The tour started in the morning at 8.30am, and we had an American couple - Tim & Ellen in our jeep as well. They are also doing a similar route up Bolivia as us and we have done a bit of travelling with them since. On the first day we went though some great scenery, saw a few craters, lots of llamas and some flamingoes in a lake.

On the second day, we saw more flamingoes, passed by 5 lakes, all in different colours due to different mineral content, had a dip in a hotspring and reached an altitude of 5,000 metres above sea level (that is higher than any mountain in Western Europe and only 200 metres below the top of Mt Kenya). Thankfully we slept at 4,200 metres, otherwise it could have been an uncomfortable night. The third day was quite uneventful, and it just consisted of us getting to the edge of the salt plains for Day 4. We started early on the 4th day - at 4.00am so that we could catch the sunrise at a vantage point, an hour plus drive away.... for some reason, the driver didn´t seem to be in a hurry, and when we got there, we found that we had to walk up this big rock to get the best pictures.... normally it would not have been a problem, but we were at 4,000 metres above sea level, which made the rush up pretty hard. And so we just managed to catch it, but unfortunately, we were about 30 seconds too late for the perfect pictures. We had breakfast after we got down, and then walked on the plains for a bit. The plains are a fantastic sight..... a sea of white as far as you can see in every direction. (p.s. don´t think there is any danger of the world running out of salt) We proceeded on to visit a salt museum, had lunch at got dropped off at Uyuni where we would spend the night.

The next day we made our way to Potosi and met up with Tim & Ellen. Potosi is a mining town, and used to be very rich at one stage when it mined silver, but the silver reserves have since been depleted. Its also reputed to be the highest city in the world - not a bad place to celebrate my 30th birthday, but not a good place to recover from hangovers either. The lack of oxygen at 4,000 metres makes recovery extremely slow and painful. We went out that night as it was my birthday eve, stayed out till 1.00am, had a few drinks too many (well I did anyways) and spent most of my birthday watching TV and getting over my hangover.....

The following day, we went to visit the famous mines. They are still operating, but work is still done with primitive tools, in cold conditions and at an altitude over 4,200m. There are organised tours, with ex-miners as tour guides. The miners are mostly self-employed and work in co-operatives and get paid by how much silver they extract. The tour starts with a visit to the miners market, where tourists are encouraged to buy gifts for the miners. So we bought them cocoa leaves (which helps them to work and not feel hungry during the day as they only eat in the mornings and at night), soft drinks ( to keep up their sugar levels) and dynamite (for obvious reasons)!! Some of the dynamite would be given to the miners, and some would be exploded outside for demonstrative purposes. We first visited a plant where silver is extracted from the rocks, and then went into the mines .

I only managed to get as far as the museum, which is 300 metres into the mines as it is extremely small and dark, and there are lots of noxious chemicals and gases which can make breathing difficult. Aarti only managed a bit further up - the shaft got smaller and you had to pass the miners working which made it even smaller. But we managed to have a feel for how hard it can be for the miners. Most of them work in the mines due to lack of other work, and alot of them only live for 20 years after starting working in the mines due to toxic fumes. This really is a job from hell! After the rest of the group came out from the mines (there were a few others who couldn´t make it either) we were treated to a few dynamite explosions.

Definitely the highlight of the tour. We visited a couple of interesting museums in the afternoon and made our way down to Sucre (only 2,500m) the next day.

Sucre has got to be Bolivia´s most beautiful city and is the symbolic heart of the nation. Its got white washed buildings, sheltered pretty patios and thankfully, strict controls on development. We spent a few days there, visiting a dinosaur park where they uncovered footprints millions of years old, went to a nearby market to stock up on cheap andean merchandise, and generally chilled out.

Next stop was La Paz at 3,600m. For the first couple of days we just walked round town, booked our amazon trip, ate the delicious street food, and booked a couple of other tours. We also visited the very interesting Coco museum.

On Friday, we went to see some pre-Inca ruins near La Paz which were ok - nothing like the ones we saw in Peru. Saturday we took a day trip to get to the top of a dying glacier, Chacaltaya. This involved driving up to the glacier - we got to 5,300m and then there was a half an hour walk up to the top at 5,395m. And thats 200m more than Mt Kenya!!!

On Sunday, I attempted to moutain bike down The World´s Most Dangerous Road - WMDR (According to the World Bank). This is a 44km stretch of a gravel track just 3.2m wide with 600m drops, rock overhangs and waterfalls that spill across and erode the road. An estimated 26 vehicles used to disappear over the edge until a new road was built 18 months ago. However, the old road is still used sometimes by vehicles, but mostly by companies who offer these mountain biking tours down the road.... ohh and 11 riders have also died mountain biking - but they were all avoidable deaths. Aarti was in the support bus.

We started off 22km up the road at La Cumbre at 4,700m. The first 22kms are on tarmac where you can reach dizzying speeds of 70-80Km/h. We were given instructions at the start, got our great mountain bikes (Kona double suspension - worth over $2,500) and we started our trip. The first 5 minutes are abit scary as you try and get used to the high speeds, and get a feel for your bike, but it started to get fun soon after. We made lots of stops so that the group didn´t get too stretched and this continued for half an hour until we got to a series of uphills. I and most of the others apart from 4 guys sat it out and rode on the bus because the weather conditions were not great - it was raining and we were still at over 3,000m which would make it quite difficult. Half way through the uphills, we came across a motorbike crash with a German woman badly hurt (probably due to the wet conditions). We had 2 support busses, and one of them had to take her back to La Paz to a hospital so we were now only down to one support vehicle. We continued on and we soon got to the gravel track and the official start of the WMDR. Now the fun started!! We obviously rode at lower speeds, and again it took us a few minutes to get used to the new surface, and the fact that the road was now much narrower with big drops. However, its definitely not dangerous if you follow instructions and go at a pace you are comfortable with. Saying that, one guy broke his collarbone half way down the track by going too fast at a corner. But the views, when I dared to look up were fantastic, and the experience was great. When we finished the ride (Yes, I survived intact) we had dropped down to 1,100m. We had a late lunch and then made our way back to La Paz up the same road - on bus this time!! It was great to get back intact, and we (yes Aarti also) got a t-shirt saying that we have conquered the WMDR.

Having survived one death wish, we decided to embark upon another one and visit the San Pedro prison the next day. This is a unique prison where there are no guards inside, no curfews and prisoners have to work to pay for their cells. It used to be a normal prison until 16 years ago, when during a big crackdown on drugs, a few drug lords were arrested and were put in a seperate part of the prison. Here, they could build their own flat, and could basically get all the food, amenities that they could afford and were allowed out on weekends. They would have barbeques, champagne parties etc...In time, that got replaced by prisoners who could afford to stay at the rich section, paid their way while the rest got dumped with the population. Eventually the population rebelled, and now the same rules apply to both sections but both sections are kept apart. To get into the richer section will cost you $400 plus rent for your space. There used to be official tours to the prison, but that was stopped 3 years ago as most toursists went to visit the prison in search for cocaine.

