7th november- 10th November The beautiful city of Sao Luis is blessed with the most feverish cultural presence of the upmost north of Brazil. Walking through the colonial city, you could see its facades covered with azulejos (portugese painted tiles). it had a timeless beauty. I stayed in a renovated old colonial building turned hostel, called Solar das Pedras. Sao Luis is known as the capital of reggae in Brazil, pronouned He-gáy. I found some new awesome reggae music, and i partied to reggae in the nearby bars. No doubt the city would have been amazing during its higly folkloric festivals, [View Full Entry]

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26th October- 7th November I loved Manaus. not a beautiful city by any means. It is the largest city on the amazon, and used to a centre for industrial trade for the Portugese. Evidence of its european heritage clear through historic buildings, most evident by its famous opera house. I have never seen a structure that is made out of material that has been brough from so many different plaecs around the world!!! I stayed in Hostel Manaus, owned by an Australian, and far from actually being completed...so it was really cheap!!! the people had darker features. morenos. not black. admittedly [View Full Entry]

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19th October- 21st October: Lima 21st October- 25th October : Iquitos 25th October- 26th October: triborder (Peru, Columbia, Brazil) I stopped in Lima long enough to get my Brazilian visa...for the second time! how my plans have changed on this holiday.. have doubled my initial holiday period..i promise i will come back...maybe next year! I dropped my passport on friday morning, hoping to pick it up before the weekend...though warned that it would be unlikely. The old woman comes out in the afternoon, and says in english ìm sorry'. Thinkin i was stuck for the weekend, she then produces my passport [View Full Entry]

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3rd October- 19th october Coming back to my much loved, intoxicating, liver-damaging cuzco was bound to be dangerous. The cheesy nightlife haunts of mama africa, mythology, and uptown were indeed beckoning each night i dared to say- ¨no, tonight i will not go out...i will not drink. i will take it easy!¨ By the end of my travels here, i came to realise that i had spent a total of almost a month in cuzco! When i was here in june, i was laid waste with patying with the friends that i had made along the way. This time i was [View Full Entry]

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27th September- 29th October The Idyllic town of Banos is situated in one of the lushest green valleys that i´ve come across, and shouldered nearby by a volcano, which has erupted twice in the last few months, sending people running! i heard that if the eruption was big enough, then you have about 4 minutes to get across the other side of a bordering river! and the scarry thing is, they can never predict when this will happen! the volcano is almost always mildly active and you can see the red flames in the dark of night. stayed in a very [View Full Entry]

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24th- 25th: busing it from salento-armenia-popayan- ipiales- colombian/ecuador border 25th- border- Tulcan- Quito 25th-27th- Quito. I WENT TO JAIL!!!!! 27th-29th Banos (refer to next entry) 29th september-1st october- busing it Banos-Guayaquil- ecuador/peru border - Piura - Lima 1st-3rd October Lima i thought this would be an appropriate heading to the piece....will explain soon! let me just say...i will never complain about long flights or 10 hour bus trips! i have been to hell! almost 60hours of buses in 5 days! ahhhhh!!! having finally left my beloved Colombia, i dreaded to think of what the following few days would have in store [View Full Entry]

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22nd september- 24th september Driving into Salento on that very early morning bus (am really getting used to sleeping on those overnight buses!), was definitely an eye opening bus ride- couldn´t help but keep my eyes opened and glued to the amazing scenery along the way- lush green majestic mountains with the sun rising ever so slowly to reveal the full splendour of the land. I stayed in a hostel called ¨The Plantation Hostel¨, crashed immediately, and woke to explore the town. Its a small town, centered around The main plaza. People greet you kindly and are polite in a way [View Full Entry]

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16th september- 21st september coming back to Bogota was an experience of mixed feelings- a)Unfortunately, it was filled with the burdens of a large city. a place where you have to catch up on all those errands that can only be done in large cities! and for me, it was also finding a new camera (those of you that know me know that i am not normally an impulsive shoppper, so this was hard!), and failing miserable to repair my videocamera (yes problems with all forms of photography!)- the repairer took 4 days to finally tell me that he couldnt do [View Full Entry]

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15th september-16th sptember Arriving in Villa De Leyva, was like stepping back in time, of what i can only imagine Colombia once looked like before modern planning. Stayed in a cosy hostel "hostel colonial", and mesmerised by the town, i went for my camera at which point i realised that it was missing. The only time my bag with camera had left me was when i headed to the bathroom on the bus... that was when the thieves must have taken it!! Surprisingly, have learnt to be quite chilled on holidays, so the experience didn´t deter me too much...and i manage [View Full Entry]

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8th september- 13th september Back in Taganga always felt great. I grew to love this place- there was just an awesome vibe about this place! Each time i came to leave, something would hold me back! Definitely alot of fond memories of this small, otherwise unremarkable, fishing town. The days were largely spent chilling, either on the beach or in the hostel (casa de felipe). Sunset watching became a favourite past time- each sunset different to the next, and almost always spectacular! I cant write about Taganga without mentioning ¨Kelly´s Juices¨-by far the best juices i have tried in South America. [View Full Entry]

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