The scoop on Sri Lanka

Hey y'all! 

Quite a lot has gone down since we jetted off from NYC. It was time to start our South East Asia leg of the trip and Colombo, Sri Lanka was our first port of call. The flight from NYC was long and fairly brutal. Air con wasn't working properly, not enough water was drunk and sleep is never my priority on planes (too many movies to watch). But we got there in the end and exiting the airport in Colombo to the humidity and smell of spices was a really lovely welcome to Asia.

COLOMBO

The capital of Sri Lanka, it was hectic, hot and humid. We only spent a couple of days here, mainly to adjust to the weather and the time zone and catch up on some sleep. This wasn't particularly easy, given that our hostel didn't have air con. Spoiler alert: not a single accommodation we stayed in in Sri Lanka had air con. More on that later. Actually not too much to report from Colombo. We stayed in the Mount Lavinia area which is nice, close to the beach (although it didn't really look appealing for swimming) and there were a few nice restaurants around. Our hostel owner gave us a great recommendation for dinner and we ate two of the best curries that have ever graced the face of the earth. Seriously amazing but way out of our price range. At the time we were a bit annoyed at how costly it was (they stung us at the end of the meal with a service charge AND tax) but we've talked about those curries a lot since, so they must have been worth the money.

GALLE

The train ride to Galle from Colombo was our first public transport experience in Sri Lanka and it was a lot of fun. We sat in second class where there's no air con but the windows open and you can hang out of the door if you really want to cool down. The local people on board were super friendly and helpful, making sure we knew where we were supposed to get off and had all our bags. We had booked a cheap guesthouse online and the tuk tuk driver who took us out there did the usual 'oh no, it's awful, don't stay there' routine which we of course fobbed off because we didn't want him to take us to his brother's/cousin's/friend's guesthouse that was 'much nicer'. We've been playing this game for a while and it's not easy to fool us. Well. He was telling the truth. When we arrived the first thing we noticed was a smashed window in the entrance. Not a recent break either, as it was covered in cobwebs. It was very ghetto. We knocked and knocked and waited and waited. Nobody turned up. The place was either abandoned, or it was incredibly poorly looked after. Either way, not somewhere we wanted to stay. A 20 minute walk got us to a nice, clean, friendly guesthouse where there were free mangoes and no broken windows.

Galle is a pretty interesting town. It is famous for the fort area, which is like a walled city, built by the Portuguese in 1588 and later settled by the Dutch, before the Brits arrived in 1796. The fort area is pretty touristy these days, with more expensive accommodation and lots of cafes and shops. From different points within the fort you get views of the ocean and of the cricket oval where Shane warned took his 500th test match wicket and Murali his 800th.. This was actually the oval that he and Murali organised the funds to rebuild after the Boxing Day tsunami devastated this area in 2004. We met a local man who lost his daughter in the tsunami and he told us he likes Australian people because we donated so much money and helped out so much after this disaster. It was a nice change to be recognised overseas for something other than our refugee policy! Anyway, he very proudly showed us the oval and helped us convince the security guard to let us past the gate for a better look. It's a beautiful ground, in a lovely location and I really wish there had been a game on while we were there. Instead, we settled for watching some local teenagers playing a casual game nearby, Dave waiting by the fence like an excited puppy, desperate for the ball to come his way so he could join in. 

We knew that the south west of Sri Lanka was heading into monsoon season so it would be a bit quieter with tourists but we certainly didn't expect the streets of the fort area to be completely deserted at night. There were hardly any other tourists in town, which was such an eerie feeling, given that the area is so set up for tourists. It was a feeling that would continue for most of our trip, and it seemed like such a shame that people only visit this amazing country for a few months of the year.

MIRISSA

One town that is apparently chockers with tourists in high season is Mirissa. It's a a sleepy little beach side town, just a couple of hours east of Galle by train. This was one of my favorite places in Sri Lanka, despite the fact that we only really got good beach weather one day that we were there. There were so many delicious cheap restaurants and we took full advantage of them. The beach had a row of restaurants along the sand, the perfect spot to watch the sunset with a cold Lion beer, paper lanterns twinkling overhead. Mirissa was also pretty quiet but I do think it would be a fantastic town to visit in high season, we would have loved to spend more time there swimming and sun baking if the weather had been better.