However, some of the foreign prisoners have started arranging unofficial tours, and I had to call up one of the prisoners (a South African) to arrange a day and time - was quite surreal talking to a prisoner, trying to arrange to visit the prison. We got to the prison at 11.30, and after abit of difficulty managed to get into the prison. That was the first time we had set foot in the prison, and it felt pretty weird looking at prisoners roaming about, and guards outside!! We were taken to a Portuguese prisoners flat - he seemed like the main organiser of this tour and chatted to him for abit while another prisoner was summoned to give us a tour of the prison. All of this felt extremely surreal. The Portuguese had a big bed, nice mattress, ensuite, a small kitchen with a dining table, a lap top and cable tv with more than 100 channels. We talked about the prison for abit and then another South African came to give us a tour of the prison. Most of these people were in prison for drug trafficking. On the tour, we visited the best place in prison, a 3 floor flat belonging to a Colombian (it was bigger than our flat in London) and it had all the amenities including internet etc..., met a Canadian who was in for carrying a gram of coke, met a guy who had chopped up his sister into 8 pieces (which we only found out later thankfully) and heard lots of crazy stories. The prisoners seemed very pleased to have visitors from the outside and it was a fun 2 hour visit - and we came out intact!!

We chilled out yesterday, and today we are off to the Amazon for a week. That and more in the next post.

Bolivia - The highest country in the world! remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We did a tour of some wineyards (bodegas) the next day on bikes. Aarti and I were on a tandem bike since she can´t ride one, and boy was it hard work. We visited a couple of bodegas, got a tour at one of them and some wine tasting at both of them, and had lunch at another place with more wine.... Cycling can be thirsty work!!

That evening, we did manage to see the concert, and at midnight they had a special fireworks display to celebrate Mendoza´s birthday.

We had a lazy day the next day, and went to the park in the afternoon, with a picnic of wine, bread and olives, and didn´t do too much either the following day apart from eating some nice food and having nice wines.

We visited another Bodega (Familia Zuccardi) the next day where we would get a full tour of the winery, how the wine is made from start to finish, pick some grapes and more importantly, wine tasting and a big lunch with all the wine you can drink. It was a brilliant day, and the tour was very insightful into wine making - we tasted some nice wines, and drank lots during lunch which was massive!! I suffered the next day with a bloated stomach and spent the whole day inside watching TV, while Aarti braved another wine tasting session in town - this time it was some boutique wines from small wineries she was tasting.

We left for Cordoba that evening, but did not like the place too much and the weather didn´t help so we only spent one night there. We did manage to go see Che Guevara´s childhood home which has now been converted into a museum. That was quite interesting as we got to saw his famous motorbike, lots of pictures, some letters he had written to Fidel Castro, his family etc...

We left Cordoba for Salta which is in northern Argentina and our last stop in Argentina. Salta is also where we found a different Argentina - more Andean in culture than Argentinian. We did a 2 day tour where we saw the famous countryside around Salta with its hills, gorges, and drove up along a spectacular railway line, which was a good way to experience the dramatic landscape. The railway line is considered to be an extraordinary feat of engineering and took over 20 years to build and climbs 3000 metres through rocky terrain of a steep gorge. The train has not been working for 2 years, so we did the trip by road which runs mostly alongside the railway line. We stayed overnight at Purmamarca, a small village with a stunning setting at the foot of a mountain stripped with 7 colours. Unfortunately, pictures don´t do any justice at all. The next day, we visited a few towns, saw some ruins and a mueseum and a church and made our way back to Salta.

Tomorrow we are off to Bolivia - and we are very excited to go back to an Andean country after spending the last 3 months in more developed countries.... and its going to help with our budget as well as it seems to be running out of control after Brazil & Argentina.

Mendoza and Salta remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We made a day trip to each of the places. On the trip to Peninsula Valdes, we saw sea lions and a few penguins from afar. The trip to Punta Tombo was much better where there were at least 500,000 penguins, and you could walk around them.
We also took a boat trip and saw a few dolphins - they were quite playful and liked swimming near the boat, or showing off by diving in and out of the water. On our way back we stopped off at a Welsh tea house to have high tea. Puerto Madryn is also where the first Welsh travellers settled, the tea house culture seems to have stayed.

After spending a few days at Puerto Madryn, we made our way down to El Calafate, which would be the southern most point of our travels. El calafate is a purely tourist town which exists so people can go see the Perito Moreno glacier. This glacier is one of the few which is not shrinking and can be seen quite close up. We were supposed to take a tour which included walking on the glacier, but chose a wrong tour and instead had to make do with watching the glacier from the view point. We also took the boat option where we sailed pretty close to the glacier and saw a few ice breaks - was quite amazing.

Then we made our way to Bariloche, which is in the lake district - took us 3 busses and 34 hours to get there from Calafate - our longest trip yet. We must have spent over 500 to 600 hours on the busses so far. Bariloche is a pretty town situated on the steep and wooded shore of Late Nahuel Huapi.We spent a few days there walking round the country side, I did some rafting on one day while Aarti visited the lakes on a day tour and generally chilled out.

From there, it was onto Pucon in Chile for some volcano climbing for me. This was going to be a pretty difficult climb - the day before the climb we were given out equipment - crampons, gators, icepick, helmet, waterproofs etc... And due to a really harsh summer, we were going to start the climb at 4.00 in the morning with the target of reaching the top by 10.00am at the latest, as otherwise the top got abit dangerous with falling rocks. About a week previously, there had been a narrow escape and they weren{t taking any chances. Obviously it didnt help that I hadnt done any trekking at all since November, and had been enjoying the fine steaks and wines for the last few weeks. The first hour was extremely tough for me as my body tried to adjust to the increased physical activity which it had not been used to for some time - but I slowly settle down and it got less painful, but more difficult as the gradient of the volcano increased. We would take breaks every 40-50 minutes and it was after the last break before the top where I got a bad side strain and couldn´t continue any more. I think it had to do with the way I sat down during the break, and it was extremely disappointing not to continue to the top.

We took a nightbus that day to Santiago where we walked aroung the city for a couple of days, the highlight being going to a really nice Indian restaurant to satisfy out indian food cravings.

From there it was on to Mendoza in Argentina - the wine country.

Argentinian & Chilean Patagonia remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The first day was spent getting to our lodge, which involved a 5 hr bus ride and an hour by an open air jeep to the lodge.

The next day, we spent a bone crunching, mosquito bitting 2 hours on the jeep to get to the spot from where we would do a 2 hour walk through the jungle. The walk was ok, as we spent most of our time trying not to step on the thousands of red ants, spraying ourselves with mosquito repellent every 5 minutes and looking for birds and animals. We stopped for lunch and then did another shorter walk just slightly furthur away.

On Day 2, we did a boat trip in the morning up a river and then a ride on mules in the afternoon. Didn´t see too many animals.

Day 3 we did Piranha fishing in the morning. I finally managed to catch one after 2 hours of fishing. Then in the afternoon, we left for Campo Grande and got there in the evening. Although the trip was good, it would have been better if we had gone at the end of the wet season where we would have been able to more animals.

After chilling out for a day at Campo Grande, we took the night bus to Foz Iguazu - the Brazilian side of the falls. From the Brazilian side, you get to see the Panoramic views of the falls while you can go right up close to the falls from the Argentinian side. The falls were breathtaking, and as there are more than 200 different falls, you can spend a few hours looking at them. We spent 4 hours on the Brazilian side before taking a bus to the Argentinian side to spend the night there.

The next day we did the Argentinian side - it was a brillian experience. First off, we took a ride iin a speedboat and got right up close to the falls - and got thoroughly soaked in the process!! Then we spent the rest of the day walking around the falls, with some walkways taking you literally over the falls, and the best one being the devils throat. In the evening, I had my first taste of the brilliant Argentinian beef - it was beautiful, all 400 grams of it (I had eaten a fish, Surubi - a local speciality the previous night) Most places serve pastas and Aarti will be alternating between that and Pizzas in Argentina. A change from Pizzas and rice and beans in Brazil. All very healthy!

