It Really Is A Bit Loco Tim and Sue have what can only be described as an ´interesting´ transfer from Copacabana to La Paz, going via a brief re-entry to Peru courtesy of a dispute in Bolovia. There´s a midly nerve-wracking moment where everyone on the bus hands over their passports and some money to get the ´fast track´ treatment at the boarder. But then, this is South America. After a slightly worrying entry into the outskirts of La Paz, the city resolves itself into a bizarre place that nestles in a valley. Like lots of places in this part of [View Full Entry]

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Er, Not The One From The Song Tim and Sue have travelled on from Peru into Bolivia and it´s starting to feel like a lot more of the remote part of South America. The transit is enhanced by following the immigration procedure less than proficiently and Tim having to carring both Sue and Tim´s pack back down and up a hill at the boarder - about 30kg at about 3800m. Great. So Tim´s acclimatized, then. Copacabana is a small town on a very beautiful part of the shores of Lake Titicaca. Some of it´s a bit ramshackle, as you might expect, [View Full Entry]

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Who Needs Solid Ground Anyway? Part of the reason to stopover in Puno is to get a look at the floating islands. Apparently, the tribes on the lake have lived apart from the mainland for centuries to keep themselves distinct. Although they´re heard how clean the waters are around Puno, the setting for the floating islands on Lake Titicaca makes for a beautiful setting. They motor out to one of the islands - there are about 50 of them at the moment. You can see that all the islands are in on the tourist thing. Our trekking guide, Dalmiro, did say [View Full Entry]

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The Andean Explorer Tim and Sue have treated themselves to what´s touted as the ´Oriental Express of the Andes´. As they check in they´re treated to a Peruvian pan pipe band. For some reason Tim is reminded of the Fast Show. It´s all really nice and they´re forewarned that there´s an observation car at the back. They perhaps head there a bit too early on the trip out from Cusco - once you get away from the ´touristic´ bit of the city there´s a lot of sprawl and some of it unfortunately isn´t really somewhere you´d want to live, although it´s [View Full Entry]

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A Last Few Days In Cusco Tim and Sue return to Cusco following the trek for a few days of recuperation. So far they´ve been at altitude and coming back to Cusco is a return to about 3400m. After the trek this is altogether too much and some rest is required. This is bit of a shame because there´s actually quite a scene in Cusco but there´re both too knocked out to really enjoy it. On the Sunday they both head down to the square to take a last look at the town before moving on. What with the ongoing procession [View Full Entry]

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The Salkantay Trail Warning: Long entry. We're off to do the Salkantay Trail with the Mountain Lodges of Peru. This is different from the usual Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in that it approaches the city from the west. And what's more you get to stay in lodges rather than camping. Not one for the purists but our acclimatization difficulties in Cusco (alt. 3400m) have already convinced us we've made the right decision before we've started! We'd just like to point out that a lot of the details here are actually the repackaged wisdom of our lead guide Dalmiro who together [View Full Entry]

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Off to Cuzco And so our real circumnavigation of the globe begins. We're off to Cuzco in Peru to spend a few days acclimatizing before we begin our slightly unconventional trek through the Andes. It's a very early start. We're all packed up again, minus some of the things we needed specifically for Africa and while this is the biggest excursion away from home during this trip it's also our third so we feel confident that we've got exactly what we'll need as we zoom through the deserted streets of London towards Heathrow. At the airport we chance upon the business [View Full Entry]

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...the rest of Africa? Just a quick post to say - those of you who have been following this blog and know what we´ve been planning may be wondering where our Africa overland trip has got to. We fully intended to update this when we got back to Blighty for a friend´s wedding but events overtook us. Our apologies but we´ll have to fill that bit of the trip in retrospectively at the end. [View Full Entry]

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Adrenaline Top-Up Not content with throwing ourselves out of a perfectly servicable airplane we've met up with our travel group to start our overland trip up to Etosha, though Botswana to Vic Falls, who are a really nice bunch. Before that though, there's a chance for us to take a trip out to the desert for a spot of sandboarding, which of course has to be done, adrenaline junkies that we've now become. Sue decides to go for the 'lie-down' option whereas Tim's determined to find out how sand compares to powder snow on a stand-up. The dune in question is [View Full Entry]

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Don't Try This At Home First of all, apologies to the parents for not telling you beforehand - we're sure that you appreciate that we were only concerned about how much you would worry... There comes a point in everyone's life where they find themselves in a situation and ask themselves 'At what point exactly did I convince myself that this would be a good idea?' We can now tell you that when you're crammed into a light aircraft making a steep climb to 10,000 feet in a jumpsuit clipped to someone you've never met before (who thankfully knew exactly what [View Full Entry]

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