Paul Fishburn
About to embark on 2 months of travel in South America. Before that there's a wedding....paulyfishburn
Travel Blog Posts
September 4th 2011
The last bit of our tour. Day 43 (continued):- In the evening we decided to split from the group, with Craig and Claire, to splurge (rather than face more all-you-can-eat meat and carb fare again). Had a great meal with a couple of bottles of wine followed by a few beers in a bar. Most enjoyable. Day 44:- We traveled a few hours to a port where we hopped on a boat to Ilha Grande. Claire was feeling a tad ropey from the night before, which wasn’t surprising as she had the lions share of Craig’s wine. Spent the afternoon lazing on the beach with Ailsa, rather than tackle the trek up to a waterfall (we figured that it wasn’t gonna beat Iguazu anyway!). We only managed an hour’s sunbathing at most before the beach was ... read more
August 24th 2011
Day 34:- We crossed the Bolivian border following the night train and a breakfast offering of a mustard sandwich?!? We stocked up before heading to the Pantanal, a wetland in Brazil which is teeming with wildlife. On the way to our lodge we observed a fair few animals, mainly birds such as Carcara, egret, ibis, toucans and rose spoonbills. However we did also see plenty of caimans and nearly ran over an armadillo (smooth on the inside and crunchy on the outside!). Our lodge was situated by a caiman infested lake in the middle of nowhere and our sleeping quarters comprised of a domitary with hammocks. After a lunch of spaghetti, rice, beans and sweet potato (how many carbs can you have in one meal???) we went to explore our surrounds with Alex, a tour guide ... read more
August 24th 2011
Äpologies for the delay in updating the blog - too much fun and too little internet access. Day 25:- We started the day by picking up props for the Salar de Uyuni - a plastic dinosaur and a few beer bottles. Then we boarded our 4x4's and headed toward the salt plains, stopping at a little village en route that sold handicrafts. Our first stop on the plains was where the locals dry the salt in the sun by piling it into pyramids, once dry trucks come and take it for further drying and packaging. We continued oo to Isla del Pescado, an Island in the middle of the plains, the scenery is so surreal - nothing for miles and then an island comprising of cactus that are up to 1000 years old. We had lunch ... read more
Lake Titicaca and La Paz
Published: August 12th 2011South America » Peru » Puno » Lake Titicaca » Taquile Island
August 12th 2011
Day 19:- Spent a large proportion of the day travelling to Puno (in a rather uncomfortable minibus). There wasn´t much going on here to be honest, perhaps as it was a Sunday? We sampled a “curry” for tea - it wasn´t. Day 20:- We began the day by getting a tuk tuk down to the port. At which point we boarded a boat to take us to Taquile Island on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is immense and very beautiful. On Taquile Island we met the locals who performed traditional dances in the main square in the village. From the Island you could see the snow-topped mountains of both Peru and Bolivia. After (a rather tasty) lunch we caught the boat to a peninsula off the mainland where we were to stay the night… with a local ... read more
July 30th 2011
Day 6:- Lots of waiting around to fly over the Nazca lines today. The lines are huge and quite amazing, although tricky to see. There belongs a mystery as to how or who created the lines, however later in the day we visited the cemetery of Chauchilla, which showcases Nazcan mummies, and our tour guide told us that the lines were easy to create with rope and the only reason that they are surrounded in mystery is commercial! Night bus to Arequipa, which is where I had my best sleep to date. Day 7:- In Arequipa we visited the Convent of Santa Catalina, a nunnery. Very interesting. We also admired El Mistri volcano from afar before going out in the evening to watch Peru´s semi-final in the Copa America against Uruguay (dressed in a Peruvian football ... read more
July 18th 2011
Day 4: We joined our tour group on the morning of the 16th July after flying in from Brazil the night before. Only 9 people on the tour (so far) led by Alvaro, our tour leader. There are a mixture of English, Scottish, Swiss and Canadian, but unfortunately we are the oldest! The first day of the tour was mainly spent travelling down to Paracas, a port town south of Lima. We passed Pisco on the way, which was devastated by an Earthquake in 2007 - the place still hasn't recovered. Paracas has a population of 500, so pretty quiet, but has a beautiful promenade. Here we tried cerviche and our first Pisco sour (very nice!). Day 5: A brilliant day. We started early and went to the Ballestas Islands by boat. On the way we ... read more
The honeymoon begins
Published: July 14th 2011South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro » Rio de Janeiro » Ipanema
July 14th 2011
Day 1: Landed in Rio yesterday morning and checked in to our hotel, eventually - wow the traffic is bad! Had a quick coconut to drink down on Ipanema Beach in the sun before jumping straight into the tourist trips. First up we visited Corcovado to marvel at the statue of Christ the Redeemer. It was excellent but really busy. The views into Rio were good although a little obscured by the haze. We then went passed the Maracana football stadium, closed while it's being upgraded for the world cup in 2014, into a cathedral, saw where the carnival parade takes place and onto Sugarloaf mountain. We rode the cable cars up to Sugarloaf mountain at sunset and the views of the city were truly spectacular. In the evening we sampled our first cervesa and capirinha ... read more
June 11th 2011
Just finalising everything before we set off on Friday... can't wait to check-in!... read more
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