30 months (or if you prefer 2.5 years) since leaving the UK way back in September 2006, we arrived home in, very surprisingly, a sunny England. Arriv…

A rather dull 2 hour stop in Doha, terribly over-priced duty free stuff too. We are flying with Qatar airlines (hence the stop in Doha) and it is the…

Back again to this great city! Ooh think I need to do a spot of shopping and have a hair cut! Not going to improve our mood and sadness much folllowi…

Feeling tired after an overnight bus ride from Mandalay, we decided to give the heat of the day a miss by catching a midday showing at a cinema in to…

Back to Mandalay after a long day visiting the sites of Amarapura, Inwa and Sagaing and where do we find ourselves for dinner? Back at the chapati st…

mtf with better connection

We arrived at the train station early to catch the 6am train to Mandalay. And of course the train was late. It was great waiting on the platform thou…

Bagan is simply amazing. Despite the intense heat we managed to get round a lot of the temples over 2 days. The first day we hired out rather crap bi…

3 day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake ...blog and zillions of pics to follow......Burmese internet not the best!!!! Stay tuned folks...

One hell of an uncomfortable 16 hour bus journey later, we arrived in the small town of Kalaw, at 3am! Luckily for us a chap spoke English and took…

Arrived in Myanmar and took the free shuttle from the airport to Motherland Guesthouse. Not a bad place to stay if a little frantic on check-in …

Our task: off the plane, into a hotel transfer pick up car, into the hotel room, into the shower, into bed, out of bed back into the airport transf…

A short flight from Phu Quoc back to Saigon and about 6 hours until our flight to BKK. So we left our bags at the storage in the airport (expensive! …

We took the 830am ferry to Phu Quoc, which took about 2.5 hours. Once on the island, we were immediately swarmed by taxi touts, saying that our hotel…

Arrived in the town of Rach Gia and found a really nice hotel round the corner from the bus station. It was late arvo when we arrived so we had a sho…

Photos to follow!!! We took the 2 day Mekong Delta trip from Saigon but instead of coming back to Saigon on the second day, we will be taking the…

We took the bus to the tunnels, a 3 hour drive away, an hour of which we sat in the Saigon traffic jams. We thought we were just getting the bus anyw…

We arrived in the bustling city of Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh. The sheer number of mopeds/motobikes here is incredible - we have been told that 1 in ever…

To avoid the annoying staff at OK guesthouse, we decided to try out the Sunday Guesthouse in a different area of town. The hostel was nice and the st…

We took the boat over to Rabbit Island or Koh Tonsay to use the Khmer name. The boat took about 30 mintues. We arrived on a little piece of paradise …

Arrived in the very hot little town of Kep on the coast of Cambodia. It took 4.5 hours on the bus along an insanely bumpy road that had us compl…

Our 5th and final day, we got up at a frightening 5am and Mr Chat and his tuktuk were waiting for us outside at 530am.  We a…

Took the bus to Phnom Penh, the hectic Cambodian capital, and went to the OK Guesthouse. Funny set-up here - the rooms are good, big, hot water, airc…

Blog to follow...

On our third day, we decided to hire a bike from our hostel ($2 per bike, the money going to charity). We peddled the easy 7km or so along the busy…

After a lazy morning, we took the tuktuk with Mr Chat to the Roulos group of ruins, out to the east of Angkor Wat. There were very few tourists h…

On our first day, we took a tuk-tuk to Angkor at around 3pm. We went with a tuktuk driver who practically camps outside our hostel, a guy called Chat…

Arrived at last in Siem Reap, after a long day of buses, tuktuks, taxis and hassle!! Siem Reap is quite busy with traffic but is a nice enough…

We took the bus from Bangkok to the border, to cross into Cambodia and onto Siem Reap. We took the local 'express' bus to the border (207 baht each) …

So we entered Cambodia and got our visa on arrival as we thought, proving the Thais were lying and trying to get an extra $20 out of us! Next proble…

Returned to Bangkok 8 years after last visiting this fantastically chaotic city. Trying to get our Burma visa, got told lots of conflicting things an…

Photos to follow very soon!!!! We arrived in Chaing Mai, 8 years after first coming here. Stayed in the old centre like most people, just a few door…

OK so we didn't plan this very well - our wedding anniversary on a bus all day and then arriving in the not great Chaing Rai but that's just how the …

Day 4 A terrible night's sleep, or lack there of; several times we were awoken by dogs barking, the bloody cockerels at it again, and memb…

We arrived back in Luang Nam Tha and civilisation at about 4pm, checking back into the hotel we stayed in before, and wished each other a happy …

Day 3 And so here it is, Day 3 and do we really have a 7 hour uphill hike today?? After brekkie of the last of the bread and some boiled eggs, we pa…

DAY 2 Up early with the villagers, the noisy cockerels and the barking dogs, we awoke to a rather lively scene in the house. 2 of the kids playing…

DAY ONE We all met at the office at 8am looking clean and sparklingly fresh. After leaving our luggage safely locked up in Pon's house, we climbed i…

We took the 11am minibus the 2 hours to Muang Sing, a tiny one-street kind of town. Our Dutch friends had gone ahead of us on the 8am bus and met us …

Took the bus to Luang Nam Tha. Now we knew it would be a bit of a long journey but 9 hours to drive 300km?? Now that is a bad road!!! The bus was sur…

Arrived back in Luang Prabang at about 5pm, looking forward to a hot shower and a change of clothes ahead of meeting up with our new Dutch pals, Tann…

After a blissful nights' sleep in our wooden hut, we got up to a chilly morning and back into our mahout outfits that were still cold …

