corrorico. Yolossa is only about half an hour form Corrorico and when we booked our tickets we were assured that we would be able to get another bus or a taxi for the last part of the journey. Well, we arrived at 2.30am instead of midnight, tired and grouchy, especially as one of Jamies flip flops had fallen from where it was wedged down the side of the seat and disappeared off down the bus, especially unhelpful as they are his last remaining shoes! Unsuprisingly there were no taxis or busses anywhere to be seen. We walked for a little way in each direction, and knowcked on the door of a very closed hostel, then decided that the only choice was to wait ... read more
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 15; qc: 89; dbt: 0.1019s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.7mb
