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...