We paid a small fortune ($90 each) to do the 2-day Mahout course - learning to become an elephant rider!! We were driven out to the elephant camp whe…

After a bit of an uncomfortable night with a tummy ache and feeling a bit sick, we set off from the village and across a bridge made from (very stron…

Day 2 Apart from being woken several times through the early hours by cockerals and barking dogs, we slept pretty well. We had breakfast of a hot to…

We booked ourselves rather enthusiastically onto a 3-day trip from Luang Prabang. The beauty of having so many tourist agents in town is that you can…

We took a trip out to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls with one of the many companies in town for 40,000 kip each. We arrived at the falls and were given 2 ho…

Arrived in the stunning town of Luang Prabang after a bus journey that felt like it would never end. The scenery on the way was beautiful and was lov…

OK OK so we bitched about it yesterday but hey ho it was only a matter of time before we stopped being grumpy long enough to join in!! By …

OK so I am going to have a whinge because I am not 22 anymore.....Arriving in Vang Vieng was like going to a typical SE Asian town that has become ov…

Arrived in Vientiane, the Laos capital and got a tuk tuk to our hostel. The cool air immediatly hit us after the heat of Malaysia! Vientiane is a l…

We flew back to KL and managed to hit rush hour once we got to Sentral from the airport (via the Skybus). We eventually got to our hotel, the Citrus,…

Waking up to the pouring rain was not the most inviting morning to go out looking at apes. A pick up from the hostel took us to the nearby Semen…

After a 16 hour overnight bus from Miri, we arrived in the Sarawak city of Kuching. We checked into Hostel 121 and were very happy with our pick. A l…

We got up early and headed to the bus station, about a ten minute walk from the hotel. We got on a bus to Seria, which took about 2 hours. Once at Se…

The second boat took us from Labuan to Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei, or as everyone calls it, BSB. The second boat had arctic aircon and the second …

Up early to catch the ferry to Brunei. The first part of the trip was a 2-hour ferry to the Malay island of Labuan, where we went through the immigra…

We tried our luck once more with a massage and found a place that had some deals on. We were very worried about it being another torture incident but…

The train ended in Beaufort, where Jeffrey was waiting for us to take us back to KK!! A great day out!!

Today we went white water rafting with River Junkies that was so widely advertised at Scuba Junkies in Semporna. We got picked up from our hostel by …

I woke this morning, to realise in utter horror that I turn 30 this year. After a very slow morning of feeling delicate, we left Semporna for the a…

And here it is....NYE 2008 is here already. We spent the day lazing about, sending emails, getting laundry done, the usual really. Then an afternoon …

We got picked up by the Scuba Junkies boat from the longhouse thinking we were going to Kapalai today for our last snorkel trip. However, the boss of…

On the way back from Sipadan, we got dropped off on Mabul island to stay at the longhouse of a local family. The longhouse is a basic but comfy place…

And so the day arrives for us to go to Sipadan. We had booked this in advance which is the best thing to do as everyone who goes to Sipadan needs a p…

Our first snorkel trip was to Sibuan island. We were pretty much ignored by the 2 Scuba Junkies staff on the boat so we just jumped into the cool wat…

Pics on their way in a few days......Christmas eve and we got on a bus to Semporna. 5.5 hours later that seemed double that, we arrived in the busy…

With our plans to go on the 3 day trip into the jungle with Uncle Tan's ruined by their flooded out camp, we had a few extra days to kill ahead of go…

We set off to Sepilok, an easy 30 minute bus ride from Sandakan. We stopped the night at the Sepilok B&B and then spent the morning at the Orang-…

On arriving in Sepilok we stopped at the Sepilok B&B and then walked the km to the Jungle resort for a spot of lunch. The rain came down juts as …

We had set the alarm for 2am but the dorm full of aussie teens next door woke us up at 130am so we got up and dressed quickly, somehow forcing co…

After a bit of a nightmare getting to Sandakan from the park, we arrived at the very excellent May Fair hotel, run by the rather aggressive in a…

So this is it, the climb to Mount Kinabalu. Very excited, we arrived at the park at about 8am and did the whole signing up and handing over a lot of …

Spent a few days ahead of our climb in a hostel just outside the park and had a walk around the very wet and muddy tracks in the park. The hostel was…

Flew into the rather hectic and rundown city of KK after our first Air Asia flight experience. Nice enough plane and staff but the race to get on was…

So our camera decided to die with only a few months left of this trip, how flippin annoying is that!! So we spent our day in KL dragging around the z…

Arrived in the very busy Melaka, our first stop in Malaysia. It is OK here, not what I was expecting really, the quaint little streets lined with old…

Let's just say we were seriously pissed off that we had to leave Australia. Love it love it love it. First stop on our Asian trip is Singapore. We …

Back to Darwin to drop of the campervan and to do some chores. We stayed at the very nice Palms Hotel which we got at a very good rate just by walkin…

After the Territory Wildlife park, we stopped off at the Berry Springs park for some lunch and a dip. A path lead down to a waterfall spilling into a…

We spent the morning at the very wonderful Territory Park near Berry Springs, not too far south of Darwin. This place is incredible - a massive park …

Had a drive through the beautiful Litchield National Park stopping off at the main sites for a look, some pics and even got a swim at the croc-free B…

At Nourlangie, we got our first experience of Aboriginal rock art. The path from the carpark took us on a 2km loop along a rocky path and past some i…

The Yellow River trip was the main reason for our 400km detour into Kakadu. As we are now in 'The Wet' , Jim Jim and Twin Falls are closed along with…

Well we just had to go. We were so close to Adelaide River from Litchfield that we made the detour, and yes yes the real reason why we went here was …

