Cuenca was a quaint and charming town were our Ecuadorian adventure began. This was our first insight into the American influence that the US has over Ecuador with ice-cream parlours and electrical shops selling 'Dr Dre' headphones lining the centre plaza. Our couple of days there were spent enjoying the luxurious blend of American vs. South American culture with a top highlight being a visit to the Panama hat factory. Panama hat's I soon discovered have no asso...

Travelling over a mountain ridge that took us to our highest altitude at 4300ms, we arrived in the Colca Canyon region close to sunset. This provided us with a spectacular display of red and orange light dancing across the rugged mountain tops. Early the next morning we travelled through to the Colca canyon to an area called Condo de Cruz. Here we had the opportunity to explore the canyon walls and by chance see a couple of Condor's take flight using the thermal...

We have spent a month travelling around Peru so to make for easier reading I have decided to split the Peru blog in two; everything up to and including the Inca Trail and then everything after. Puno a small town nestled on the shore shore of lake Titikaka was our first stop off over the border. Lake Titikaka is the highest lake of its size in the world, which sits around 3600ms and is so large it is shared by both Bolivia and Peru. We arrived in time for 'Puno w...

After crossing the border we headed straight to the Argentinian side of the Iguasu falls. The Argie side gives you an up close and personal perspective of these monstrous beasts! It was a scorcher of a day so the occasional waves of waterfall spray coming off the falls were very much welcomed. We also took the opportunity to jump on board a speed boat that gave us an intimate experience of being drenched under a couple of the waterfalls.. It was actually kinda st...

I have to admit that arriving in Rio de Janeiro as my first stop off in South America on my own had me a little nervous. I can now whole heartedly say now that I was being a worry wart! Of course the usual foreign big city rules apply however to me Rio doesn't deserve the reputation it has somehow earned. After arriving I was pick up by the most friendly taxi driver who didn't speak a word of English and despite my lack of Portuguese conversation skills he contin...