UDAWALAWA

Caught our first public buses in Sri Lanka to get out to Udawalawa. They are slow and crowded but if you make the right connections and ride the buses for long enough you will always get to where you want to go. The main reason we had come here was to visit the Elephant Transit Home (ETH) and go on safari in the national park. The ETH is a fantastic organisation which rescues orphaned elephants (unfortunately many elephants are continuing to be killed due to human/elephant conflict) and rehabilitates them in a safe part of the national park, ensuring they are bonding with the other elephants and becoming independent. Once they reach 4-5 years of age they are ready to be released into the national park to join a herd and live in the wild. For this reason they have minimal contact with humans, only to receive their milk from their handlers four times per day, which is when the public can see them. Watching those little babies come running in on their stumpy little legs, squealing in excitement for their food was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The youngest ones were still learning how to use their trunks properly and were just like human babies, clumsy and awkward. Hilarious.

There is another more popular elephant 'orphanage' in Sri Lanka, however we researched it and found that they are actually breeding elephants to continue the business, some elephants are restrained with chains, they have no intention of releasing them into the wild and they have a huge amount of contact with humans, with the public actually being able to bathe and feed them by hand. Such a shame that the exploitation of these beautiful creatures continues for the profit of humans. Animal tourism is really hard, particularly in Asia. When in doubt I'd prefer to err on the side of caution and would rather stay away entirely than give money to an organisation which may not be acting in the best interests of the animal.

The following day we took the safari to Udawalawa national park. It had started raining overnight and showed no signs of relenting when we climbed into the jeep at 6am. It continued to rain heavily throughout the whole safari (the whole day in fact) but it was still nice to see elephants in the park, munching away on their breakfast. I got a little too close to one of them and she gave me a mighty warning trumpet which our driver thought was the funniest thing ever. We didn't get to see the elusive leopard but a bunch of jackals, deer and heaps of birds braved the rain to come out for us, which we appreciated.

Udawalala was also the town where our celebrity status really hit fever pitch. You see, being a white person in Sri Lanka makes you kind of famous. People want to say hello to you or practice their English, and kids on buses get particularly excited to see you. However, Udawalawa was the only place we visited where locals were literally slowing down and hanging out of their car windows as they drove past us, waving and yelling greetings. We were only in the town for 24 hours but we caused quite a stir while we were there. Now I kind of know what it feels like to be Kim Kardashian and I have to say, it's the best.

ADAM'S PEAK

Getting to Adam's Peak from Udawalawa was our worst travel day in Sri Lanka. We had to catch three different buses, totaling 11 hours of travel. The distance was about 200km, just to give you an idea of how indirect and slow our journey was. We arrived in town at 9:30pm, without a guesthouse booked and without any dinner. It had been raining the entire day. A lovely guesthouse owner took pity on us and gave us a room at a discounted rate and offered us free access to the dinner buffet. People are the best. Our intention was to climb the peak the following morning but we were so wrecked we decided to hang out for a day and then do it the next day. It rained all day - we were glad we'd chosen to wait to do the climb.

The next morning we got up at 4am to climb Adam's Peak. This climb is a Buddhist pilgrimage because there is an indentation towards the summit which is said to be the footprint of Buddha (or of Adam, the first man, if you're Catholic - hence the name Adam's Peak) and consists of 5,500 steps. I don't think I've ever climbed 5,500 steps in one go before and I definitely underestimated how tough it would be on the knees. The extra days wait hadn't helped the weather - the heavy rain that had started two days prior was showing no signs of stopping so we climbed those steps in rain jackets, ponchos and with umbrellas. We still reached peak wetness at about the 2,000 step mark. The sunrise views from the top are supposed to be incredible, however I'll have to take other people's word for it as all we saw was heavy cloud, mist and rain, before we turned around to walk back down those 5,500 stairs. All our clothes and shoes were completely saturated but there was no time to sort it out because we were heading to the next location that day, in a desperate attempt to get somewhere dry.

NUWARA ELIYA

Our attempts to escape the rain were unsuccessful. After catching a tuk tuk, a bus and a train we arrived in Nuwara Eliya where in addition to being wet it was also cold. This was the point when we really started to regret traveling to Sri Lanka in wet season. I had expected that it would be similar to being in Cambodia for wet season - hot days, a torrential downpour each afternoon for a couple of hours then clear skies and business as usual until the following afternoon. It was completely different. Once the rain in Lanka started it just didn't stop. For five and a half days straight it rained incessantly, not breaking for even a minute. We travelled long distances in this time and the rain was consistent everywhere. We were actually quite lucky to be in the towns we were in, as although the rain was very heavy and there were power lines down, mudslides, and roads washed away we never experienced heavy flooding which was occurring in other parts of Sri Lanka at the time. 