Took a detour off the highway to go to Edith Falls, So hot and sticky in the mid-40's heat, we were looking very forward to a refreshing dip, as our …

We headed out of town to Katherine Gorge, or Nitmiluk as it is really called. We arrived early in an attempt to beat the heat how silly we were for t…

Had a day off from driving (and therefore spending money in fuel) and chilled out at the campsite with books and the scrabble board. Got  a fant…

We stopped off at the Devil's Marbles site and had a wander around these very strange and marvellous geological features. They are quite something an…

After an absolute mammoth day of driving, we arrived in Mataranka and stopped at the campsite that lured us with its short path leading to some natur…

Took a detour to Daly Waters, a tiny little outback town with the dusty dirt roads that one might imagine from an outback town. We stopped at the fam…

We had planned to stop the night in Tennant Creek but it was only about midday and well, it didn't really look all that appealing. So we filled up on…

On our way out of Alice we took a detour out west to the MacDonnell ranges. We first stopped at Simpson's Gap and had a walk up the hill and back for…

We came across the Tropic of Capricorn so obviously we had to stop for a pic of Simon driving the van over the line, half way of course!

We stopped the night at Wycliffe Well, another one of those campsite/fuel station/cafe in one that is the only sign of human life in several hundred …

Drove through the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek. Now when I say settlement I actually mean a petrol station that doubles as a cafe and a campsite. …

The third day of our Ayers Rock pass so up again at 445am and the out to the sunrise point. There were a lot more people here today than yesterday ev…

Stopped off at Stuart's Well for some more fuel and a drink. The owner chatted to us and said he is originally from Birmingham and has been out here …

We stopped in Alice for a few nights to have a few days of chilling out and to catch up on laundry duties. We had some spectacular sunsets in Alice…

Alarm goes off at 445am - Happy Birthday to me!!! Up, chuck on clothes, clean teeth and off we go, heading out to Ayers Rock for the sunrise. The wea…

We drove from Ayers Rock to the Olgas, about 40km away. We arrived at about midday and both pretty tired from an early start, we crashed out in the c…

After driving for what felt like 29 hours, we came across a lookout on the side of a road and pulled in, maily because there was a loo and we had dow…

We arrived at te resort town of Yalara and were quite taken by the size of the resort. There are several hotels, a huge campsite, a supermarket, lots…

A flight into the middle of Australia brought us to the city of Alice Springs, a nice little place and a lot more modern than I was expecting. T…

We woke early to get to the Canyon car park for about 545am. There isn't really a viewing area for the sunrise so we scoffed down some museli, got ou…

A quick stop in Darwin for a day ahead of an early morning flight to Alice. Now why oh why did we take advantage of very cheap jugs of beer, didn't r…

A day at one of the water parks on the Gold Coast, a very good park with some super rides. The first one we tried was terrifying and brilliant! ('The…

A few nights with friends at their lovely house in Cashmere, north of Brissy. Huge storms on Sunday evening, lots of destruction caused and we lost e…

Did the tourist thing and went to Asutralia zoo or Steve Irwin's zoo as it is probably better known as. It is a big big place and…

Did the tourist thing and took the scenic railway to Kuranda and then the sky rail (or cable car) back. The rail journey was brilliant, the train ver…

Back in Cairns after our boat trip return on Sunday evening, we went to a pub for dinner called the Cock and Bull for some reason we renamed it the C…

For Simon's birthday treat, we went out to the GB Reef on the Vagabond boat for 2 days, sleeping aboard the boat in little cabins somewhere out there…

For Simon's 30th birthday pressie from me, he got a skydive!! Desperate to have another go at this fantastic adrenaline rush since we did our first j…

Back to Cairns in the evening for a big birthday BBQ, cold beers and another birthday cake with another round of Happy Birthday singing. Simon did hi…

Stopped off at Port Douglas for a walk along 4-mile beach and for a drink. Was a nice beach, the water was warm and it was quite busy despite th…

At the end of the paved road is Cape Tribulation, a beautiful and tropical little place with a few places to stay and eat, and a few shops. We stoppe…

For our last night in Freo and indeed in WA, we celebrated with a pint at Little Creatures. We first went to the one in Melbourne and loved…

We booked the ferry to Rottnest Island from our campsite in Freo, which included a free return transfer from the campsite to the ferry dock. We …

We bought ourselves some snorkel masks today and promptly went off to the snorkelling haven that the lady in the shop recommended to us...a marine pa…

Went out on a boat today to cruise along the Humpback Highway and see if we could spot some Humpback and Blue whales. Well we did!! They were a bit m…

Stopped the night at Dongara camp site not a great deal going on really and the beach was covered in smelly sea weed! Just before we got to the Don…

Passed through the small town of Northampton on a day that the village choose to be the 'Airing of the Quilts' day. We saw the sign as we came into t…

Visited the beautiful National Park of Kalbarri ($10 per car for anyone thinking of going). We just visited the gorges of Hawkes Head and Ross Graham…

We got up early to make the drive to Monkey Mia, about 25km further on from Denham. MM is a resort on the beach really, and is famous for the dolphin…

After driving for hours and hours along a road that did not change at all, we finally got to Denham, a gorgeous seaside town with white sandy beaches…

We arrived in Perth at around 11pm and decided that we wanted to sleep in a bed as opposed to the airport floor as originally intended. Of course thi…

Went down to Port Arthur in the hope of walking around the ruins. They wanted nearly $30 each to do this and we thought why would we want to pay out …

Drove up the winding road of Mount Wellington to get engulfed in a very strong and freezing cold wind and to take in the magnificent views of Hobart …

We drove all the way to Deloraine in order to be close to Cradle Mountain. We went via Launceston and I must say this place had a pretty do…

