The drive today was short, a mere three hours inland to Nazca. The landscape was desert all the way though the large sand dunes slowly disappeared to give us a more arid and flat landscape of white sands and dust. There was the odd area of green, irrigation providing farming opportunities. Before reaching Nazca we […]
Day 82 : Lima to Paracas and Huacachina
Driving out of Lima we headed south following the coast and arrived at the town of Paracas around 10am. At a small jetty we were loaded into an already crowded boat for a trip out to the Ballestas Islands. I was sitting with Gavin, one of the new guys, near the front of the boat […]
Day 77 : Huaraz
We had a couple of days in Huaraz and there was a lot to do. One group left early to go ice climbing and those of us less ambitious either spent time in the city or went for a walk. Keryn and I were in the walking group and we decided to head for the […]
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 67 : Near Ban?s
Another day in paradise and today we went white water rafting. There were two rafts going down the Rio Pastaza and in our raft we had me, Keryn, Rhys, Vanessa and Danny. Danny and I were in the front. The other raft had Kerrie, Albert, Melissa and Sean. Much like our first rafting experience in […]
Day 64 : The Amazon Jungle
The morning boat trip took us to a local village. We waited on the shore while Fausto cleared our arrival and then walked through the plantations and gardens to reach some of the village buildings. We walked past a house and school to a field where locals were working clearing weeds from the crops of […]
Day 63 : The Amazon Jungle
The mornings activity saw us head upriver past the point where we had left the truck and onward to a curve in the river where we disembarked to start a nature walk in the jungle. Our guide was Fausto, a knowledgeable and friendly local man. For a few hours we slowly walked and every now […]
Day 56 : Gal?pagos (Isla Santiago, Isla Bartolom?)
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 Bartolom? looking for signs of the Gal?pagos 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 Biol?gica Boqu Nuboso Monteverde which is a private reserve which protects […]
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 […]