The weather did impact our enjoyment of Nuwara Eliya which is said to be a beautiful town with gorgeous scenery and lovely waterfalls in the surrounding area. We didn't see any of these, instead dividing our time between a cafe and a pub, using their wifi to organise travel plans, which hit a massive roadblock due to our bank back home repeatedly blocking our flight bookings. In the end I had to purchase a SIM card and phone credit and call Citibank, spending a total of 2 and a half hours on the phone with them before the issue was finally resolved. It was when the conversation was getting the most heated that a local guy at the pub requested a photo with Dave and I (I told you: CELEBRITIES). Dave had to explain that it wasn't a good time for me, but he happily posed and talked cricket with the guy while I tried to limit my profanities to one per sentence only. You'll be pleased to know that I kicked up so much of a fuss over the inconvenience and expense that Citibank had caused me that they gave me $50 as a goodwill gesture. The lesson I learned was that banks have a lot of money and you should always try to get some of it from them.

ELLA

Oh my god you guys, the sun came out while we were here! Wet, smelly shoes and backpacks were finally given the chance to dry off and perhaps lose that moldy scent. Our guesthouse was in a beautiful jungle setting, and do you know what's better than being in the jungle? Being in the jungle when it's not raining! Our time in Ella was delightful, it was one of our favorite places in Sri Lanka. Lots of hiking to do, most of which included STEPS which my still-recovering knees were not happy about. The town center is just one street but there were a lot of nice cafes along here and we ate some really good food. Our accommodation had a TV with the Australia Plus channel so we watched our first game of AFL since last year's grand final, while drinking cold Milo. If only we had a packet of Pizza Shapes we could have been back home. The monkeys living in the trees outside our room provided lots of entertainment and after a few depressing days of being stuck inside and smelling like wet dog we were feeling much better about continuing our travels through Sri Lanka.

KANDY

Kandy, Kandy, Kandy, I can't let you go. I sang that a lot in Kandy, because making a classic song into a city-based pun is hilarious. (See also: 'you can stand under my umbrELLA' and 'take me down to the PANAMA City'. Don't you wish you were traveling with me? Honestly, the fun never stops). Anyway, in this case it wasn't true. Kandy, I can let you go. Not one of my favorites, it was busy, dirty and hectic. There are some nice sites here, including the Temple of the Tooth and the giant Buddha but they were both undergoing restoration while we were there. We visited a tea factory which was super interesting as they are still using the same machinery since they started operations 112 years ago. It's obviously working for them because the teas we sampled were delicious. Other than that the lake was quite nice and we became locals at the pub for a few nights (the live entertainment was hilarious and kept us coming back. I particularly enjoyed the guy who sang a cover of Sacrifice by Elton John, complete with a keyboard on 'jazz' setting and no knowledge of the actual lyrics).

I can't neglect to mention the train ride we took from Ella to Kandy. It's kind of a famous trip due to the beautiful scenery you go past as the train line climbs up into the mountains. Sri Lanka is so green and it was really lovely to see the little villages in amongst waterfalls, jungle and mountains. We were lucky to get a reasonably clear day for this trip and we were rewarded with 7 hours of gorgeous views.

DAMBULLA

Somehow we arrived at the bus station just as an air-conditioned mini bus was leaving for Dambulla. This luxury cost us $6 and took 2 hours, as opposed to the normal bus which was $2 and would have taken 3 hours. It was the only transport with air con we took in the entire month and you have no idea how grateful we were for it. Dambulla is home to the Golden Temple and cave temples which was our main reason for visiting. The cave temples date back to the 1st century BC and they are now filled with enormous statues of the Buddha, as well as some Hindu deities. These were so impressive and I particularly enjoyed the giant murals painted on the rock face inside the caves.

Typically, tourists will take a day trip out to Sigiriya from Dambulla but we just couldn't justify the $42 per person to look at what is essentially a giant rock. Sorry Sigiriya, you do look lovely in the pictures we saw.

NILAVELI

Idiotically, we came all the way north to Nivaveli only to find that prices in town were pretty high (it's a very touristy area) and that the only accommodation we could afford was kind of in the middle of nowhere and we would need to rely on tuk tuks to get us around all the time. So we decided to spend just the one night and then embark on another massive travel day all the way down to Aragum Bay, which is a bit more chilled, a lot cheaper and would also be an easier starting point for the long trip back to Colombo airport. Still, the beach in Nilaveli was nice, although a large chunk of it is inaccessible due to it being a military zone (the further north you get the more apparent the signs of the civil war are, apparently. We only visited this one town very briefly so I can't comment on that but it seems logical). We did some swimming at sunset here in the clearest ocean we saw in all of SL. Definitely on my list to return to when we have some cash to splash.