Great town to stop at, although all we did here was checked out the blow hole (timing it perfectly for a snap after several practice shots) and bough…

Lovely little seaside town of Swansea was home for the night. Very very windy but sunny and lovely. Lovely little seaside and beach then rolling cout…

Nice little village of Richmond looking very quaint and english (and yes a bit chilly too to complete the english theme). Very historical for Austral…

Arrived in a grey-skied Hobart and felt the cooler air straight away! Hobart seemed very quiet, even at the market at Salamanca Place. We watched a b…

Around the world today lots of crazy people got up early to run 10km in various cities around the world as part of the Nike Human Race. With me out o…

Today we went to the massive MCG to watch Carlton play Richmond. The MCG or 'the G' to locals - only Aussies could abbreviate an abbreviation - has …

Our weekend away in Brissie didn't start brilliantly...on the tram on the way to the airport we got a text from Jetstar to say our flight had been de…

Went out to country Victoria today to the Dandenongs to breathe some country air. We ended up taking the tourist option and climbed aboard Puffi…

Arrived in melbourne at lunch time and we found a flat within an hour and moved in!!! Our new pad is in St Kilda overlooking the sea and we have made…

OK so maybe we are depressed because dad & sue have left and we won't see them again for a year or maybe its because it is hammering down wi…

Journey back to the Blue Mountains and the roads getting here were a nightmare! We thought we couldn't use the toll as we weren't registered so we av…

Stayed in the lovely seaside town of Kiama in some fab and very posh cabins that provided our very own stray cat that we called smoky. We bought a ma…

Dad and Sue arrived in Sydney looking rather jet lagged after their direct flight from the UK.  Always break up that journey people. We spent …

Mardi Gras is one of the most colourful days on the Sydney calendar...folk from all over Oz gather and have a gay old time on the streets culminating…

Wow! What a year we've had to start our married life....... February 5th...Got married at sunset on a beach in Costa RicaMarch 5th...Full moon hiked…

Unfortuantely it was chucking it down, grey and cold on our second day so we got a coffee and cake and waited for a lift back to Sydney.

Yup, still raining in Sydney. Oh well back to work and all that.

Went to the beautiful Blue Mountains to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, stayed at a hostel in Katoomba and went for a walk around the sites …

Simon and Damon went off for a snorkel off Clovelly and saw lots of underwater wonders. Left their towels out in the open, which proceeded to get soa…

New Years Eve in Sydney is simply awesome. NYE has always been a bit crap in my opinion, always seems to be a lot of build up and then always a littl…

Christmas Day in Sydney, a little grey and bleak but warmer than home right now. After pressies we went off for a long walk around the botanical gard…

Arrived in Australia!! Lucky to have been picked up from the airport and given a place to stay by some great Aussie friends of ours. Then moved over …

Spent the rest of our last week in NZ on a beach front campsite just north of Auckland. No sandflies! woohoo!! Fab campsite one of the best we have s…

Stopped off at Waipoua Kauri forest to see the absolutely massive kuari trees. Had a wonder through the forest and there are groups of these huge nat…

Arrived in the much hyped about bay of islands and we were rather disappointed. OK so the weather was crap, it was cold and the campsite was a bit ru…

Our intended stop for the night ended up with us carrying on at a hurried speed. Not a very nice town at all and the campsite we tried was a scary ex…

After packing up the tent, we began the walk along the coastline towards Awaroa. We walked along the beack of Onetahuti until we reached the path tak…

After driving along the dirt track to Totaranui, we parked the car and headed off to the beautiful beach. the weather was perfect with not a cloud in…

To make my birthday unique this year, we stayed in a renovated gypsy caravan bus!!! We arrived at the very private and secluded area overlooking a de…

Spent Simon's birthday celebrating in Queenstown and did an excellent job of eating some great grub (Speight's Ale House pub) and drank a worrying am…

Decided to trek up to the summit of Ben Lomond, got great views across Queenstown and the Remarkables mountains and the lake. Heck of a climb but gre…

England 14 - France 9. Whooohooo!!!!

Headed to the little town of Methven in order to do the Mount Somers trek. Went to the office to book our hut tickets only to be told the weather wou…

back to nelson following our tent flooding incident and feeling rather soggy.

So off we went on our first NZ tramp - 5 days along the coastal track of the gorgeous Abel Tasman. The first 2 days were beautiful, sunny and clear. …

Had a stroll around the beautiful Lake Rotoiti, all very cold looking with snow capped mountains around the lake. Looked very south Argentina. The pa…

Arrived in the lovely town of Nelson to meet up with more of Simon's family and have been given a place to stay. The sight of a washing machine has n…

Caught the ferry across to the south island. Never driven a car onto a ferry before, how exciting! Got the 8pm ferry across so didn't get to see a lo…

Windy Wellington lived up to its name as we went for a lovely walk up a hill overlooking the city and nearly got blown off the side by gusts of gale …

Our first Lord of the Rings film location - drove through the National park of Tongariro and had fab views of Mount Doom and of Mordor.

We have arrived in New Zealand and although we are feeling like zombies from the flight and losing a day in time (how? I mean, just how?), we are lov…

Arriving in Santiago at 7am after 2 days of bus travel, it is time to use up the day of waiting for our flight to update and complete our Year in Lat…

Here we are back in Mendoza, about 7 months after first coming here. As we only had about 3 hours in Mendoza before getting back onto the bus for our…

So after leaving our home in the jungle with 3 aussie birds and a Dutchman, we all seemed to be heading the same direction, through road blocks, dodg…

Ahhhh Bolivia...... we left Santa Cruz along with Timo and the 3 Aussie chicas and off we went on our long day bus to Salta, Argentina. Well this was…

After a very, very long journey from the Park, we arrived back in Santa Cruz, accompanied by 4 of our jungle buddies, Timo a Dutch bloke, and 3 Aussi…

And some more.....

