Crossing over from Bolivia into Brazil the differences we apparent immediately even with the taxi prices. A trip that would have cost US$1 in Bolivia all of a sudden was ten times that - and our wallets were not happy. But we went ahead with our plans to visit the Pantanal, a giant wetland in the south of Brazil which is famous for its wildlife and we headed in for a three day trip. We stayed at a lodge on the banks of a river and as soon as we arrived we were told to get into our swimmers and we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bolivia is a country of crazy extremes, from the world´s highest capital city to the spectacular salt flats of Salar de Uyuni and the lush jungles and savannah lands, there is a chance to see and do just about anything. We took this onboard when entering Bolivia and did a few things of questionable sanity in our quest to embrace Bolivia. We started our trip in La Paz after having taken a bus from Puno, Peru. And La Paz itself is a crazy, bustling city with hundreds of street hawkers, protestors and people everywhere you look. We got a hotel next [View Full Entry]

---

---

We started our exploration of Peru in the capital Lima which is a metropolis of almost 8 million people, and like much of Latin America has the sharp contrasts between the rich and the poor. We settled in Miraflores, a wealthy suburb full of restaurants, shopping malls and a view over the Pacific Ocean from the exclusive shopping and restaurant area Larcomar, and spent a few days seeing what Lima has to offer. We saw the Unesco World Heritage centre of Lima with the beautiful Plaza de Armas, the Catedral de Lima and the Presidential Palace, all on a much grander [View Full Entry]

---

---

We arrived in Quito after a nightmare transfer through Miami. We had 3 hours between flights and the majority of that time was taken up clearing immigration, picking up our bags, clearing customs, rechecking our bags and then reclearing security. It was not the quick and fun trip through Miami that we were expecting! But we managed to arrive in Quito safely. We spent our first few days in Quito having a bit of a look around and trying to sort out our Galapagos trip (see ´Voyage of the Intrepid´ for details) which took up a lot of our time. We [View Full Entry]

---

---

After some serious confusion at the airport; we had arrived two and a half hours early and were still checking in half an hour before our flight; we made it to Galapagos! And we were not disappointed! We were impressed by the amount of wildlife from the very beginning after seeing so many crabs and birds on the way to our boat, the ´Intrepid.´ Our first activity was to go and see Galapagos Giant Tortoises in the wild. We were lucky enough to see about 7 of them, including two mating couples. This involves the much-larger male climbing on the female [View Full Entry]

---

---

As soon as we woke up in Managua we thought we should try and get a change of perspective on Nicaragua, so jumped on a bus for Granada, which is yet another Spanish colonial town. It is a lovely beautiful old town on the shores of Lago de Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America). We spent a few days wondering around and looking at the sites, and once we had seen all the sites we decided we needed to have a little more fun since all Lara's mountain biking injuries had healed. So we did a canopy tour, which is [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we returned to Xela for the last time, to await our credit cards and of course get another 2 weeks of much needed Spanish tuition, as it seemed as though all the time spent travelling through English speaking places really took its toll! Arriving back in Xela was really good - it felt like returning to our home away from home. It was freezing, much colder than before Christmas, we had frost outside our window a few times which was a bit of a shock considering we were in the tropics! We returned to school to see barely any familiar [View Full Entry]

---

---

School's out for the summer....or winter as it may well be, and we are thrilled! As much as we have enjoyed being in Xela and learning a lot about Guatemalan culture, it was definitely time to stop learning, see some sites and have some fun! We headed to Antigua, Guatemala early on a Saturday morning after graduating from school the day before. Antigua is a smallish, very pretty Spanish Colonial town nestled in amongst the volcanoes and we spent time here looking at the beautiful churches, many of which are in ruins and also climbing an active volcano, Volcan Pacaya. Pacaya [View Full Entry]

---

---

A quiet start to the second half of our Spanish studies with Lara having a cough, and a minor earthquake! Lara felt it but Al didn´t! We went to school for the week as usual....not much to report as we skipped most of the activities because we´d done them all before. The weekend was spent at San Pedro, with an Irish couple Ed and Yvonne where we got up to all sorts of mischief, in between lying in a hammock or having an afternoon nap! We left after school on Friday all set to get on a direct bus to San [View Full Entry]

---

---

After having woken up at 2.00am in Washington in order to make our early flight to Guatemala via Miami, we arrived in Guatemala City completely disoriented and exhausted. It seemed as if the whole of Guatemala City was out to greet the planes and if we hadn't been met by someone we may have turned around and gone home right then! We were taken back to a little bed and breakfast not too far from the airport and we spent most of our first afternoon in Guatemala sleeping. The following morning we got up early again and were put on a [View Full Entry]

---

---