ARUGAM BAY

For our last week in Sri Lanka we decided to hit the relax button and just stay in one spot for a while. Arugam Bay was the perfect place to do this. It's a little surfie town, with a super relaxed vibe, a lot of young travelers and a hilarious local dive bar. We settled into a pretty nice routine here, one that revolved around swimming, sun baking and eating, with the occasional walk over to the point break to watch the surfers in action. Nights were spent drinking beers on the beach, stargazing, and inevitably heading to The Secret Garden for their amazing happy hour cocktails. The town had a similar vibe to that of San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, just the kind of place where you can really rest and recharge when the travel is just getting too much.

After our perfect 6 days here, it was a couple of hellish travel days to get back to Colombo for our late night flight to KL which would eventually get us to Bangkok, the start of the next leg of our travels. Here's a little rundown of my favourite and not so favourite things about Sri Lanka:

THE GOOD

- The People

The Sri Lankan people are hands down the friendliest people I've ever encountered in any country I've visited. I mentioned before the celebrity feeling we got from people always wanting to wave and say hello, and from kids catching sight of us on the bus and excitedly pointing us out to their parents or friends. Once the kids realised we were looking back at them they would have one of two reactions: either they would give us big smiles and wave or they would get incredibly shy and look away. Often people would want to talk to us about cricket once they found out we were from Australia and if I had a dollar for every time I'd been asked 'How you like Sri Lanka? It's good, yes?' I definitely wouldn't be on a budget right now. The people loved hearing that we loved their country as they're obviously very proud of it. Bus drivers would sometimes call us to the front of the bus to point things out as we were driving past and nearly every tuk tuk driver became an unofficial guide of their town, showing us landmarks and giving advise on where to eat. I definitely became a more smiley person when I was in Sri Lanka, in response to the constant smiling greetings and friendliness from the locals. Even the hawkers were friendlier than most, and I cannot remember a single interaction with a local person that sticks out in my mind as rude or opportunistic. Truly, a country full of wonderful people.

- The food

Oh my god, you guys, the food. If I come back from this trip the size of a house (likely) Sri Lankan food will definitely have played a big role in fattening me up. We ate so much, and for so little. After a few days we wised up to the fact that the portion sizes were huge, especially at the little local places and we started sharing meals. For about $3 we'd get vegetable rice and curry, which was a pile of rice with five small bowls filled with different vegetable curries and poppadoms, easily enough for two people. Kottu was another favorite, a huge pile of rotti freshly cooked and chopped into small pieces with vegetables or chicken, then smothered in a spicy sauce. Spicy! That was probably the biggest thing for us, spice and flavour. No offense to South America but the food is definitely not what I'll be going back there for. Perhaps it's different if you've got a bit more cash to spend but for us, there's a few standout meals I remember from those 6 months but a lot of bland in between. Breakfast in particular was incredibly depressing, toast and coffee being the standard, maybe with some fruit if you were extra lucky. In Central America things finally started to improve, with gallo pinto for breakfast everyday, which I loved. But we really hit our straps in Lanka, with coconut rotti and curry for breakfast or my absolute favourite - string hoppers with Dahl and coconut sambol. Oh man, I want to go back! Throw in sweet and savoury rottis, short eats and egg hoppers and we were completely satisfied in our stomach regions every single day.

-Prices

I was really nervous coming to Sri Lanka because I'd read a bunch of blogs that warned  that Sri Lanka was not as cheap as you think it's going to be and that it's quite expensive in comparison to Thailand, Cambodia etc. So I was feeling pretty worried about our budget, which turned out to be unfounded because Sri Lanka is CHEAP. Of course there are expensive ways of traveling here, like hiring a driver to get around, staying in nice guest houses or hotels, and eating at nice restaurants where they cater to western sensibilities but that is not our Way. We caught the local buses (we were ALWAYS the only white people on board), we stayed in cheaper guest houses and never paid extra for air con (sometimes the room would be double the price just for turning on the A/C) and we followed the locals to the kind of places were the decor is a bit shabby and you'd never want to use the toilet but the food is fresh, authentic and delicious. We found it pretty easy to get by on $50AUD per day for the two of us, including all transport, accommodation and food. Sure, our 70c bus rides were nowhere near as comfortable as the people getting ferried around in air conditioned cars, and there were nights I lay awake thinking about how I'd be sleeping if the bedroom were cool, but all in all it was fine. 

