Tabatinga, The Amazon River, Manaus & The Jungle - 26th October to 3rd November Day 293 and we finally crossed the border into Brazil, our 15th and final country! We were up nice and early to get our supplies for the boat. We didn't need to buy hammocks as we had bought a couple in Ecuador to give as Christmas presents (is it rude to still give them?) so we just needed a few snacks and provisions from the supermarket. Shopping done we set off in a tuk-tuk...

Bogota & Leticia: 18-25 October 2011 Following the hot stormy beaches of the Caribbean, Bogota (back up in the Andes) was quite chilly in comparison. It was overcast for the whole 4 days that we were there and we had to dig our jeans and boots out from the bottom of our backpacks. Our first impressions of Bogota weren't that great. Apart from the weather, the city itself didn't feel that inviting. The architecture was mostly 60s/70s style concrete blocks ...

Cartagena to Rodadero - 5th October to 17th October After a bit of gentle persuasion I finally managed to convince Dan that we had plenty of time to squeeze in a couple of weeks in Colombia. The bribe was the promise of some scuba diving in the warm crystal blue waters of the Caribbean with some much needed beach time thrown in. So, feeling pretty pleased with myself, I had a look on-line at average temperatures and rainfall in Colombia in October only to find ...

Quito: 29 September - 3 October. Buses in Ecuador are great (did I really just say that buses are great?!?). There must be about a million of them that leave to anywhere you want to go every ten minutes. They are cheaper than chips as well, costing less than US$1 per hour on average. They don't have the luxuries that the long distance buses in Peru had, but then Ecuador is a smaller country so you don't have to travel so far. You simply rock up at the bus stati...

Cuenca to Banos - 21st to 28th September After a taxi, a boat, a bus and a plane back from Galapagos we landed back in Guayaquil where we said our goodbyes to Andy and Amy and jumped on a bus for the 5 hour trip back up into the Andes to Cuenca, Ecuador's third largest city. We finally arrived in Cuenca shortly after 9pm where we checked in to our hostel then went to the small pizzeria next door for some dinner then bed. After a week of haemorrhaging money on t...