We took a night bus to Buenos Aires the following day - in Cama suite!! This is equivalent to First Class on a plane with a flat bed, wines, nice food, plenty of snacks served throughout the journey.

We stayed in San Telmo, an old part of town in BA. We stayed there for a week, just going round town, saw a tango show, horse racing at a nearby town, met up with some travellers we had met in Ecuador and enjoyed the great food and wines.

We also went to see an Argentinian carnival - its obviously not on par with the Rio one with only 3 groups taking part - and inferior dancing and choreography as compared to the rehearsals we saw in Rio, but their floats were pretty amazing and we got seats in the front row which made it more fun as the dancers would come over to us to pose for pictures.

We went to a football match at River stadium in Palermo - River Plate vs Gymnasia. We had to take a tour, as tickets were hard to come by - and its abit more risky seating with the fans than other countries so we had some VIP seats. The whole atmosphere was different, and the football was very European style. The only player on the field I could recognize was Ariel Ortega who plays for River. We also took a tour to see the Boca Juniors stadium which is a much more compact stadium and would provide much better atmosphere.

We went to stay at an estancia for one night near BA 2 days ago. It was a really nice place to chill out, ride on horses, swim etc... Unfortunately, they are quite expensive too so we only spent 1 night there. There are better ones where you can see how the gaucho life is but this one was geared towards a quiet stay.

Tonight we are off to Puerto Madryn where we hope to see some whales and penguins.

More laters.

From Brazil to Argentina remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We landed in Belem which is abit of a dump, and then took a bus the next day for Sobral (24 hr journey). From Sobral we had to take a taxi to Jericoacoara which is a pretty little beach town. There was a lot made out about the place, but the beach wasn´t that great. We stayed there for 3 days and then made our way to Olinda. Olinda is a small town by the coast which is famed for its museums and holding one of the best carnivals in Brazil. We headed to Maracaipe beach after a couple of days at Olinda - this was a much smaller and quieter beach town - and the beach was fantastic. Spent 3 lovely days there before heading on to Salvador.

Salvador is in the Bahian state - this state is the Brazilian Africa. Salvador probably also hosts the best carnival in Brazil. The Rio carnival is famed for its glamour, but its in Salvador where they party hard. It seemed that everywhere people were just waiting for the carnival to begin. There were rehearsals going on everywhere in the streets, there seemed to be a party breaking out everywhere you go and people practicing capoeira in the evenings. Salvador is a great place to unwind in the mornings and party in the evenings. They had a celebration (Festival of Bonfin) one day - which is supposed to be the biggest celebration outside of the carnival, where there was a carnival like procession and we got a little taste of what it would be like in the Carnival. We also managed to go to a concert by one of the bands who would be playing at the carnival.

After 4 days in Salvador we headed to Rio - took us 28 hours in the bus. We have been in Rio for nearly a week now and have only seen the sun yesterday.... its been cloudy and drizzly all week - just like London!!! We managed to catch a domestic football match at the famous Maracana - it looks much smaller than I imagined. Football matches in South America are great to watch just because of the supporters - all of them sing for the whole match - and sing even louder if they are winning. We went to a favela tour where they showed us the biggest slum in Rio, and Latin America (small compared to Kibera in Nairobi though) - and thankfully it was not as dangerous as the City of God slum... However, these slums are much more developed than the Kenyan ones, with most of the amenities available (sometimes scarce) and there was one building which had a rooftop pool!! Last night we went to see a Samba school rehearsal for the carnival. Carnival for these Samba schools is serious business - there is a competition every year for the best school. The one we went to has won it for 4 of the last 5 years. There were thousands of perople who paid to see these rehearsals. Pretty amazing stuff.

Tomorrow we are off to Campo Grande for the Pantanal.

The Brazilian Coast remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We landed on Sunday morning and were picked up by Sato & Praveen - for the first time in 4 months, we saw people we knew before our travels... a great feeling. We didn´t do much during the day apart from driving round Georgetown which took all of 15 minutes and having a couple of beers at Archies - my favourite Rum Shop. Archies was also my first rum shop when I was in guyana previously. In the evening Aruna´s family was invited to a friend´s place for dinner (which was to be the first of many) and we tagged along. It was great to be finally eating some home cooked indian food. Ofcourse, this being Guyana everywhere you go there will be plenty of alcohol.

Christmas eve was spent sorting out some of the tours we would be going on during the week and our flights to Brazil. In the evening there was another invitation to someone´s place. And more food and rum!!! Christmas day was a traditional christmas affair with gifts being exchanged in the morning and Sato´s family joining us for Christmas lunch. And more rum!! There was a party to go to in the evening but everyone was too shattered to move after all the food and drinks. On Boxing day, Uncle Erol made a lovely duck curry for lunch and after we went out to one of the water parks they have in Guyana for a few hours and pretty much chilled out. It was quite nice not doing anything apart from chilling, drinking and eating - not having to think about where to go for the next meal, not having to move every few days and speaking in English.

We had booked a trip to go and see Kaiteur falls for the 27th. These are a spectacular single drop falls (the highest single drop falls in the world) and are 5 times higher than the Niagara falls. We were supposed to fly out to see the falls, and then have luch at a nearby resort and fly back. But firstly, the plane (a 12 seater) scheduled to fly us arrived back late at the airport due to bad weather conditions. SO the plane which was supposed to take off at 10.30, only took off at 12.00. Then instead of flying straight to Kaiteur, it stopped off at the resort we were supposed to have lunch to pick up a few passengers. And since it was drizzling, they all tried to get in at once (the entrance was at the rear) and the plane toppled back and ended up resting on the tail. The pilot had not told the passengers to go in slowly to prevent this from happenening, and they also have a tail rest so incase the plane topples back, the tail does not get damaged!! He did not put the rest on!!! So we ended up having lunch at the resort, and by the time engineers came to the resort to fix the tail, it was too late to fly to Kaiteur!! When we got back to Georgetown, we had no luck with booking another trip as most were fully booked. And we were booked onto another tour the next day so we would have to try with with other agencies - but it wasn´t looking too hopeful. And Kaiteur is really the highlight of Guyana.

We did a day trip up the essquibo river the next day which was an ok trip. We ended up back at the same resort we were the previous day for lunch. However, we also managed to sort out a Kaiteur falls trip for the 2nd of January with another agency with help from our tour guide that day.

The next couple of days were spent chilling out, going out at night, and eating lots and lots of food. On New Year´s Eve, we went to a formal party at Georgetown Club - this was an old colonial hangout for the British back in the day - now a social club. I also finally ate Labba in the evening before this party (at Archies ofcourse) For some reason, I didn´t get a chance to try out this Guyanese delicacy at my first visit, but did try it out this time and it was delicious. (Labba is a small rodent only found in Guyana) The party was great, and we got home after 5 in the morning. New years day was spent recovering mainly and we went to a dinner in the evening where they had vegetarian food only. Aarti loved it.

