The city of Arequipa After our fun in Nazca we caught the night bus to Arequipa. Situated at about 2300 metres above sea level the city offers nicer temperatures than the melting hot climate of Lima and Nazca. The 750 000 people living here are surrounded by active volcanoes, thermal springs, high altitude deserts and the world's deepest canyons, making it the perfect stop-over spot before going to Puno and Lake Titicaca or Cuzco and Machu Picchu. The city itself offers a lovely atmosphere with a cathedral, [View Full Entry]

---

---

The land of the Inca After a very enjoyable but slightly too short stay in Norway, we have made our way to South America to visit Peru and Ecuador. As in Africa, Helene and Astrid will be doing a four-week medical elective in a hospital in Cuenca, Ecuador. First, however, we will spend about three weeks traveling around in Peru. In addition to the three of us, our friend Aashild has decided to join us, making us a group of four altogether. Landing late in Lima on Wednesday 4 January after a problem-free journey, we went to a hostel to get [View Full Entry]

---

---

Dear blog reader, I would like to say Happy New Year to you and thank you for reading my blog. So far you have read about our adventures in Africa. You have read about our stay in [url=http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Blantyre/blog-27242.html /]Blantyre and our visit to Liwonde National Park, I have told you about our trip to Monkey Bay, from where we started our exciting boat trip on Lake Malawi (the photos from the boat [View Full Entry]

---

---

The exotic island of Zanzibar After our train journey crossing Tanzania and staying a few days in Dar Es Salaam (see Safari from the train window), we caught the ferry from Dar to Zanzibar,an archipelago made up of Zanzibar and the Pemba Islands. Among other things, its history contains slave trades, wars and bloody revolutions (see here for information). Stonetown Stonetown is the older part of the main town called Zanzibar. We spent a few days here, explorin [View Full Entry]

---

---

Catching the Tazara Railway The story so far The previous post from our boat trip on Lake Malawi led to numerous emails and text messages from worried parents as well as some people suggesting it all just happened in my imagination after having one beer too many and falling asleep on the sun deck. For our parents, we are still alive and currently at home in Norway with you, eating your food, sleeping in your houses, driving your cars and spending your money, thus, it is time to be worried in an [View Full Entry]

---

---

I thought it wrong to disturb the visualisation of the reader under my journal entry Terror in the Night from our boat trip on Lake Malawi. Thus, I chose to include some photos under this heading instead. [View Full Entry]

---

---

It's nearly pitch dark when I wake up, the room is only lit by the eerie moonlight shining through the half open window. My watch reads 2am. I curse the men shouting outside. They sound upset but it's hard to tell - I don't speak the language. Africans oftens sound more agitated than they really are. Selling tomatoes or offering taxi services may sound more like someone holding up a bank than a friendly local trying to make a living. 'Why can't they ever speak in a civilised manner,' I say prejudicely to Helene, assuming she's awake. Interesting how suddenly "I" [View Full Entry]

---

---

Blantyre--Monkey Bay, Thursday 17 November 2005 We caught a minibus from Blantyre to Monkey Bay, from which the 54-year-old famous ferry Ilala will take us all the way to Nkhata Bay up north. From there we plan to make our way to Mzuzu, and then Karonga, which is situated around 120 km from the Tanzanian border. After staying the night, we will cross the border the next day and go to Mbeya, a village through which most freight transport passes on its way from Dar Es Salaam to Zambia (west) or Malawi (south). From Mbeya we will catch the train on [View Full Entry]

---

---

The very first diary entry... Dear friends, this is the very first post of the little world tour that Helene and myself is undertaking. Facts about Blantyre and Malawi As you may be aware, Helene and our friend Astrid, both medicine students, left Sydney (where we are studying) on 22 October 2005, destination Blantyre, Malawi, Africa. I left Sydney on 9 November, and caught up with the girls in Blantyre on the 10th. Blantyre is a city of about 5-600 000 inhabitants and is the so-called commercial centre of Malawi. Named after the birth place of David Livingstone in S [View Full Entry]

---

---