Our first day in Arequipa we set about trying to book a tour of the Colca Canyon for the next day. We managed to find a cheap tour for 1 night that left the next day. Being tight as we are we opted for the budget accomodation option so were crossing our fingers it woiuld be ok. Tour booked we spent the day taking in Arequipa which we were pleasantly surprised by. Reading that it was Peru´s second largest city we both had visions of another Lima. However, it is much smaller, a lot prettier and less manic. The next mornign we got up and prepared for our Colca trip. We were collected by our guide and boarded the minibus. As we went round collecting the other people on our tour it became apparent that this ... read more

We took the overnight bus from Cusco and headed to Copacabana. We were assured that the bus was ´directo´but in true South American style ´directo´never actually means direct as we know it. About 40 mins from the Bolivian border all those going to Copa were told to get off the bus and collect their luggage. All 22 of us were then piled into a 15 seater collectivo and were driven the rest of the way to the border. At the border we all piled out again, got stamped out of Peru, walked across no mans land to the Bolivian border, got stamped into Bolivia and finally got back on our collectivo that was waiting at the other side for us. Worryingly the collectivo we got on had no tread on any of its tyres. Thankfully it ... read more

We arrived into Lima not quite knowing what to expect as the Lonely Planet paints quite a dark picture of Lima with theft and pollution. However, once we were out of the airport and in our taxi, whilst there seemed to be lots of pollution, it all seemed safe. We were staying in Miraflores, where most of the backpackers stay. We were only intending to stay the one night so we checked into our hostel and went for a walk about Miraflores. There is a park in the middle of the district which was heaving with people. There seemed to be some sort of flower sale with lots of stalls and as we walked further on we discovered a mini amphitheatre where people were just dancing to salsa playing from a sound system. There were dozens ... read more

Kat and I arrived on the Sunday lunch time just over a week after the wedding in New York. This must have been one of the most long anticipated honeymoons ever so we were really looking forward to arriving. We went straight to our hotel, well I say straight as it took us ages to negotiate the subway from JFK to our hotel on Long Island. Still we arrived eventually, the hotel in the middle of some warehouses, not the best area but had an amazing view over Manhattan, right next to the Queenboro Bridge. We went straight out once we had checked in to the hotel. We were pretty tired and a little jet lagged so we took it easy the first day. We went for a wander through Times Square and Central Park before ... read more

We've been on our hols round a few of the Balkan countries for almost a week now although it feels like much longer. We started by flying into Split where we got a bus to the centre from airport and met the girl whose apartment we were staying in, which was really nice, a tiny little thing which we had to ourselves with kitchen and everything you'd need for much longer than the one night we were staying. We took in the small town with it's nice waterfront, old Roman palace and random 'beach' (more like a bit of concrete with horrible pebbly bit) but it was hot all the same so it was really nice. After we had done that we inevitably ended up in several bars and stayed there for the day. We ate ... read more