We did manage to get to Kaiteur falls on the 2nd and it was definitely worth it. I had already seen it at my previous visit but it was Aarti´s first time. The falls are so named, as an Indian chief called Kai canoed over the falls to his death as a sacrifice to the gods to end the fighting between rival tribes. The plane did a couple of circles round the falls to get a look at them from air, and then landed for a close up look. Its a beautiful sight and great to be up close to the falls to feel their power. We also went to another falls - Orunduik falls as part of the day tour. These are much smaller falls on the border on Brazil & Guyana and its possible to swim here. We got a great back massage sitting underneath the falls. We got back to Georgetown, there was another dinner (vegetarian dinner again) and that was the end of our trip as we were to fly out the next morning.

Guyana was probably what we needed after 3 and a half months of travelling. We got spoilt by Aruna and her family, ate, drank and chilled out lots, met lots of wonderful people. Guyana is a pretty unique country - its bigger that England but only has a population of 750,000 people. The capital has about 350,000 people and everyone seems to know each other. We saw the President in his car the first day, saw a Minister of Local Government dancing away with a few girls in a club ( I found out in the next day´s papers that he had had a run in with his girlfriends cousin in a rum shop and had fired shots at him and knocked with the butt of his gun but the president and his party ignored the incident) met a presidential hopeful and had my picture taken with the Stanford 20-20 cup the Guyana had won the previous year (an official was casually transporting it to Barbados). It was really hard to say bye to Guyana and we loved every minute of it!!

Some good Indian food at last - and plenty of Rum!! remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After the last blog entry we headed up to Taganga (which was to become our base for the Colombian coast) where we would be going for a 6 day hike to discover the Lost City of the Tyronnas - or as they call it now, Ciudad Perdida. Taganga is a nice little sleepy fishing village close to the famous Tyronna National Park. We got there on Saturday lunchtime and spent the day sorting out our trip to Ciudad Perdida. We also bumped into a Dutch couple we met in Cali and had a few drinks with them in the evening. Sunday was spent chilling out, and listening to stories of people who had come back from the hike - and boy were they horror stories. All of them had been bitten by mosquitoes and sand flies - infact you were considered lucky if you came away with less than 50 bites.

Our trip started early on Monday - we were picked up by a mini van and driven 1 hour away from Taganga into Tyronna National Park. It would be a 6 day hike with 3 days spent getting to the lost city, and 3 days spent getting back, retracing our steps. There were 11 of us in the group - 2 Aussies, 4 Germans, 1 English, 1 Dutch, 1 Basque (he refused to be called Spanish) and us. From where the mini van dropped us, we were taken by motorbikes to our start point. We started the hike after lunch with the midday sun on our backs. The first day was a 5 hour hike with the first 3 hours uphill and then the remaining 2 hours downhill. It was a pretty ok day of hiking - but the heat and humidity made the hike difficult. There was also the issue that we would be walking with wet muddy shoes throughout the 6 day trek, as within the first hour we had to cross ankle deep or knee deep streams - we would be getting waist high river crossings on day 3 & 4. And walking through alot of mud due to the rains. We spent the first night at someone's house (they set up hammocks for us with mosquito nets) The food they gave us for dinner was good, but this was very different from the 'super organised' Inca Trail - in a way much more spontaneous and adventurous. The highlight of the first day came after about 3 hours walking where we came to a river and we all had a dip and ate some fresh fruits - much needed after walking in the heat.

The 2nd day was slightly easier as we started off early to avoid the mid day heat. Here the terrain was much rougher, with no obvious trek for alot of the way, and having to scramble over rocks etc... We got to our camp after a 4 hour walk and went off to cool off in a nearby river.

Day 3 was the best day of the hike - there wasn't much of a trail, and we had to follow the river to the foot of the steps which lead up to Ciudad Perdida. This meant crossing the river about 8 times and walking along sometimes dangerous precipice where one slip and you are a goner. We hiked for about 4 hours before we got to the steps which lead up to Ciudad Perdida. There are about 1200 steep and extremely small steps to climb up (The Tyronnas were very small people, thus the small steps). We finally managed to get to the top after a tough half an hour climb - we also met the military who are guarding the area on the way. In 2003, 9 tourists were kidnapped by guerillas at this same site - infact from the same hut that we would be sleeping in that night. The guide omitted to mention the latter information until the next morning....However, the guerillas have been driven up in the hills, and security is much better with no incidents since the kidnappings (and the tourists were returned unharmed after about 3 weeks.) However, as normal the British FO still has an alert for unnecessary travel which would have meant that our insurance was invalid... The city as first sight looked magical - it does not have the aura of Machu Pichu, but only 10% of the city has been excavated, and as the only way to get there is either by hiking or splashing out a load of money and coming in a helicopter, there were only 2 other people there and it felt great.

We explored the magical city on Day 4 and started to make our way back the same way we came up. By Day 6, we were exhausted with 6 days of trekking in wet shoes and covered in millions of mossie and sand fly bites.

We got back to Taganga in the evening (Saturday), had dinner and headed out to Santa Marta, a nearby town for a few drinks in a club with our group and also to celebrate Aarti's birthday the next day and the Dutch girl's which was on Friday. However, we didn't last long and were home by 1.30 which is extremely early by Colombian standards.

Sunday was Aarti's birthday and a rest day recovering from the hike. We went to a nearby resort for dinner based on someone's recommendation which was not as good as we had hoped.

On Monday, we made our way to Cartagena (the jewel on the Colombian coast) Cartagena is a lovely city, with a great old town. We met up with the Dutch couple again and also with the Aussies and Dutch girl from our hike. Tuesday was spent exploring the old town, which has been blocked off with an inner and outer wall.

We decided to head for Playa Blanca on Wednesday. Playa Blanca is an island 40 min away from Cartagena by speedboat. Its very quiet with very few people choosing to stay there - most go there on a day trip as part of an island hopping tour, which means they are only on the island for a couple of hours in the afternoons at the most. Why more people dont decide to stay there is a complete mystery to us. It has white sandy beaches, turquoise waters, calm sea, nice warm waters, hardly anyone about, you stay on the beach and plenty of decent seafood. And its cheap too. Just about the perfect place to chill out for a few days. We spent 4 days there and stayed at a lovely couple's place - the first 2 nights on a hammock and the 3rd night in a cabanna. They also have a few people selling wares and foods in the day, and we got into a routine with having fruits for breakfast provided by a fruit lady, shrimps for me at lunch, some local sweets in the afternoon and dinner provided by our hosts. Even Aarti was quite pleased with the food as she got lentils and rice cooked similarly to how we make it at home. I made do with fish and lobsters.... delicious!!

We got back to Cartagena and after spending a night there headed back to Taganga where we decided to go to the more famous beach at Tyronna national park. Everyone had talked it up (they probably had not visited Playa Blanca) and we couldn't give it a miss. Never have I worked so hard to get to a beach - it was a 2 hour ride in a bus from Santa Marta, and then a 2 hour hike to the beach - not extremely streneous but nevertheless energy sapping. After all that effort, I was expecting to find something similar to a perfect beach. What we got was cold and pretty rough waters, crappy beach, only one place to stay with hammocks touching one another. and hardly any privacy. Needless to say. we were out the next day. Got back to Taganga - again, and then made our way down to Bucarramanga. We went to a small town called San Gill which is the adventure capital of Colombia with all kinds of adventure activities like white water rafting, para gliding etc... I took advantage of that and went white water rafting the next morning - it was pretty good but I did it at an easy level with the rapids at grade 2+. Would definitely like to try out stronger rapids next time round.

