After the weather in Tena turned bad we decided against hanging around or heading deeper into the jungle, so instead we headed for the decidedly drier, though somewhat cooler highlands and the Quilatoa Loop. The Loop is effectively the route that covers all the villages/towns that surround the crater lake of a dormant volcano. The loop itself is very long - needing a number of buses to manage to go the whole way around. After catching the daily bus that went in an anti-clockwise direction, 4 hours and quite a few bumps later we were in the small village of Chugchilan. We chose here as there were a few hostels featured in lonely planet that all seemed quite nice and it was well placed to do a couple of days exploring around the lake. We chose ... read more

After spending so long in the jungles and pampas and of course not having worked for nearly 5 months we decided that maybe seeing some of these animals up close would be a good idea! So after getting a confirmation email from Dalma at the Santa Marta Animal Rescue Centre we hastily booked a flight (flights really, there were three of them!) from Santa Cruz in Bolivia to Quito in Ecuador. The best deal we could get meant travelling overnight and get into Quito at 3am......well thankfuly the arrival lounge chairs were pretty comfortable! We did however eventually arrive at the rescue centre at about 6am and were pretty happy when Dalma suggested we kip for a few hours! The work for the next two weeks involved a variety of tasks in relation to the animals. ... read more

After the Inca trail we headed back to Bolivia to finish off the parts we hadn´t managed to get to in time before our date with them there hills. Our friends Esther & Bianca (as appearing in Chapters Easter Island, Sucre, Potosi and La Paz...) recommended the trips they´d finally managed to book and relying on their good judgement we booked EXACTLY the same trips! and we weren´t to be disappointed. So we started by flying to Rurrenbaque...the town (in the loosest sense of the word) that provides the gateway to the MADIDI national park jungle and the pampas. It´s a nice relaxing place and we stayed at a lovely hostel (ORIENTAL...just in case anyone is going that way). We started with the Pampas trip, 3 days tripping along the rivers and flooded plains looking at ... read more

Lake Titicaca the highest navigable lake in the world at a shade under 4000m! Titi being the Quechuan word for Puma and Caca being the word for drink......putting it together the lake´s name basically means "Where the Puma Comes to drink!" You can tell we were listening on some of our guided tours! We bused from La Paz to Copacobana, the main Bolivian town (villiage is probably a more apt description) on the edge of the lake. The only real highly of the trip is when you get to the twin towns of San Pietro and San Paulo......here you get off the bus and get a boat across a narrow part of Lake Titicaca, whilst the bus drives onto a barge and floats across. We got to Copa and found a hostel. Lonely planet was a ... read more

We left Chile in the morning on a mini bus that was to take us across the boarder where we´d pick up our 4 by 4 for the tour. The mini bus was full and so we worked out we´d have 4 full cars to share. Just before we left another girl rushed on and sat next to me, seeming a bit distressed. When we talked I found out she´d booked last minute (as in just now!) and wasn´t sure if her bag had made it on the bus! she couldn´t see it.......oh dear. We arrived at the Chile control (10 minutes drive on the edge of town) and sat there waiting for 1 1-2 hrs to clear. During this time the girl spoke to a man and then realised she´d got on the wrong bus!! ... read more