http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/neilandlou/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from neilandlou en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:29:01 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:29:01 +0000 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 monthsTHE END. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-416188.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Limon/Cahuita/blog-415901.html 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 m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-407919.html Well we are loving Bolivia especially since its 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.. Its also the jumping off point for the ferry over to Isla de Sol a beautiful island on the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-404398.html 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 wellAfter 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 its the 2nd deep http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/blog-401434.html 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 enduredDay 1 12kmWe 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 s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Inca-Trail/blog-399133.html 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 pret http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-398398.html 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 5000 rooms and was apparetly the biggest hotel in the world in the early 90s. The ca http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-396916.html 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 whats 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 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-394980.html 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 f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Louisiana/blog-388821.html We have certainly been busy since landing in Miami Our first day started with an early morning 'stroll' along Miami Beach from our hotel up in North Beach all the way down to the famous art deco district on South Beach we didn't realise until we were about half way down that it was infact quite a long stretch of beach front 10 miles to be exact. However it's a good way to see the Miami sun http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Florida/blog-387067.html