We headed to Cucuta which is on the Colombian-Venezuelan border where we spent a day before making our way to Caracas. After we left Ecuador we had just over 5 weeks to see Colombia and Venezuela, but the more time we spent in Colombia the less time we had in Venezuela until we decided to just go straight to Caracas to catch our flight to Trinidad. Travelling in Venezuela is abit of a problem as their black market for dollars is twice the official rate (curtesy of Chavez) - thus the need to carry dollars with you into Venezuela.

The 2 days we spent in Caracas were ok. Caracas is a massive city with 24 hr traffic jams - no doubt helped by the cheap fuel. We did some shopping for our stay in Guyana where we would be going to a formal New Year's Eve party (or Old years night as they call it there) and that was about it really.

The flight to Trinidad was eventful as when we got to the airport we realised that there was some problem with the airlines. Passengers due to fly to Miami the previous night had not flown due to airline issues. After a couple of hours we found out that they were in financial trouble and did not have any fuel, as they had not paid the fuel company - quite ironic to be out of fuel in oil country. Anyways, after a 6 hour delay, they put us onto a plane from another airlines and we reached Trinidad safely. The reason for going to Trinidad was that you can only get to Guyana through Trinidad. It was a pleasant 3 days we spent in Trinidad, with us finally getting some indian food with roti and curries.

And so, on the 23rd we flew out from Trinidad to get to Georgetown, Guyana. This is the only place in my trip that I have visited, but it will be Aarti's first time. We are going to be spending time with my college friend, Aruna and her family for christmas. But that will be updated later.

Just couldn't get enough of Colombia remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We got into Cali on Friday at around midnight after a pretty long bus journey from Quito and were shattered.

Cali is famous for 2 things - the people love to party 7 days a week and it has the best looking women in Colombia (albeit alot of them being surgically enhanced/altered). Apparently alot of people come from overseas to take advantage of the cheaper surgical doctors in Cali.

Saturday was spent chilling out and looking around town. And since it was Saturday evening, and since Cali is a party town, we decided to head out to the clubs in the evening. There was a group of people going out from the hostel - we started off at a pub on Avenue Sexta which is where everyone starts off, and then headed to the Juanchito district where all the clubs are concentrated. It is a great experience and the vibe at the massive salsa clubs is completely different to any other clubs we have been to. And the Colombians really love to party. On the way home, there was an accident on the road leading to the clubs, and so taxis were scarce - so we managed to fit in 8 people plus the driver in a small taxi (the size of a 206). That was abit of an experience - half of us had heads hanging out of the car....

There was a local football match on Sunday featuring Cali & Manizales (a coffee region town) which a few of us at the hostel decided to go watch. It was the last match of the season before the playoffs started (similar to Major League Soccer in the States) and Cali were already out of the playoffs and so the authorities decided not to charge people for the match. There was a typical party last match of season atmosphere - and in a pretty uneventful match Cali won 1-0.

We went to the Cali zoo on Monday which is reputedly one of the best South America has to offer. Didn´t do much else and decided to leave Cali for Salento the next day.

We reached Salento around 4pm and met a couple of English travellers in the main plaza who directed us to where they were staying. The hostel - Plantation House was a great choice with a very friendly English owner who despite spending over 3 years in Colombia still speaks Spanish in a very heavy English accent and is from Harrow too!. In the evening the people from the hostel headed out to town to play a local game called Tejo - its a game which also involves gunpowder!! There is a wooden square box of 12 inches squared filled with clay, and the object is to throw your metal puck onto the box from a distance of 10 metres and making it stick. There is a circle in the middle of the box, and the puck closest to the circle gets 1 point, or if it lands in the middle of the circle you get 6 points. However, on 2 sides of the circle there is some gun powder and if your puck lands on the gunpowder - there is an explosion and you get 3 points!! It was a pretty fun game, and towards the end - a few of us moved on to the experts section where you throw the puck over a distance of 30 metres onto a slightly larger box. Pretty good fun, especially when you hit the gun powder.

The next day I went horse riding around Valle de Cocora and Aarti went walking. The Valle de Cocora is beautiful, covered with tall wax palm trees. - Aarti decided not to go on the horse after the painful experience the last time around - a good thing to as the horses were less peaceful than the last time round. I even fell off my horse once - but no damage done!!

We visited 2 coffee farms the next day - 2 very diffferent farms. 1 was a small scale farm, while the other was a much bigger version with machinery etc... Both very interesting and different.

We made our way to Bogota the next day - Bogota ´s weather is colder due to the higher altitude. Spent 3 days in Bogota, visiting a pretty impressive cathedral carved out of a salt mine, and took a train up a viewpoint and came down by cablecar. Otherwise it was quite uneventful and decided to make our way up to Medellin which is the 2´nd biggest city and has better climate. Medellin used to be the centre of the drugs war but has cleaned up its image and is now pretty safe.

We´re heading off for the Caribbean Coast tonight and we can´t wait!

Colombians - Friendliest people on Earth? remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The train starts from Riobamba and goes to Alausi with the devil´s nose on the way. However, when we got to Riobamba, they said that the train now only runs along the small path which has the devil´s nose. So we took a bus the next day to Alausi, got the ticket for the 2 hr train ride which goes all the way down the valley and then back up and got some more bad news. Apparently, a couple of Japanese tourists were killed a few months previously while standing on top of the train (probably taking pictures) and so now they don´t let people sit on top of the train. So after an hour´s wait, the train started its journey. But almost immediately, it ground to a halt. A freight train in front of us got derailed - apparently that is quite a common feature. It took over 2 hours to get the freight train back on track and it was already 1.00pm by now. We started from Riobamba at 7 in the morning, and were still waiting for the train ride. So again the train started and this time there were no problems. Although the scenery is great, sitting inside the train just doesn´t seem to be worth it as we have seen such scenery on the bus rides. It is a big disappointment, and when the train started back on its way up the valley, it got derailed 3 more times. Thankfully, they managed to put it back up pretty quickly but it was 4pm by the time we finished the ride. We then took a bus and headed for Cuenca - Ecuador´s 3´rd largest city. We got to Cuenca at 10.30pm and after a quick dinner, went straight to bed.

Cuenca is probably the most beautiful city in Ecuador. Its got narrow cobblestone streets and whitewashed red-tiled buildings, beautiful plazas and big domed churches. We spent Monday just walking about town and visited a Panama hat making factory. Now, a fact that people may not know is - Ecuador is where the Panama hat originates from - or more specifically, Montechristi!! The only reason they are called Panama hats is because when the Spanish came to South America, they began shipping the hats back via Panama.

We did a hike around the Loja national park the following day which was quite beautiful and tiring. The hike took 6+ hours and it was through bushes and there was no trail. However we did have a guide. On Wednesday, we went to see some waterfalls near Cuenca and chilled out for the rest of the day.

We made our way to Vilcabamba the next day. This is a small tranquil village set in mountainous surroundings. It is also famous for being called the ´Valley of longevity.´ Inhabitants supposedly live to be 100 years old here, and some as old as 120 years. I could understand why when we got to Vilcabamba. We booked in at a hotel-spa (most places were hotel-spas) situated out of the town centre. It was really peaceful and relaxing. They also provided us with nice big organic breakfasts and dinners and there was a constant supply of thei water with some 20 herbs which were supposed to be good for your body. Well it tasted nice anyhow.

