http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mark-and-chrissie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from mark and chrissie en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:33:01 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:33:01 +0000 Here we are two passionate people in search of an adventure. This a story taking us from our little house in Manchester to far flung and wonderful places that we had so far only dreamed about. It's a story where we find out more about ourselves as individuals and where our limits may or may not be as well as story of two people coming closer together than they thought possible.Unlike many stories http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-Manchester/Sale/blog-416598.html Day 824 010709Having loved our time in Miami it was now time to leave so we got a taxi to the airport and made our way to the final stop of our entire trip. What better place to end it than NYC The flight was a little longer than we had expected and unfortunately they didn't have a movie for us to watch damn you American Airlines but we arrived none the less into JFK airport safe and sound http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-416396.html Day 820 280609After saying our goodbyes to Kate and Danny and making an early transfer to the airport in Mexico we got on our flight to Miami. Just a couple of hours later with customs and formalities over with we jumped in a cab and before we knew it we were installed in our hostel in Miami just off Ocean Drive.With the afternoon still ours to squander we used the local looping bus to visit t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Florida/Miami/blog-412663.html Day 815 23.06.09With the comfort of our homely setting of Kate and Danny's flat it was hard to tear ourselves away but after a nice brekkie we left the apartment to find out what Mexico City had to offer us. Jumping on the tube we made our way southish to the Coyoacan area home to some historical cultural and horticultural sites. We started off with the large park in Coyoacan which is not on http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Estado-de-Mexico/Distrito-Federal/blog-416460.html Day 810 18.06.09 to Day 814 22.06.09We left El Tunco early and after several chicken buses and a couple of cycle taxis across an easy border crossing back into Guatemala we eventually reached Antigua. We'd started our Central American journey here a few weeks ago and it was nice to complete the circle and return to somewhere familiar. The journey had taken us all day so all we really had ener http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Antigua/Antigua/blog-410298.html Day 800 08.06.09 and Day 801 09.06.09From Roatan we were making our way all the way over from the Caribbean coast to the Pacific coast and some relaxing beach time in El Salvador. You may have noticed a fair bit of relaxing time in the past couple of blogs sorry if that makes them a little boring to read We had planned to travel the northern part of Central America in our usual style by taki http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/El-Salvador/El-Tunco/blog-408138.html Day 795 03.06.09 to Day 799 07.06.09From a choice of two Caribbean islands which should we go for It doesn't sound like it should be a difficult decision really does it And yet it's one we pondered over for some time before finally making a decision an hour or so before we caught the ferry. We had heard that some cheap diving could be had in the Bay Islands of Honduras and before we made http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Roatan/blog-408144.html Day 794 02.06.09With our time at Nutria Marina up were shown off by Bex at the bus stop and made our way on our hot and stuffy bus to a service station about 5 mins down the road. We had heard rumours that the recent earthquake in Honduras had done some damage further south and that a bridge was possibly broken en route we had been told that our route was still possible despite this though so http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/La-Ceiba/blog-405125.html Day 787 26.5.09 Day 793 1.6.09 We settled in quickly at Nutria Marina due to it's lovely surroundings and the great welcome by Bex the Manager and dog Fitz we felt right at home already. Nutria Marina is a couple of minutes in a boat from Rio Dulce itself and is tucked away enough to have a secluded feel yet with its great food drinks and proximity to town you have access to everything el http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Rio-Dulce/blog-404243.html Day 784 23.05.09We'd made our way to Flores the previous day so that we could visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The Mayan people settled in the area around 700BC and began to build stone ceremonial structures around 200 years later. The ruins of thousands of buildings and temples that remained were rediscovered in the depths of the Guatemalan jungle in 1848 and have since been explored semiresto http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Flores-Tikal/blog-401984.html Day 780 19.05.09Bus day ... not something you ever really look forward to However in Guatemala you have two choices of transport first the chicken buses cheap local option which requires a strong grip on the hand rail of the seat in front and normally a few changes or secondly the tourist minibus bit more expensive but a plusher minibus that delivers you door to door.Not fancying the forme http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/blog-401511.html Day 777 16.05.09Weve had to buy a new holdall to carry souvenirs from a recent spending spree in the lovely Otavalo market in Ecuador and since wed managed to leave that behind in Antigua for collection in a few weeks we had some space in our backpacks itching to be filled we really must do something about this market addiction of ours So wed made our way to Chichicastenango thankfully sh http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Chichicastenango/blog-401296.html Day 774 13.05.09With all the buses leaving in the early hours of the morning we had no choice but to have an early start. However a couple of hours later and we were climbing down from our 'Chicken Bus' the nickname for the cheap local transport in Panajachel on the shores of volcanoringed Lake Atitlan. Still pretty early we found an internet cafe for a little catch up before going down to th http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/blog-398968.html We're still busy getting ready for the trip although it doesn't really feel like its only just over a week away and that its really going to happen to us. We feel like we should be really excited as we're just about to live our dreams on the trip of a lifetime but it hasn't really sunk in yet. We went down to Somerset to my Mum and Dad's to give them our most precious items including a very specia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-Manchester/Manchester/blog-139257.html Day 772 11.05.09It seemed to take us forever to reach Guatemala from Lima but finally after 2 flights too many hours in airports and a hardbargained taxi we arrived in Antigua. As the taxi took us through the cobbled streets of this pretty town we were glad we'd skipped out on Guatemala City to make this our first stop.We were shattered having not really slept overnight on the plane too tempt http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/Antigua/blog-398694.html Day 769 08.05.09Arriving into Lima at a completely different terminal than we had expected we managed to get a shister of a taxi driver who insisted that the hostel we were aiming for was full and another had closed down. We eventually got dropped off at one in the Miraflores area and booked in for the night. By now it was still early morning and we still had the majority of the day left.Having http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/Lima/Miraflores/blog-397815.html Day 766 05.05.09We reached Piura a few hours from Peru's border with Ecuador at around 8am. Sadly we discovered that the next bus to Trujillo today's planned destination didn't leave until 2pm. With no choice but desperately wanting showers after a night on the bus we booked some tickets dumped off our bags and headed into town for a bite to eat. The streets of Piura were teaming with tra http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Trujillo/blog-397086.html Day 763 02.05.09We woke feeling much more able to take the onward bus to Vilcabamba after a good night's sleep we first had a walk around town in Loja not an awful lot to see there before jumping on the bus. The valley that the town sits in is well known in the county as the Valley of Longevity as the people who live here just dont seem to kick the bucket. As we passed through the lush tranqui http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/South/Vilcabamba/blog-397084.html Day 762 30.04.09Mark wasn't feeling too well when we woke up so we set out midmorning after he'd had a bit of a liein. We took the morning to take a walk around the beautiful old town to see some of the city's sights. The slightly crunbling facades of some of the grand colonial buildings just made it more charming to us. We started off the with the impressive bluedomed cathedral in town and t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/South/Cuenca/blog-395736.html Day 761 29.04.09We'd come to Riobamba to travel on the famous section of railway between here and Sibambe. Usually this route is served by a large steam train and until recently you could ride on the roof of the train to enjoy the stunning scenery along the route. We'd had many mixed reports throughout the country as to whether the train was running whether the track was open and whether you we http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Riobamba/blog-396520.html