Well 2 have become 3 (at least temporarily) as Franky joined us just over a week ago now and we are all back safe and well from our adventure on the Inca Trail. Arriving in Cusco was a shock for both the drop in temperature, compared to what we are used to, and to stay at altitude where so much as an energetic stretch left us gasping for breath! But this is made up for by the stunning Andean skyline and architecture in the naval of the Inca empire. Team Hiles w...

Team Hiles are now officially in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time. This has coincided with a requirement for something a little warmer than shorts and t-shirts. Brrrr. After the Carribean Coast we returned to Panama City to hit Central Americas largest shopping centre, where the lady in Panamanian B&Q threatened to call the cops because we weren't carrying our passports - a little overzealous perhaps considering we were only buying a head torch....

Well we are now safely back in Panama and enjoying the joys of the Caribbean on a little island called Bocas del Toro. Unfortunately we had our first slip in luck in our last place (Cahuita in Costa Rica) as our backpacks were stolen from our room on the first night. It has left us with plenty of shopping to do but at least our important bits were safe thanks to Rhian's cautious approach to hiding things (previously, but never again, referred to as paranoia). Th...

Since our last entry we have been stationed in the middle of the jungle (only accessible by boat) on our turtle volunteering adventure. 10 days have flown by and tomorrow we return to civilisation. We have had a brilliant time. Seeing mummy turtles laying in the middle of the night and then seeing the little baby hatchlings wiggling their way to the sea at dawn was an awesome spectacle. It hasn't all been plain sailing - we had to quickly get used to living wit...

This entry comes from the foothills of Volcan Arenal famed for being the most consistently active volcano in the world - 43 years of continuous lava flows and eruptions - until 6 months ago that is! There is no lava or even steam so we have to content ourselves with the view and the volcano heated hot springs nearby. The night hike/snake hunt was good fun but, lucky for the wife, snake free. As well as plenty of other nocturnal creepy crawlies we did get to see ...