The next day we tried to get up to this mountain which provide great views of the region. However, it was over 35 degrees and an hour into the hike we gave up and made our way back down - it was the hottest day of the year by far. We booked a horse riding trip for the next day which the person there said was a pretty easy day out. Obviously it wasn´t. We spent the first 3 hours getting to the Las Palmas nature reserve. That was the first time eaither of us had done horse riding, and you soon get used to the horse and start enjoying the ride. Once we got there, we did a 2 hour hike down to a waterfall and back again. It was a pretty tough hike, and there was no trail and the gradients going up and down were sometimes very steep - it involved using ropes a couple of times or the strong tree branches to pull yourself up. So much for the easy day out. And then it was a 3 hr horse ride back to Vilcabamba. Needless to say our bodies were shattered after the long day.

We had a well deserved massage the next day and chilled out - frankly neither of us could be asked to do much and we decided to enjoy the spa instead.

We made our way up to Banos the following day where they have natural thermal baths but not much else. Its also a good place to arrange hikes to the jungle, rafting etc... But we were running out of time (yeah - 8 months is definitely not enough) and then headed up to Quito.

Quito is a very old and grand city. We stayed in the old town for the first 2 days and then moved to Mariscal (the touristy area) for the remainder of our stay. The old town is really interesting with its huge churches, plazas, museums etc... We did a walking tour through old town on the first day. In the evening, encouraged by reports that there were indian restaurants in Mariscal, went in search of one. We saw 3 and decided to go to Bombay Palace. It is a pakistani owned restaurant and the food was average. However, after going without Indian food for 2 months, we didn´t really care. It was quite satisfying.

We went up the Teleferico (Quito´s newest and modern tourist attraction) the next morning. Its a multi million dollar sky trap which takes people up a mountain for some views of Quito. They also have an amusement park at the base. The views were ok as you can rarely get a clear day in Quito.

We headed for the famous Otavalo market the next day which is a couple of hours from Quito. Its a huge market, and on Saturdays spills itself on the sidestreets. We went to the Mitad el Mundo (centre of the world) on Sunday which is where the equator crosses and where the Ecuatorians believe to be the centre of the world. It was a very touristy place as you would expect but there was a great museum nearby which explained the geographical significace of the equator and gave some water and energy demonstrations of the gravitational forces on the equator and on either side of it. There was also this balancing an egg on the head of a nail where I was the only one who successfully managed to do it in our group - and I got a certificate for my efforts!! They also showed how people lived centuries ago in their huts, showed us how their ancestors would shrink people´s heads when they died (a pretty gruesome exhibition) and how they hunted - by blowing on poisoned needles through hollow pipes. We had a go at that and i managed to hit the target at 20 metres. Their ancestors would be doing it over 60 metres!!

We had tried to book a tour to do the Quilotoa loop as its a pretty remote place with very few busses servicing the route and thus making it easier to do a 3 day tour. However, the tour agent screwed us up and said that he was busy on the day before the tour, so we decided to do it by ourselves instead. We also met up with a Californian couple who were doing the same thing over thorn tree. It was a 6 hr bus ride from Quito, and we got to Chugchilan in the afternoon. As it rains every afternoon there, we rested for the evening, and organised a taxi (a pickup with benches really) to the Quilotoa logoon for the next day. The lagoon gives out a brilliant emerald colour and is the highlight of the area. We hiked down to the lagoon and came back up in the morning (abit tough as we were doing it a 4000M above sea level) We made our way back to Chugchilan and spent the afternoon relaxing as it was raining. We had to catch the 5 AM bus the next day back to Quito which was quite an interesting experience - thats the bus the locals catch to get to work, and we had sheep and pigs on top of the bus!!

We spent the evening relaxing in Quito and today we have just chilled out, done laundry and updating the blog.

Tomorrow its onto Colombia and we have an 18 hour bus journey to look forward to - starting at 5 am. Great way to spend Diwali.

Ecuador was a great experience - it packs alot of diversity for a small country. Its also a place which has thousands of busses. Every town has a terminal terrestre (kind of like an airport) which is the base for all bus companies. All you have to do is get there, find out on the LCD display which company has the next bus going to your destination and book it. Brilliant!! No need to book ahead or plan your next stop. And at the start of every bus journey, there will be a salesman or a conman pitching to sell a product or asking for money. The snacks vendors bring to sell on the busses are very tasty too. Sad to be leaving Ecuador but looking forward to Colombia - everyone we have met or heard from have said what a great place it is. And I am not only talking about the drugs...or the women!! ;-)

Sad to be leaving Ecuador - but can´t wait for Colombia !! remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The next day, after breakfast we decided to go look for a tour to the Galapagos and plan the rest of the itinary around the tour. The plan was to go to the nearest agency, have a feel for the prices and then research on the net as to which is the best tour to do. On entering the first agency (Galasam - www.galasam.com) at 10.00am, the guy there said there was a tour leaving that same day, with the plane leaving at 12.00 noon. He explained the tour, gave us a special last minute price, we haggled it down abit (but not as much as we should have - mainly due to the fact that we were running out of time), rushed back to our hotel to pack up and get our money, rushed back to the tour agency, made the payments and signed the contract, and were driven to the airport by the tour agent. We got there with about 20 minutes to spare - talk about last minute!!

We managed to get a decent deal and at a higher class then we intended to do the tour - so we effectively upgraded from tourist class to first class but still staying in our budget. The flight was an hour and a half, and we were picked up by a panga (motor boat) and taken to our yatch. There we had the first of our many 3 course meals, met our fellow travellers (there were 15 in total) and got geared up for our first snorkelling trip. The snorkelling was ok as it was a cloudy day and visibility was not that great. We were also swimmimg with wetsuits as the water was very cold!! It was definitely not the caribbean sea. After snorkelling we stopped at our first island - North Seymour where we had a small walk to catch the sunset and saw sea lions and some frigate birds (alot of other names escape me) This was our first (of many) experiences with the sea lions and it is amazing how they can be totally oblivious of all the tourists. It was really good watching them at close quarters and already we could feel the magic of the Galapagos - even though this was only a taster of things to come. Both of us were still in some kind of a shock as 24 hours earlier we had no idea what we would be doing and now we were up close to sea lions in the Galapagos!!

The next day we stopped of at Gardner bay in Espanola Island for a closer meeting with the sea lions (there were hundreds of them there) and snorkelling from the beach. The guide gave us a talk on the sea lions and in the middle of the talk while we were all sitting down on the beach, a baby sea lion wandered into the middle of our circle and decided to join us. The young ones are the best as they are the most curious and playful. The beach also had mocking birds who always look for handouts from tourists, marine iguanas (who look very pre-historic) and bright red Sally lightfoot crabs. They were an amazing sight to see the red against the black rocks. Again snorkelling was ok and the water seemed even colder from the beach. Unfortunately, the cold currents and El Nino has wiped out most of Galapagos´s coral population. It was back on board for lunch and then to Punta Suarez for the afternoon trip. Here we saw the Albatross and had our first (again of many) encounter with the blue footed boobies. These birds are also called Kamikazee birds due to the way they dive in head first at great heights - with speeds aproaching 100 kms/hr into the water to catch their fish. These birds are the most popular amongst tourists due to that sight and the graceful way they fly about - and they are also the most plentiful. Inevitably, the most poplular tourist t-shirts in the Galapagos are ´I love boobies.´ Wonder what genius thought of that.

