Megzi

Peru I took and overnight flight to Lima followed by a flight to Arequipa and got there early in the morning. Arequipa The second largest city in Peru. High altitude, surrounded by volcanoes. The centre is very cool architecturally with cathedrals, monestaries, lots of Juliette balconies and courtyards. Lovely coffee shops, nice place to hang out for a day. The main reason why I wanted to do Arequipa was the Colca Canyon which is a very Deep canyon in the Andes. I did this with a 2 day trek tour with a very early pick up of 3am! We arrived at the Canyon after having breakfast in a town along the way and stopping to watch Condors. We then descended into the canyon and walked along the bottom for the day. We stopped for lunch and ... read more

Buenos Dias Minca From Cartagena I got a bus to Santa Marta which got in at half 8 so I had a sorting out evening and morning in Santa Marta. Thankfully, it was a little cooler than Cartagena but there is not much to do and the city lacks much character. I got a bus or ‘collectivo’ in late morning from Santa Marta to Minca. I have been staying at a super cool hostel called Casa Loma which is on the hill. There are private 1 bed huts which were a bargain so booked one of those. Minca is a village in the Sierra Nevada mountains and a backpacking haven, nice coffee shops, food and hostels. Lots of good walking and nature to enjoy. In the afternoon I got there I went to the Marinka waterfalls ... read more

Ubud was the perfect way to end the holiday. It is the cultural centre and heart of Bali. We decided to hi a driver for the day to take us from Seminyak to Ubud so we could do some cultural things around the island on our travels. First stop was the Balanese traditional dancing.... This was well... Interesting, I didn't really enjoy it that much but there was a crib sheet telling you about the story behind the dance and I found the culture and "myth" like aspect of the dancing interesting. For example the Barong is a good spirit and the Rangda a bad spirit and they basically battle during the dance, in which there is no winner. There's a lot of screaming and weird parts to this dance. In sure there are multiple but ... read more

so... My first 10 day trip in almost 2 years, and what other place to try other than Bali. Trip started in Seminyak, initially staying in a Airbnb in the North of Seminyak close to Batubelig. This was a nice little place with a pool and several apartments away from the main road. We were about 2 minutes walk from the beach and could hear it from the window. when we arrived we ventured north up the beach to a place called Finns Bar and had a few cocktails on the beachfront, we then had dinner at a little warung closer to town whilst the sun set. We headed to the infamous Potatohead which is a cool bar/club in Seminyak and then headed back home. The holiday has involved a lot of chilling but I feel ... read more

So after a long bus journey on a bus which stank of cockroach repellant, we arrived at Panama City. We were lucky as our room was available at 6am when we arrived so we went and crashed there for a few hours. That day we went to the infamous Panama Canal. We took a shuttle there from our hostel (Lunas Castle) in Casco Viejo- the old part of the town and went to the Miraflores Locks. Here they had a four story museum about the development of the canal and viewing points looking over the lock and allowing us to view the massive ships that go through. Due to the current usage of the canal they are trying to extend and widen it so they can get more and bigger vessels through. On our way back ... read more