More pics from our jungle volunteering experience .......

So off we went for 2 and a half weeks to an animal rescue centre in the middle of the Bolivian jungle, not really knowing what to expect. It was simp…

Yay its warm!! Santa Cruz has defrosted the icicles and allowed us to take off the thermals. Very sunny and hot but windy. Having a few days chilling…

Back to La Paz for a night of rest and recovery for Simon`s poor tummy. La Paz is freezing!!

Despite Simon`s poorly tummy, he was determined to see the Isla del Sol so we booked a boat ticket to the beautiful Inca island. Despite the chill in…

After 4 years, we returned to the beautiful Lago Titicaca, this time staying on the Bolivian side of Copacobana, touristy little place with load…

Arrived bright and early in Arica and booked straight onto the next bus to La Paz. Got a newspaper and learnt that an earthquake had hit Pe…

Arrived back in La Paz, 4 years after first visiting this city. We just love the place, it is so different, quirky and, well, Bolivian! Spent a few d…

We are just like soooo glad we don`t have to stop here....

It`s bus change time and on with the mammouth journey all-in-1-go to San Pedro...

So off we toddled on a day trip to the Atacarma desert. After an early start and a rather quick decision that our very over-the-top guide was going t…

Arrived in the nice little town of Villarrica and had our second fantastic view of the perfect cone of Volcan Villarrica, with its sno…

This is a proper shit hole. Bus changes only.

With every warm and thermal layer on, we headed out into the dazzling sun and for a walk in the snow at Llao Llao. The area here is just beautiful, w…

As we want to have another look at Chile, we decided that we could just about justify another visit to Bariloche! We were last here in November when …

And here we are again, back in the beautiful wonderful amazing city that is Buenos Aires. We managed to time our 2-night visit on the weeke…

Almost 10 months after first seeing the Iguazu Falls from Argentina, we have returned to see the Falls once again, this time on the Brazilian side. …

Arrived in Foz, the Brazilian town for the Iguazu Falls. Visited the Falls from the Argentine side back in October, so looking forward to seeing the …

Popped over to Paraguay for a few hours of cheap electronics shopping!! Bought a 1GB memory stick for 7 quid! Place is amazing although most vendors …

Back to Campo Grande to a much-needed hot shower and a warm bed!!! Yay!!!

Getting used to the 6am starts now - woke up a few minutes before the bell sounded! This morning, our last Pantanal activity, we took a short walk th…

Up again at 6am and off for another walk at 7. This time we waded through (shockingly cold) water in some places and couldn´t help but think of…

As promised, the breakfast bell rang at 6am and we struggled out of the tent into the freezing cold morning air. Blurry eyed (and not bushy tailed) w…

Our Pantanal trip started at the respectable hour of 1130am after a leisurely brekkie. The bus took about 4 hours to reach the park entrance and from…

Arrived in Campo Grande on an overnight bus from Brasilia and at last, a well-planned hostel. The youth hostel is opposite the bus station so no hass…

Arrived in Brasilia at 1030pm, tired and aching. Straight to bed, very nice to stretch out and lay flat!! Not much to do in the capital of…

Where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic, the city of Belem marked the end of our Amazon river boat experience. Having completed the 48-hour boat jo…

Back to the hammocks on a new boat, ´The Amazon Star´, we continued the journey along the amazon river, much closer to the bank this time. We saw p…

This is paradise!!! Arrived at the sweltering ´beach´town of Alter do Chao, a tiny little place that has nothing more than a holiday feel to it. We…

Stopped in Santarem for the night, an OK town on the Amazon river and the place to get to Alter do Chao from. So hot here it is unbearable.

We found our boat among the masses of huge passenger and cargo boats in the dock that would be home for the next 36 hours. The sleeping dec…

Arrived in Manaus at 9am and headed to a hotel, expecting a shithole (have heard very bad things about all things Manaus). Pleasantly surprised and a…

Arrived in Boa Vista after a cab ride here from the border, sharing the cab with a local man and a woman who was completely pissed. She would be asle…

We took a day trip to see the highlights of the Gran Sabana. The weather was crap and rained most of the day (I guess thats why they call it The Rain…

Overnight bus from Ciudad Bolivar brought us to Santa Elena, the town in the middle of the Gran Sabana. We arrived at 9am and really hoped there woul…

The journey back to C. Bolivar involved 3 hours in a minibus that must have been 200 years old and had brakes that needed an hours`notice. We called …

After brekkie, it was back to the boat for another few hours along the river to reach the start point of the trek to the falls. We arrived at a littl…

We opted for the cheaper way to get to Canaima. Big mistake. .. Instead of flying straight from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, we got a 2.5 hour rid…

Due to  our late arrival yesterday, we got to go on an extra excursion today before heading into the jungle. We went for a nice little walk to r…

We arrived in Ciudad Bolivar after two 12-hour bus rides in one go. Ciudad Bol is a nice little town although very very hot, and is on the Orino…

Football fever is here!! Went to the opening game of the Copa America to see Peru beat Uruguay 3-0. Was a great match, great atmosphere and had great…

So this is what it´s like to glide like an eagle through the air!!! Our next adventure trip involved us putting our lives into the ´hands´of natur…

There is an ice-cream shop in Merida that is in the Guiness Book of Records for having over 900 flavours of ice cream!! We went to check it out but w…

After succesfully getting across the border without getting strip-searched (we had heard stories) we changed buses at San Cristobal and endured the 5…

After a long bus ride from Bu-crap-amaranga and not arriving here until 7pm we had to face the fact that we were going to have to stop the night…

What a crap place to get stuck in for the night.

