What do a group of Japanese tourists, a Bolivian transsexual and a group of Mormon missionaries all have in common? Yep, they all put in an appearance on this leg of our trip! As we left you last time, we were heading out of Santa Cruz, towards Trinidad in the amazon basin, to connect with a river boat which would ferry us up and down one of the Amazon's main tributaries for a few days whilst we took in the amazing wildlife and relaxing scenery. As expected...

From San Pedro heading towards Bolivia, we joined what seemed like a thousand tourists at the border. This many people but only one little man at the immigration desk made for quite a wait, but the moment Bolivia started unfolding before our eyes we saw it had all been worth the wait. First stops on day one were the Laguna blanca (white lagoon), Laguna verde (green lagoon) and Laguna colorada (the one that is red in all the pictures). Even though we have put...

When we left you, we were heading north out of Valparaiso, the city of awesome council-sponsored graffiti, on a 7 hour bus ride to La Serena, further up the coast. One thing about Chile which has really impressed us, in fact, is the long-distance bus system. Not being ones for travelling National Express in the UK we have very little to compare it to, other than our 'can I bring my chickens along?' bus experiences in Asia! We were expecting something reasona...

There is very little that can be said about our time in the Cook Islands because if you have ever seen pictures of it on TV or in travel brochures you will already have seen exactly what we saw - a complete tropical paradise! Besides one day when we hopped back on a little moped to explore Rarotonga, the island we were staying on, we pretty much chilled out on a beautful white sandy beach overlooking the crystal blue pacific for the entire week we were there! T...

It is official…the prize for 'Scourge of the Earth 2012', beating all rivals, including the Asian mosquito, goes to the south island sandfly! The fact that such a teeny tiny bug can bring about such an intense and unimaginably itchy bite in a matter of seconds really should, we suppose, be applauded. If we were bug geeks perhaps we would, but we are not so we won't. Everywhere we have been in the last week has brought us into contact with the little critter...