The Monasterio de Santa Catalina was our first call today. The Monastery was started more than four hundred years ago and was set up as a self contained city within a city for the resident nuns. For hundreds of years the nuns lived a life separate from the outside world, communicating only with family through […]
Day 85 : Puerto Inka to Arequipa
It was another driving day today. We travelled from Puerto Inka inland to Arequipa, a lovely colonial city. The drive itself was mostly through desert, nothing we hadn’t seen before, and I don’t remember much about it. We left Puerto Inka around 9am and arrived in the late afternoon in Arequipa. A quiet breakfast on […]
Day 84 : Nazca to Puerto Inka
For the first time ever on a travel day we were actually leaving in the late morning so we had as much of a sleep in as the temperature would allow. We didn’t do much in the early morning other than returning the empty beer bottles and taking down our tent. We did have a […]
Day 80 : Lima
The day was free of organised activities and most people took the opportunity to wander around the city. Keryn and I wanted to catch the changing of the guards at the Presidential Palace at 11:45am and joined others in heading towards the San Francisco Church, specifically to check out the catacombs. We had to pass […]
Day 75 : Huanchaco
For once I managed to actually get up for a sunrise. Unfortunately due to the location there wasn’t actually a sunrise to see. Huanchaco sits very near the point where the Humboldt Current rises from the Antarctic and the California current coming from the north meet. The confluence of currents causes an almost every day […]
Day 73 : Punta Sal
Keryn was up very early to go Horse riding, not long after sunrise. With Michelle and Angie and their guide Victor they rode along the beach for an hour or so and apparently it was very nice. Danny and I did the same ride in the late afternoon with others going for a longer ride […]
Day 66 : Near Banós
As this is pretty much the only place on our trip through South America where it’s possible to do canyoning I had signed up for this as todays activity. Shortly after 9am I was getting kitted up along with Sean, Daniel, Janet and Angie. We all got wetsuits, spray jackets, life jackets, abseiling harnesses and […]
Day 56 : Galãpagos (Isla Santiago, Isla Bartolomé)
Again breakfast was at 7am and we headed out in the dinghies around 8am. The first island visit would take us to the volcanic lava flows of Isla Santiago but before this we skirted around Isla Bartolomé looking for signs of the Galãpagos penguin. We were lucky and saw a few individuals, one still moulting […]
Day 45 : La Fortuna to San Jose
Today was both white water rafting and journeying to San Jose. Cecylia, Aaron, Keryn and I were being picked up at 8:30am for the drive to Rio Toro and the rest of the group headed off to the bus station at 7:45am. The Desafio van would also be taking us on to San Jose after […]
Day 42 : Monteverde
Keryn and I had signed up for a busy day of activities and this started with an early morning guided cloud forest walk. The taxi picked us all up (we were joined by Pat and Miriam) at 7am and whisked us to the Reserva Biológica Boqu Nuboso Monteverde which is a private reserve which protects […]
Day 40 : Ometepe
The obvious activities on Ometepe involve the volcanoes and taking the option to climb to the top. The wet recent weather meant that this would be tough, the taller Volcán Conception was effectively closed to climbing because of the muddy slopes and it wasn’t recommended to climb the slightly shorter Volcán Maderas either. I joined […]
Day 38 : Granada
Today we took a tour of the area around Granada, taking in a number of different towns and places along the way. We had breakfast at a waffle restaurant up near the Convento de San Francisco, joining Cecylia at her table. We all walked back to the tour office and joined up with the others […]