Three slow bum numbing hours later, we chugged into the sheltered bay that is Cha'llapampa. Although the bums were numb and in desperate need of TLC, the views from the upper deck of the small ferry were sublime. The advantage to travelling so slowly is that you get to see every everything and a camera captures all of it really well! The sky is a turquoise blue, sure and intense; the water extremely clear, vivid and inviting; the coastline a lesson in terracing ...

We have decided that we are allergic to long distance buses and the roads that they travel. Especially after India. Especially ones that mean 18 hours of looking into the wide yawning river valleys that are literally a metre away from any window! Complete with bald and threadbare tires too! Picking up every man, his pile of market goods and his coati (a raccoon type jungle animal that make very good pets) too. With the rainy season well and truly in place, the 18...

Everything about the Amazon is extreme, awe inspiring, breathtaking and it is almost impossible to take in the sheer size and numbers that the Amazon Basin encompasses! The Amazon Basin drains an area 3/4 the size of the continental United States and covers 1/2 of the South American continent. From its source deep in the Peruvian Andes, 200km from the Pacific Ocean, it is 6450km to the mouth. Only the Nile is longer, but not by much! To put it into some kind of ...

Sweaty and steamy; hot and humid; languid and laidback. That is what Rurrenabaque is. It is also a charming little town with slashes of old spansih colonialism still evident here and there. The here and there generally being the large church hall on the main plaza. Rurre is laid back; so much so that the full name is only really used by those new to town and who haven't yet worked out that getting into a sweat about anything (literally in this place) is just not ...

You either love it. Or you hate it. To many, the Amazon and all it holds, is called the Emerald Forest. A treasure trove of wonders untold; of lost cities (think of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) of lost civilisations (who constructed the pyramids of Madre Dios?); undiscovered fauna and flora with applications for miracle drugs and cures for all and for others it represents wealth and riches untold. Isn't the Emerald Forest such a charming ex...