Got the bus out to this little mountain village to have a nose about. The bus journey here was along a very windin twisty road through beautiful scen…

Spent a few days in this mountain town. Enjoyed a lovely walk in the park that had massive trees with silvery stuff hanging from the branch…

OK now this was weird. We went out to this little town to see an underground cathedral built into a salt mine. Yep thats right. And it was so strange…

Arrived in Colombia`s capital after 20 hours on the bus! A lot cooler here than the sweltering Cartagena, thankfully. Bogota is a very nice capita…

Now this was fun!! Got a bus out to this little volcano on the lakeside. The volcano looked like a giant ant hill.  Climbed up the steep …

Arrived in Cartagena, Colombia to rain!! Cartagena is that place with the huge forts where Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner escaped from some na…

Got stuck in Panama City for 4 nights trying to sort out a boat to Cartagena only to find there are none running at this time of the year. So then we…

Arrived back in San Jose at midnight and went back to the hostel we stayed at when we were in San Jose last time round back in Feb. All very surreal,…

After a 5am start from Xela to Guat City, we then got on the 3pm bus from Guat City to San Salvador. Arrived at about 8pm and popped the bags in stor…

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Off we went today to the glorious hot springs just about 30 mins out of Xela on a chicken bus to Zunil. Hopped into the back of a pick-up truck that …

After a rather tiresome 5 hour journey from Guat City, we arrived back in the lovely city of Xela. We came back here to do the 6-day trek from Nebaj …

Overnight stop in the Capital after a long bus journey through beautiful mountain scenery from Lanquin to Coban then Coban to Guat City. Popped to …

Went off in search of the famed-with-travellers Semuc Champey. The very bumpy and unsteady ride standing in the back of a pick up truck took us …

After a very long bus ride from Guatemala City to Coban and then onto a minibus from Coban to Lanquin, we came across the most brilliant hostel ever!…

We took the private transfer from Copan to Guatemala City to avoid changes and waiting around etc. The minibus dumped us at a shopping mall about 3 …

We arrived in the town of Copan Ruinas, the same name as the ruins just down th road.  We found a great hotel, one of the nicest …

For some reason, we decided to visit the little town of Santa Rosa. We got here on a Sunday and the place was just dead. Nothing was open and everyon…

San Pedro Sula is not a very nice place. We ended up here as we had to go to STA to try and sort out a flight to Columbia. The flights turned ou…

Arrived in Honduras following a bouncy boat ride across the Caribbean from Belize. From Puerto Cortez, got a ride all the way to San Pedro Sula. Th…

Placencia has a fantastic vibe, a gorgeous beach and loads of activities (if you arrive with more cash than we did). The bus from Hopkins takes you …

So, how to sum up Hopkins? Dull just about covers it. Anyway we got off the bus and saw the signs for Kismet Inn at the crossroads. '10 minutes thi…

We got the little motorised boat out to the Caye across very choppy waters. It was terrifying. The trip took about 40 minutes and the whole time all …

more to follow

OK so for some reason we considered stopping here for a night after the long and hot bus journey this far. However, Belize City is pretty horrible an…

So we planned to go to Hopkins but decided to get off the bus at Dangriga instead. 3 boys from London also stopped at Dangriga and joined us in the c…

We saw some incredible ruins at Palenque so we thought Tikal would be just another bunch of similar ruins. How wrong we were!!! Tikal ruins are just …

We discovered to our horror that on leaving Mexico we had to pay around 15 quid each to leave (237 pesos each). Of course we didn`t have this much Me…

About 15 mins in the minibus from the Palenque ruins, we got  to the beautiful waterfall of Misoh-Ha. Walked along the back wall of the falls so…

WOW!!! The Palenque ruins are amazing!!! (or Awesome if I were an American). They are huge, sprawling and just incredible. There were a heck of a lot…

The last place on our day trip was to Agua Azul, a gorgeous collection of turquoise blue-green pools following a low but wide waterfall.  After…

Have arrived in the town of Palenque and it is well and truly built for tourists. Not much to do here except sit and type this and wowsers is it hot,…

We got a minibus to San Juan Chemula based on the idea that Sundays are a great market day, the church is amazing and the locals drink Coke as a kind…

San Cristobal is a lovely if touristy town but what the heck, theres lots of nice food and plenty of places to enjoy a cerveza or two. Mexico has lot…

Back to Xela after the trek via a very long bus journey. We were going to go for a celebratory curry but started to feel dodgy. This d…

Another day, another trek! This time a 3-day trek starting in Xela and ending at Lake Atitlan. Can`t be bothered to type this now but there are heaps…

Took a chicken bus out to this little village in the mountains with a few people from our spanish school. The smaller of the 2 yellow churches was a …

Easter weekend! Or as they call it in Latin America - Semana Santa. Basically they really go for the religious thing here, neing Catholics but we jus…

Woken up again at 4am, everyone reluctantly bundled out of sleeping bags and tents into the very crisp (ie freezing) morning on the mountain. At 430a…

What shall we do this weekend? Humm climb to the highest point of Central America of course!! After getting up at 4am we arrived at the Quetzaltrekk…

Arrived in Quetzaltenango or as it is called by everyone except the map, Xela, after a 7-hour bus journey from the capital that was supposed to be 4 …

Arrived in Guatemala city long enough to get a cab to another bus company and to catch the next bus out to Xela. Didn`t really see much of Guat Cit…

Not much to report on this place other than the new bus terminal was nice and it was easy to find our connecting bus to San Sal. All I can say abou…