For Day 3, we travelled to Floreana island which is the southernmost Galapagos island. We visited post office bay in the morning which as the name suggests was and still is a post office. A long time ago someone came up with a plan to have a mail exchange at Floreana, whereby sailors who were sailing around the Galapagos could leave letters for their families at the island in a box, and others who were returning home, could take letter destined for their country back and post it from there. In time the families of the sailors also started sending letters with people travelling to the Galapagos for anyone who was sailing around there, and this bay became a fully fledged and very effective post office!! Someting very simple but very important to sailors and their families who would not see each other for months or years. The post office still exists today, and we all wrote postcards and put it in the box, and had a look at any postcards already in the box which we were for our destinations. Obviously we didn´t take any as we are travelling, but others in our tour took a few for their countries...We went back on board and did some snorkelling before lunch at a place called the Devil´s crown which is a ragged semicircle of rocks and we swam with sea lions here before heading to Punta Cormorant for the afternoon excursion. Here we saw some very beautiful pink flamingoes and sting rays very close up to the shore. We could see the rays from the beach. There were also a few other birds including boobies, pelicans and the Galapagos hawk.

We sailed to Isabella island on Thursday where we stopped off to see marine iguanas, white tipped sharks swimming in coves, and flamingoes. However, the highlight was in the morning when, while we were having breakfast, thousands of blue footed boobies decided to have theirs near our yatch and it was a great sight to see them all diving in to catch their fish. They would circle the fishes from above and once they had a group to aim for they would dive in - and they seemed to do it in groups so we would see about 30-40 diving in at the same time. That was when I really wished I had an SLR as mine was just too slow to get a decent picture. In the afternoon we set sail for Santa Cruz where along the way we would have a lookout for whales and dolphins. However the sea got choppy, the weather worsened and not only did we not see anything, but most people had to go to sleep to prevent being sick. We docked off Puerto Ayora for the night - thats the biggest town in the Galapagos, and were given the treat of going to mainland after dinner. We did feel abit woozy on terra firma - i guess we got sea legs!!

Friday was the last day for many of the travellers who had taken the option of a 5 day tour. In the morning we were back to Puerto Ayora and visited the Darwin research centre where they are breading tortoises who were in danger of extinction on a few of the islands due to alien animals introduced to these islands by humans. Also, tortoises were very popular for meat amongst the sailors in the early days due to the fact that they could last a long time without food and water, and apparently they have sweet meat. Hundreds of thousands of tortoises were eaten by the sailors, but now the tortoise population is increasindg due to these breeding centres and the fact that they live for a bloody long time. Some people predict they can live for more than 200 years - some say it can even be nearer to 400 years - obviously we will never find out as its very hard estimate how old a tortoise is and records only go back 80 years. Maybe my great grand kids might know for sure!!! After lunch, we got 9 people replacing the 10 who left - these people booked for the shorter 4 day cruise. We visited the highlands in the afternoon to see the tortoises in the wildland then went back on board for dinner.

We visited dragon´s hill on Saturday to see land iguanas and sea lions of course and we also got to do some snorkelling in the morning. This was the best snorkelling we had so far in the trip with plentiful of fish, a few playful sea lions and a couple of sharks swimmiming nearby. In the afternoon we stopped off at Bartolome which has a great beach and we also walked up 368 (Aarti counted) steps to get a good sunset view. This island also has some of the best lava landscape.

On sunday, we were at Santa Fe island to see more land iguanas (unique to this island and and not seen anywhere else in the world), sea lions, a few birds and 10m tall cactii. We did manage to spot a few iguana after abit of difficulty (a bit of a pain as we were spoilt by seeing all the other animals every day without having to search for them). We went back to the boat and had a small swim near the boat and made a jump from the top of our boat - 20 metres high!! And it hurt!! We snorkelled in the afternoon and visited an interpretation centre on San Cristobal island. This documented the history of man on the Galapagos islands - very interesting.

Monday was the last day and we had a panga ride before breakfast near a mangrove cove where we saw turtles, rays, sharks and our friends - the boobies!! Plus there were the hawks and other birds. It was back on board for breakfast and that was the end of the tour as we were dropped off where we started from - Baltra island!! We stayed for a couple more days at Puerto Ayora where we visited Tortuga bay and basically chilled out.

I am not sure if I have done justice to the Galapagos with this post - as I have got tired of writing now. However, the islands are really great, its extremely easy to see the animals and you can interact with them at close quarters, we saw some really unique animals, our natuarlist guide was great and gave us alot of information on virtually everything, the boat, crew and food was good (I guess it helped being on a first class boat) and the islands are as good as everyone makes them out to be!! I am gonna miss those boobies. Well I deserve a beer after this - adios amigos. Hasta luego.

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Anyways, we spent 2 days in Cuzco relaxing after the Inca Trail where we also took up our former tutors invitation to go to a Cuyeria - this is a restaurant which specializes in Cuy - or Guinea Pig in English. This is a delicacy in Peru & Ecuador. Needless to say, the Cuy was really nice - will try and upload photos soon. We have uploaded some photos so if you look back at the prvious entries you will see them.

After Cuzco, we took a night bus (15 hrs) to Nazca. The buses here are fantastic with great leg room and reclineable seats. Nazca is a small town in a dessert which has been made famous by the Nazca lines. We took the stomach churning plane ride to see the Nazca lines from air and also visited a dug up cemetry in the afternoon. It was amazing to see that the mummies were still intact after all these years.

Our next stop was Huaccachina which is a small place for sandboarding. Its a pretty small town, and there isn´t much else to do there apart from sand boarding. This was fun, and we took the easy and fun way out by going down all the dunes on our stomachs head first !!

Then it was back to Lima where we spent one night and break up the journey to go up north to Trujillo.

In Trijillo we have the oldest pre - Columbian ruins and loads of casinos. It was funny to see people gambling away at 9 in the morning on a weekday before the shops had opened...After spending 2 days there (at the casinos ;-)), we then headed for the beach near the Ecuador border.

It was a relief to finally hit the beach and some warm weather in Mancora. Unfortunately, what we didnt realise was that there was a Peruvian holiday and all the places we tried to stay were fully booked. So we had to go slightly upmarket and go to a yoga retreat. The place was really nice and I guess it wasn´t a bad place to shell out some money. A resident there got really excited at seeing some ´Spiritual Indians ´ come to a yoga retreat but on learning that the only spirit I liked was Rum - she turned away disappointed. However the owners were great, food was lovely, beach was nice and the sun was out and it was a very refreshing 3 day break after slogging through the Peruvian winter. I tried my hand at surfing but its was too energetic a sport for me - I didn´t mind the surfing - it was the swimming back with the board to catch waves which was a pain. They really should invent a surfboard with its own motor - windsurfing is more my kind of water sport.

The next stop was Guayaquil in Ecuador - that and more in the next update!!

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When we booked our tour, there were only 2 of us going on the trek that day with Llama Path (www.llamapath.com) - our tour company. That was way back in June, and we hoped that by September the group will have got bigger. But when we had our meeting with them 2 days before the trek, they said that no one else had booked the trek for that day, so it would be only 2 of us in the group. We had to pay a sursharge for the privilege, but on the upside - it became a private trek. We would have 6 porters including a chef plus a guide. Just for the 2 of us. Talk about royal treatment.

We started off on Sunday morning - the tour company picked us up at 4.45 and we made our way to Olantaytambo for breakfast. After breakfast its a half an hour drive to ´Kilometre 82´where the present day Inca Trail starts. We cleared the checkpoint, got our passports stamped, took the photos and got started on our trail at about 8.00.

