Our Trip Around the Americas
We travelled the Americas for three & a half months, starting with a road trip from Miami to San Francisco over 6 weeks, we then head to Peru & Bolivia for 6 weeks, then the beaches of Costa Rica before finishing with 5 days in New York City!neilandlou
Travel Blog Posts
New York, New York
Published: July 8th 2009North America » United States » New York » New York » Manhattan
July 7th 2009
Our final stop on our tour of the Americas was 5 days in New York City - sight seeing by day and a mix of Broadway, bars and comedy by night. A fantastic place to end a fantastic few months! THE END.... read more
July 6th 2009
Costa Rica in 8 days.... 5 on the Carribean coast staying in chilled out Cahuita - beach, snorkelling, zip lining, horse riding, mucho cocktails, sloths, sleeping and food poisoning. A crazy day rafting (with the food poisoning.. nice) followed by a couple of days chillaxing at the foot of Arenal volcano - wicked!... read more
June 12th 2009
After spending a week in the Amazon it was time for a complete change of scenery as we planned to head south to the Bolivian salt plains. Although these plans soon changed after finding out that some angry locals were blocking the road down there so no buses were running! so, instead we headed to Bolivias official capital, Sucre which turned out to be the nicest city we have visited in Bolivia - much more laid back than La Paz anyways! Aside from yet more colonial churches, one thing Sucre is now famous for is having the largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world. They were discovered in 1994 by the quarry workers that still dig next to the site. As you´ll see from the photos the tracks spread all over the cliff face and ... read more
June 1st 2009
Well, we are loving Bolivia, especially since it´s pretty much half the price of Peru so mega cheap! After crossing the border we spent a couple of days chilling out at Copacabana, a hippy town on the shores of Lake Titicaca with plenty of bars, resturants and hammocks to keep you relaxed for a few days.. It´s also the jumping off point for the ferry over to Isla de Sol, a beautiful island on the lake.. Unfortunately Lou missed out on the trip over there as was layed up in bed ill but was prob glad to miss yet more hiking over hills. After recharging our batteries and Lou sort of recovering from sickness it was time to jump on the bus again and make the short trip to the city of La Paz - a ... read more
The deepest canyon, the highest lake and highest Irish Pub!
Published: May 24th 2009South America » Peru » Arequipa
May 23rd 2009
Following a couple of days in Cusco relaxing after the Inca Trail we headed south on another long bus journey to the city of Arequipa - prob the best city we visited in Peru (the combination of picturesque buildings and great nightlife works well!) After enjoying a night on the town it was time to head out of the city and down into the Colca Canyon whose main claim to fame is that it´s the 2nd deepest in the world. We would also later find out the town of Chivay in the Colca Valley accomodates the highest Irish pub in the world - although unfortunately the imported Guiness was a bit too expensive to sample especially when the local brew is less than a pound a pint! The next morning it was yet another early start ... read more
The stroll of the Inca´s to Machu Picchu!
Published: May 17th 2009South America » Peru » Cusco » Inca Trail
May 15th 2009
We booked the Inca trail back in January and have been looking forward to it (both with excitement and dread) ever since, so were glad when it finally came around... here is a summary of events and pain endured! Day 1 = 12km We were picked up from our hostel at 5.30am by the bus containing the rest of our group. About 30 minutes into the journey the radiator blew on our bus so we were stood at the side of the road for 30 minutes or so watching the porters pour freezing cold water into it, creating more and more smoke (and making it worse). Eventually they realised the bus was dead so our group split into two and we managed to hitch a lift with some other groups heading to the trail. After an ... read more
May 12th 2009
After the luxury of having a car it was now time to lug our backpacks around properly and hit the mean streets of South America. Our first stop in Peru was the capital city of Lima - bit of a culture shock after spending the last 6 weeks in the US but it made a welcome change to be away from the lines of the same stores and fast food joints. Our Hostel was in the Miraflores district which is a pretty nice suburb near the coast and was and run by 2 football mad Peruvians so spent a while after we checked in explaining who Luton were. After much laughter about their league position it took a while to explain the points deduction with the language barrier however I reckon they got there in the ... read more
May 7th 2009
After 2 weeks of battling the snow, dust storms and of course sunshine and heat camping across national parks and in middle America it certainly made a change to arrive at the bright lights and scary heat of Vegas. We stayed at Excalibur which is one of the big casino hotels on the strip - and we mean big - over 5,000 rooms and was apparetly the biggest hotel in the world in the early 90´s. The casino floor was massive and no clocks and no directions to the exit were part of the ploy to keep you from leaving - luckily we did and during the couple of days we were there we took in some of the main sights of the strip. Each casino offered something different as they all try and out do ... read more
April 29th 2009
Apologies for taking a while in getting this online - lack of computers, being out in the sticks and the lack of Neils ability to save what´s been typed before his internet credit runs out has not helped! However a kind barmaid in a San Fran bar has kindly lent us her laptop so we can now update this blog and have a beer at the same time which is perfect! We have also just watched Man U win too so Lou is happy.. anyhow back to business: After driving across the desolate plains of northern Texas it was great to finally hit the spectacular mountain scenery of New Mexico. Our first stop was the small city of Santa Fe, a v.arty laid back place where we enjoyed another good night out. First stop was a ... read more
April 8th 2009
Our first stop in Louisiana was New Orleans, which certainly lived up to its reputation as a lively city. Our couple of days were spent wandering round the famous French Quarter and other districts by day and heading out to check out the local bars by night. We started off on Bourbon Street for cheap drinks (including 3 for 1 offers!) before heading off the beaten track along Frenchman Street to find some really cool jazz and blues bars where we caught some amazing live acts. From New Orleans we took our sore heads northwards into rural Louisiana where we spent the next couple of days driving right up through hicksville, camping at a couple of state parks along the way. It was great driving up through the countryside with some spectacular scenery and some weird ... read more
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