Back to San Sal for a night at the very nice hostel from last week. Packed but not ready to leave El Salvador - it is a great place and thi…

Spent the day chicken bus hopping between pretty little cobblestone villages along the Ruta de Flores. As the name suggests, the roads…

We stopped for a night in the little village of Juayua, on the Ruta de Flores. Nice enough little place, cobblestone streets and, like everywhere i…

About time we did something else adventurous and, well, dangerous. Let`s go waterfall diving!! Together with Manolo, our crazy guide, a German girl …

OK so we missed the bus to our intended destination of Cerro Verde by 30 minutes (it seems that the bus times have changed since the bloody guidebook…

We got the bus to Tacuba only to find that half way into the journey the road was blocked and so we had to all pile off the bus and walk. The driver …

We left our big packs in our hostel in San Sal and off we went in search of a bus to Santa Ana, the first stop on our 5-day trip around western El Sa…

We enjoyed a lovely peaceful afternoon wandering around the pretty cobbled town of Suchitoto. We then walked down to the nearby lake along more cobbl…

Feeling much better today so off we toddled to a very busy and very smelly bus station, Terminal de Oriente. The station is used as a public uri…

After getting back to San Sal, we headed off in search of the Military History Museum. Lots of armed guards on the gate met us and we thought we had …

Arrived in San Salvador after a nice n comfy bus ride courtesy of King Quality. Found a lovely, clean and cosy hostel in a nicer part of town (Casa T…

OK so why is it that when you stay in the cheapest, grubbiest place in 6 months with a toilet that is not only a long walk from your room but is…

Arrived in Ocotal, little place just about an hour from Somoto. Not much to do here really, just hopped on the next bus at Somoto. Found a hostel tha…

We had planned on getting up and visiting a cigar factory this morning but as we drank too much beer last night and slept through the alarm we change…

After dragging our lazy arses away from Leon, we hopped on a bus to Esteli, up north. Arrived to a slightly cooler air than Leon (wonderful) and chec…

Another day, another volcano! This hike was to have a different ending though as instead of walking down the mountain, the descent of this volcano wa…

It was full moon today and what else is there to do on a full moon than go for a nice walk? A company called Quetzeltrekkers organises a monthly trek…

After several drinks too many at the Brit-run bar of our hostel, we had a mad moment and decided it would be a great idea to go for a boogey&nbs…

Arrived in the city of Leon today and thought maybe it might be cooler than the sweltering Granada. Nope it is hotter. The area we are in now is the …

We climbed into a 4x4 jeep with 4 other gringos and headed off towards the Volcano Mombacho park. We drove to the top of the volcano up a very steep …

We left Managua as soon as we possibly could and got a cab to the minivan station. Before the taxi had stopped, bus touts had opened the boot and gra…

Don´t go to Managua it is horrible. We only went there because we (stupidly) ran out of money and there was no ATM or travellers cheques changing pl…

After easily getting our exit stamp at immigration we then had to pay US$1 each exit duty (legit? hummm) and then paid 5000 colones each for the…

We decided to cross into Nicaragua a different way to the boring old bus route so we got a bus from San Jose to the border town of Los Chiles. We sto…

The last full day with the England gang and Simon and I thought we better find something fun for us all to do together. Ahhh rafting!! Always fun to …

Today we gave canyoning a go, what the heck we might as well break some bones in a fun sort of way. After being told by the owner that canyoning is '…

The boys went off on quad-bikes and the girls went for a spot of horse riding..... Horses Our horses were lovely little things but had crap bridles…

After a leisurely morning, we hopped on board a (very) cramped minibus and headed out along a road that skirted around the active-on-a-daily-bas…

We got picked up by our fab little private transfer bus and travelled from Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna. Another great journey of stunning scenery an…

Wedding Day!!!!! Woohoo profesh hair and make up!! Had a right shock when I looked in the mirror after my make up was finished - quite a shocke…

Today we changed hotels and went to the Buena Vista Villas. Here we will spend the next 3 nights and get married on the private beach of the complex.…

We booked onto the catamaran tour again as we were so impressed the first time and so that the wedding/England gang could experience sailing at sunse…

We were picked up from La Sabana and were driven the 4 hours to Manuel Antonio in our comfy private bus (travelling with the folks from Eng…

The first afternoon of the Wedding Gang`s holiday was spent on a `sunset tour`in the Sarapiqui area of Costa Rica. After a few hours on a privat…

We met the wedding gang at the airport at around 9pm. Very exciting stuff, never met anyone at the airport before, and so when 8 people show up …

Spent next few days ahead of the arrival of the wedding party sorting stuff out, organising tours and accommodation, and getting our hair cut in…

Managed to drag ourselves away from the pool long enough to go out to sea on a catamaran. We spent the afternoon sailing leisurely at sea and watched…

We have spent the last week being very lazy chilling out in the sun and relaxing in and out of  the pool. We have had the swimming pool to ourse…

We stayed a second day in Crapos, not sure why although the small swimming pool at the hostel was probably something to do with it. We took a bit of …

We (somehow) managed to get on the 6am bus to Puntarenas from Monteverde. The journey started off very cold but soon warmed up to sweltering temperat…

We got the jeep-boat-jeep on a misty rainy morning from La Fortuna to Monteverde. The first jeep was a crap minibus, hardly the 4-wheel drive we…

So nice to be out of the city again... The bus trip is four hours of beautiful views and rolling hills. Ria tells me - I slept for the whole journey…

We left the tropical rain storms behind in Panama and arrived in San Jose on Friday afternoon. San Jose is, in a word, a hole. We stayed in a hostel …

 

We have spent the last 10 days being very lazy people here on the Bocas del Toro islands and have enjoyed a very different Christmas. The first 5 day…

