The last stop on our Latin America adventure, Ecuador, has such a variety of climates and terrains. Upon arriving in Quito, our first task was to book our trip to the Galápagos Islands. This accomplished, we headed north to the quaint market town of Otovalo where the locals wear traditional clothes. After a long walk past the building that looks like a bird, up the hill guarded by small but vocal dogs, through the dense wood and across the farms next to the pict...

Colombia: A country where toilet paper is not sold on the black market. We arrived in the recently opened El Dorado airport in Bogotá and were glad to be in a new country. We met up with Matt, Phant's friend from work, and his wife Sandra. It was nice to see a familiar face and have a native of Bogota as our tour guide. We walked around La Candelaria, the old town, and visited the Gold Museum which was really interesting. The following day we went up to Montser...

We begin our five day trek on a rather colourful truck heading to a town called Machete Pelao. On the way, we stop and get down from the truck because the driver needs to syphon some of the petrol from our truck and give it to the 4x4 pulled up at the side of the road which is also bringing people to the trek. Later, we stop at a "petrol station" and once again jump out and watch as this time they syphon petrol back into the truck from two large fuel canisters. W...

Venezuela is a beautiful country full of quirks and disorganisation. After our stressful trip to Puerto Ordaz we enjoyed Christmas day in Casa del Lobo. The owner, Wolfgang, is very hospitable and, after settling in, his wife made us Christmas lunch, which was "Hakari", a venezuelan speciality with chicken and veg steamed in a banana leaf. Wolfgang's wife seemed to have forgotten that Phant was vegetarian but as it was Christmas Day, and not wanting to waste food...

We arrive in Parapatei and tie our sleeping bags and mats to Suhanya's backpack. We weigh our bags; the big backpack is 14kg and the small one is 5kg. We then have some lunch before receiving a team talk and setting off on our adventure to Mount Roraima. The sky is clear and we have no shelter from the sun blazing down. We soon run out of water but meet someone in our group by a stream and Suhanya takes a swig of their water, not wanting to dink the river water. ...