Having passed more salt flats and ascending the andes once more over some very interesting hairpin bends (having to stop every now and then to let our steaming truck Jack cool down!), we had the joy of yet another less than speedy border crossing. Upon arrival at the Chilean border all bags had to be lugged off the truck, all lockers emptied and everything was generally prodded (they even probed our Santa on the front of the truck!). It is worth noting at this point that the Chileans are most unrepresentative of the rest of South America due to their love [View Full Entry]

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So, onwards from the relative relaxation of Cusco for another brief 7 hour journey down to the town of Puno. Nestled on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, Puno stands 3855m above sea level, which is very surreal seeing a body of water you can only imagine is the sea and still being out of breath just walking around! After an entertaining night out on the town, we ended up in a local rock bar playing Jenga with a scary Aussie stalker with massive man hands who would just not leave us alone! Looking forward to a good nights sleep in [View Full Entry]

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Well hello again campers. How are we all diddling today? I do hope everyone is fantastically well. I´m currently loving being back in civilisation albeit at 3400m meaning breathing is exercise rather than automatic. But at least the toilets flush! So...on with the story. Upon tardy arrival at Arequipa, we trotted out en masse to supposedly the best restaurant in South America, Zig Zag, for their Triple specialty grill consisting of steak (dreamy), ostrich (a touch chewy) and alpaca (melts in the mouth). Onwards into town via a fantastic cocktail bar (Adios Motherf**kers all round...basically everything behind the bar in a [View Full Entry]

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Right, so on with the show..(having just spent an hour yesterday trying to update blog only to discover it didn´t save anything!) After several sad goodbyes in San Jose it was time for round 2, so off I flew to Quito, on the way getting some good time to practice my spanish with an Ecuadorian fighter pilot on the way. Quito is the second highest capital city in the world after La Paz, nestling away at 2,300m above sea level, and the altitude becomes apparent when even doing something so menial as climbing 3 flights of stairs! Managed to meet up [View Full Entry]

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HI all. Didn´t realise it had been quite so long since last blog but guess time flies when you´re having fun!! Plus considerable amounts of dodgy internet connections get a bit wearing after a while! Following on from the fantastic Copan Ruians we headed across Honduras to the Carribean coast to spend a couple of blissful days soaking up the sunshine on Roatan island. With a hotel in a fantastic location right on the beach, pool overlooking the sea it was a fantastic place to recharge the batteries, although was not especially restful due to the plethora of activites offered. Snorkelling [View Full Entry]

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Well it seems like a fair while ago that I first clocked in here on the first night of the trip as so much has gone on since then. As mentioned in the last blog, we're down to 2 trekkers and 3 guides, so has been more like a bunch of friends travelling for the last 10 days or so which has been great. Cancun second night was a bit of a blow out - owing to general excess on the first night we opted out of going to the notorious Coco Bongos in favour of a quiet one in the [View Full Entry]

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This is now country number 3 as I´ve been through Belize since the last entry. Tikal was absolutely amazing - highly impressive Cities of Gold style temples rising out of the jungle, good old trek to get to them which makes it a very rewarding day. We were helped by the fact our guide Miguel was so knowledgeable and could talk to the monkeys whcich was very cool! On from Tikal we carried along a very bumpy dirt track into Belize where we stayed the first night at San Ignacio, and back into English speaking territory for a few days. From [View Full Entry]

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Well having been up for a good 40+ hours I finally arrived in Guatemala City, a joyous place to behold boasting lots of traffic and drivers with a deathwish / a habit of overtaking on blind bends. Thankfully an easy shuttle bus trasfer took me door to door in Antigua nicely in time to meet up with the rest of the group and a nice comfy bed. Yesterday we kicked it off in style by moving on from Antigua (fuelled by delicious breakfast bagels!) to see some sandstone (unusual - they´re mostly limestone fyi kiddies) Mayan ruins in the middle of [View Full Entry]

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