The first few hours were pretty easy with gentle slopes and we slowly got settled into a pace. We got to our Lunch camp at about 1. By the time we got there, the porters - using the same route and carrying 25 kilos each had passed us by, set up the dining and kitchen tents and had prepared the food. Our respect for the porters grew by the day. They were simply amazing. Lunch on the first day was soup, spaghetti with a choice of a tomato based sauce and a cream based sauce. The food was really good and got better everyday. Infact I would have probably paid to eat the food at a good restaurant in London.

The trek after lunch was where the hard work really began. The trail starts its climb and its pretty much uphill for the rest of the day. Although we were slightly behind schedule (Llama Path likes to cover most of the hard trek on the first 2 days so the 3´rd day is pretty relaxing), we covered 14 Km on the first day. And it was a good thing we camped before our scheduled one, as it started to rain promptly as we reached camp. We had afternoon tea with popcorn and crackers and dinner was a 3 course affair with Soup, rice, vegetables for Aarti, chicken and beef for me and chocolate pudding. Obviously everything was setup by the time we got to camp. It was early to bed for us as we had catching up to do on Day 2.

Day 2 started early for us at 5.30. The uphill continued for 3 hours to the highest point of the trek - Dead woman´s pass. This is the most difficult part of the trek. The trek peaks at 4,215 metres and then it was downhill for us to lunch camp. How the porters carried 25 kilos up to Dead woman´s pass is beyond me. Now, although downhill is supposed to be the easy bit, it started to rain on our way down to make it harder. It rained pretty much everyday and all night just to make it that bit more interesting for us. We booked the trek for September as the wet season is supposed to start in November.....Lunch was soup, a kind of couscous with beef, chicken and vegetables. After lunch was another uphill to the 2´nd highest peak of the trek and back down to campsite. I sped ahead on the downhill (where it started to rain right on cue but this time the rain was accompanied by hail) and got to camp at 5.30. Aarti and the guide followed behing and had to walk the last half hour in the dark, and got to camp at 6.30. However, that was the most difficult part of the trek over. Again we had popcorn for tea with wantons and dinner was soup, chicken, beef and vegetables wrapped in mash and a desert of apple with sweet hot milk.

Day 3 started off with omlette, fried cassava and banana chips and hot chocolate. Then it was downhill all the way to the last campsite before Machu Pichu. Obviously, it started to rain again. However, there was no rush as this was a half day trek due to the long hours put in the first 2 days. We got to campsite at 2 in time for lunch. The campsite also has a restaurant and hot showers which Aarti took advantage of. I had my first beer in days - a well deserved one too!! For tea we had a surprise waiting - the chef had baked a cake (on a gas cooker) - yeah a cake!!! Incredible. And of course we also had popcorn and tea. Dinner was soup, chicken , beef and vegetables with some kind of rice with mulled wine!! And for desert we had jelly with pineapple - how the hell did the chef make jelly at camp?? As it would be an early start the next day we were in bed by 10.

Day 4 started off early at 4.00 as we had to cue up at the last checkpoint which opened at 5.30 for a mad dash to Sungate to catch the sunrise over machu pichu. Breakfast was porridge with chocolate pancakes. We got to sungate, but it was way too cloudy and foggy to see either the sun or machu picchu. So it was a walk down to machu picchu and the ruins do take your breath away. I just wonder how it would have been in all its splendour. We had a 2 hour tour of the ruins, and then spent some more time exploring it by ourselves, before taking the bus back to Agua Calientes for lunch, and catch a train to Ollantaytambo and get back to Cuzco.

It was worth it... and I would do it again just for the culinary experience!!

Camino Inca & Machu Pichu - Done!! remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Phew. We are glad to have finally finished the working part of the holiday - ie 2 weeks of intense one-on-one spanish lessons (http://www.machupicchuschool.org/). Don´t think we realised how hard the learning would be - but it got easier in the second week as we started to have a basic grasp of the languange. We were also getting homework everyday, although admittedly, I got less than Aarti. Probably because the teachers knew I would be less likely to do it then Aarti. We had an exam on the last day where we both passed with flying colours - I got 17 and Aarti got 18.5 out of 20.

Other than school, there are lots of lovely little Inca ruins around Cuzco and thats where we have spent our weekend. You have to buy a tourist ticket that covers most of the ruins and a few museums, churches and a folk dance. The ticket is valid for 10 days so there is plenty of time to see all the sights. On Saturday we saw 2 ruins - Pisac & Olantaytambo. Pisac is quite huge and it involved abit of walking - at altitude and we were soon out of breath on the uphills. I guess that was abit of practice for the Inca Trail. They were both pretty impressive ruins, built on steep hills, and really does make you wonder how they built it without any machinery. We had a really nice fire baked pizza for lunch at Olantaytambo. On Sunday we took a collectivo (matatu) to Tambomachay (another small ruin) and walked back down to Cuzco (8km!) also seeing Pukapukara and Saqsaywaman (more ruins). Unfortunately there was no sign of a sexy woman at the latter, however there was some kind of a celebration there and hundreds of school kids were puting up a show. It was very colourful and grand. Other than that we visited a few museums and saw a folk show (which I found really boring).

The homesatay we have been at has not been anything like what we thought it would be. Its more of a students house. We have hardly eaten with the family, as they seem to like to eat their food in their room. But its not been bad and we have met quite a few students who have come and gone over the last 2 weeks. Not to mention the fact that our facebook friends are growing..... We have been out to a couple of local bars and a local ´discoteca´ Its also been much colder in the second week, and I have found drinking gettind me really tired the next day - probably because of the altitude. In a way we are glad to be finished with Cuzco as homestay is now getting aboit boring - the cold weather is not helping as well. Inca Trail ( Camino Inka ) starts tomorrow and we can´t wait for it.

Hasta Luego.

La escuela de español remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We had two days-nights in Lima, we were staying a bit out of the centre in an area called Miraflores. Our first hostel (http://www.lokihostel.com/lima/hostel) was quite a good one as its hopefully going to ease us in to the travelling before we have less luxury... We spent our first two days doing very little, relaxing and checking out the local area...

Then Sat morning we had a very early morning flight to Cusco at 6am - check in time is two hours earlier but in Peru I think we need more like three as everything was happening so slowly.. We were picked up from the airport by a representative of the Spanish school (http://www.machupicchuschool.org/) where we were going to spend the next two weeks..

We were dropped off at our family homestay..very nice home about 20 mins walk from the main square. Its pretty good here. We have 3 maids who are fantastic - we don´t need to do any work and are given 3 meals a day. The family we are staying with is the manager of our Spanish school and her 2 kids. And they have other students in the house - 8 in total. Its a very cosmopolitan mix as well - there is a Russian, French, Asian guy from Brixton, a German who doesn't drink (go figure), a Brit, an American and us. It was the German´s birthday last night and since he doesn't drink we had a fiesta infantile - lots of sweets, chocolates, and softdrinks - I absolutely loved it. It was like our welcome party too as we got to meet a lot of other students and teachers at the party, and as we had all these different nationalities there was Happy Birthday sung in 8 different langauges.

Its 11,000 feet up here and Hemal has been struggling with the altitude since we arrived and I think its just about hitting me now.

School starts tomorrow at 9am sharp.

Arrived in High Cuzco remains copyright of the author AartiHemal, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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