We arrived on Isla Colon, the biggest and busiest of the Bocas del Toro islands. It is the first time for both of us in the Caribbean and we were gre…

We landed in Panama City at about 930am local time and decided not to even bother stopping for the night. We got a cab to the other airport and manag…

As our flight was due at 5am Sunday morning, we packed our bags and left them in the hostel storage for the day and wasted the afternoon wandering ar…

Had a few days in Santiago, just enough time to sort out post and our flights to Panama. We sent a load of gear home as now heading fo…

We spent 5 days in the wondefully hot and sunny Mendoza, a great city full of leafy plazas and street-side cafes. We found a super campsite about 6km…

To say we had a good nights´sleep would be a lie. The wind rattled against the tin walls and it was very very cold, despite sleeping in thermal laye…

So we made the 7am bus - first challenge over. About an hour later, we were dropped off at Lanin´s park guardaria to sign in, just 5km from the Chil…

Junin de los Andes was a next stop as we wanted to have a go at climbing the Volcano Lanin and Junin is the closest town to it. We were greeted by a …

Have arrived in a lovely little place just 90 mintues from Bariloche. It is warm and sunny so we are camping again (cheap!! horah!!) and just enjoyin…

We spent today trekking around the Nahuel Huapi Lake and it was so beautiful, with the clear skies, very warm sun (not used to this) and turquoise bl…

I had a very memorable 27th birthday and spent most of the day in a river!! We went 'duckie-ing'. A duckie is the inventive name given to a&nbsp…

After a 32 hour bus journey, which went quite quickly due to the for-once decent films that we got on board, we arrived in the lake-side town of Bari…

Here we are back in El Calafate and as it is Sunday, we can't book any bus tickets as the offices are all shut. Make the most of the cheap wine and P…

The last 2 days in El Chalten gave us wonderful clear skies and so we actually got to see the mountains! Horah! Fitz Roy suddenly appeared, looming a…

After being inspired to new heights chatting to a Canadian who has just climbed Mount Fitz Roy we head back to town for hot chocolate. We unzipped t…

We set off on our intended 4-day trek complete with tent and supplies and began our adventure by walking the route to the Cerro Torre campsite. Half …

So, it's 10.30pm, its pissing down with rain and we have been dropped off in El Chalten. Now, El Chalten has no street lights, paved roads or pavemen…

Our last day in the Park was a rainy one so packing the tent up was quite comical, if a little soggy. We just hhad enough time to clamber up to anoth…

Today we were blessed with perfect weather, beautiful sun, clear blue skies and no wind. So off we went minus waterproof coats and fle…

After a particularly crunchy start to the day - the dust was everywhere - we hit the trail to Refugio Lago Pehoe. Again, the walk was across gently u…

Wow - what a way to start the day...our wonderfully sheltered tent pitch had fantastic views of the seemingly endless rolling valleys and faraway sno…

Having gotten wet and cold on the way down from the viewpoint on day one we felt a bit 'under the weather' when we woke after our first nig…

Along the Big W you have 3 options.... Camp Refugio Day trip Camping is available at loads of sites along the trek - at areas called 'ca…

The bus picked us up at our hostel at 0715 after making the most of a shower and shampoo. Then we did five slightly different circuits of Puerto Nata…

We have learned a very important lesson...ALWAYS fly to and from Ushuaia. After the joy of the El Calafate-Ushuaia bus journey we could barely conta…

We somehow managed to drag our arses out of bed to catch the 9am bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park, just as the snow started to fall. We arrive…

Simon's Birthday!!! Much colder today as we head down to the dockside to catch a boat, followed by Peloosa, our hostel dog. Simon's choice of b…

Today we slung on the boots and packs and walked from Ush into the mountains behind the city. We climbed up through gorgeous alpine forests until we …

At last we arrived, and flippin heck its cold. The journey was a nightmare - left Calafate at 3am (after sitting in the bus station from 11pm) and ar…

An early start and our first time waking up in sub 20 degree temperatures was a real shocker...thank goodness for our Thermarests!! After an hours b…

At last! The Andes are in sight! El Calafate is a very touristy town but has great views of snow-capped mountains and a Flamingo-inhabited lake …

Note to self: starting a 17-hour bus journey with a hangover is NOT a good idea. Stopped in Rio Gallegos to catch a bus to Ushuaia. As our bus brok…

First stop on board our cramped mini bus was Puerto Piramides on Peninsula Valdes to see the whales. Worried we were not going to see any, we co…

After an 18-hour overnight bus journey from Buenos, we arrived in the seaside town of Puerto Madryn. We found out about a campsite 5km out of town an…

We are still in Buenos Aires... were supposed to leave last weekend but decided to stay another week. It is a great city and wowsers do these people …

We are now back in San Telmo, with its lovely cobbled streets, Plaza cafes and home of the Tango. It has been Sunday market day today with&nbsp…

Second attempt at the falls was met with lovely clear blue skies (waterproofs were in the bag anyway). As soon as we walked through the entrance to…

We arrived in Iguazu after a long long journey and were finally relieved to find a great little town with bumpy roads and a jungle background. After …

The draw of Iguazu proved too strong to resist  - we arrived in Posadas intending to use it as a leg stretch and fresh air destination between R…

Our next stop heading north from Buenos is Rosario, birth place of Che Guevara. What we thought would be a nice leafy little town turned out to be a …

First stop in Argentina is Buenos Aires. We have spent a few days in San Telmo, home of the tango. While drinking a cafe con leche in the leafy plaza…

Leave home with mad packing and good byes. Fly from Heathrow at 10pm, very exciting stuff! We will really miss a nice cup of tea.....