Hiya, I know it's taken me ages to write this one soz!! Well the second half of my south american trip was not quite as eventful (on paper) as the first but it continued to be a fantastic experience for me. Rio Verde After we left Tena we drove to a place called Rio Verde to camp at a mad swiss couples place (poco loco). They really were crazy but very fun at the same time. The guy (cant remember his name) took us canyoning which is where you get into wetsuits and basically jump off of cliffs into the water and abseil down waterfalls. It took a bit of nerve i tell ya, i've not really done any outdoorsy stuff like this before have i. It was actually really good fun until he shoved us all underneath the waterfall, the force of it pushed me right down and i emerged with a head (mouth, eyes, ears, nose the lot) full of water and my hair all over my face. Ahhhh t'was funny though!! Banos We spent the day here quad biking up a volcano (or so we thought). We all partnered up and set off in good spirits...then the rain came. It absolutely chucked it down, i'm not kidding you. As well as that, all our bikes were dodgey and kept cutting out all the time. Mine and Helen's bike had so little power it earnt the name skanky and could hardly get us up the steep hills. Poor Brent couldnt let his stop (coz in would cut out) so had to go around in circles whenever we were waiting for bridges. Well i say bridges but what i mean are planks of mouldy looking wood just placed over cliff edges which wobbled when we drove over them!!!! Anyway, after two hours of this, the guides motioned for us to stop. So, soaking wet and freezing cold we asked how much longer it would take to be able to see the top of the volcano. 'It's over there behind all those clouds' they said. We just burst out laughing to stop from crying, the whole reason for carrying on the rain was for the view and instead they had taken us to a complete ghost town in the middle of goodness knows where. We were not happy bunnys and after a quick huddle to get warm we wizzed off back to base. We wizzed a little too fast, (1: because the journey up had over-run and we had to catch our bus and 2: we wanted to get warm and dry)so subsequently driving full power trying to get skanky over a hill my bike skid off track, i couldn't pull it back and with rubbish brakes i couldn't stop either. To save ourselves hurtling back down the hill and crashing we had to jump off. I was actually pretty scared and to add insult to injury the stupid bike landed on my leg-it killed and i'm now the proud owner of a maaasssive bruise. Its safe to say i broke the bike and Trevor had to have me on the back of his for the rest of the way. Quenca It was down time here, chill, explore the town. We visited the Panama Hat factory and had a drunken night at the Wonderbar. PERU Mancora We camped here on Santa Pal beach and had a really good time. There was a more surfy beach down the coast a little which we went to and up coast we found a really posh resort where we went for drinks one evening. Apart from that it was sunbathing, going for nice walks, reading in hammocks and playing games round the campfire. Bliss!!! Huanchaca Visited Chan Chan Mud City and the Temple of the Moon. It was interesting to learn a little about the pre-inca people but to be honest i didnt know enough background to properly understand and take it all in. Therefore ask me about it when you see me if you really want to know. Huraz More adventure activity time - ice climbing. We took an hours walk up the mountain at just over 5000 ft so pretty much felt short of breath, sick, dizzy the whole way due to the altitude. Got to the wall with no energy whatsoever and to cut a long story, climbing it was the hardest thing ever!! I got stuck half way and was dangling by my ice pics for ages, i'm laughing now but i was close to tears at the time. I just didnt have the srength to kick in the ice and pull myself up. But, with everyones encouragement i somehow managed to get to the top. Yey me!!! Lima Capital city of Peru, very rich in comparison to rest of country and full of crime. Even had a maccy d's! Four of us were leaving here so had our farewell drinks at a club, and sadly said our goodbyes. I was really sad to leave, i made some good friends on this tour and just had a brilliant time exploring a part of this continent with them. I miss it already.