THE BAD

- Public transport

I told you we caught a lot of buses and trains, and I told you they were super cheap. There's a reason for that. Having clocked up countless hours on buses over the past year I have a pretty high threshold for hours of sitting and waiting, but the buses in Sri Lanka almost broke me. It takes so long to get anywhere. We'd sit on a bus for three hours and then check a map to see we'd travelled 50km in that time. Painfully slow. They are also incredibly cramped, with tiny seats made for tiny bums and a tiny aisle due to squeezing in five rows of seats across the bus. In the window seat my shoulders would be cramped right up but if I had the aisle seat I would be getting touched constantly by people walking or standing in the aisle. Trying to keep the bus cool requires opening all the windows which are capable of opening and hoping it starts to move fast enough to actually get some air circulation in. And then if it starts to rain All the windows get closed which turns the bus into your own personal sauna, shared with 75 strangers. Delightful. The train is slightly better with larger seats and overhead fans which go some way to dropping the temperature slightly. There's also snacks for sale and toilets on board, which do increase the comfort levels significantly on a 7 hour journey. One thing I found from taking either the bus or the train was that I would always arrive at my destination covered in a thin layer of grime, I guess a combination of sweat and the dirt and smoke coming in through the windows. Luxury travel, this was not.

- Alcohol regulations

I know there's talk that I'm 'drinking my way around the world' but the stark reality is, if you don't have a job to go to what else are you going to spend your evenings doing, other than relaxing at a local bar? I would have loved to do this in Sri Lanka, however they've got some really strict rules around the sale of alcohol and sometimes a cold beer was nigh on impossible to get. You can only buy alcohol in 'Wine Stores' which we saw only in about half the towns we visited, and it's really difficult for restaurants to obtain licenses to sell it, which meant a lot of the time we had to eat our curry without its perfect match - ice cold beer. The more western orientated restaurants generally had beer and wine on the menu, but they were also charging a lot more for it than we were happy to pay. Add to this the flooding that occurred in Colombo, which flooded the beer factory (there's also basically a monopoly on beer in SL with Lion [owned by Carlsberg] the only beer available at most shops and restaurants) and halted supply across the country and our monthly alcohol-free-day count was the highest it's ever been.

THE UGLY

- Rubbish

It was be remiss of me not to mention the rubbish problem that I saw in Sri Lanka. I won't go on about it for too long because it's upsetting and because it's the only massive negative about a country that I really loved visiting. It's not fair to compare a developing country to Australia but in this regard Sri Lanka is definitely lagging behind other developing countries I have been to and it's such a shame. I don't know what waste management systems are in place on the island but I do know that I was heartbroken by seeing how much plastic crap was ruining the beautiful green landscapes. The train lines were littered with it, waterways were being used as dumps, the supposedly 'secret beach' in Mirissa which is secluded and quiet had so much glass and plastic in the sand that I didn't even want to take my thongs off, and I saw children on buses throwing their rubbish out the windows with no comment from their parents. The walk up to Adam's Peak, a sacred pilgrimage, was the worst for me with piles and piles of trash on the side of the mountain. Often you'd smell toxic smoke and you knew that the locals were burning their rubbish, an option that without knowing the consequences probably seems like a good solution. I don't know what the solution is but I do hope that there's a system that can be implemented and that the people can be educated to take better care of this beautiful country that they are obviously so proud of. 

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Dave and I both loved Sri Lanka and on our one year travel anniversary where we sat on the beach in Arugam Bay drinking longnecks we compiled a whole bunch of 'top 5' lists from the past 12 months - Sri Lanka easily made it into both our lists for top 5 countries. It's such a special place and I'm so grateful that we got to see so much of it AND that there's still so much yet to see when we return.

We are currently in Laos and thinking up ever more creative ways to make our money last as long as possible so we don't have to come home to Melbourne winter! Seriously though, being in Asia is lovely, knowing our favourite people are only a few hours flight away when we finally do decide it's time to go home. Until the next blog, stay warm. x

The Americas: Central and North

Vanakkam! Blogging to you live from Sri Lanka, monsoon season. No monsoons to speak of yet but plenty of rain. Stories for the next blog though, right now I wanna talk about the past few weeks in Central America and our sneaky trip to NYC, the (second) greatest city on earth. I'm gonna write this blog the way I write my journal, under headings of the places we've been. I'm not feeling the writing mojo at the moment so this is probably the easiest way. FYI - there's not a whole bunch of travel info in this one, but there are a lot of stories of drinking and shenanigans. Someone may even vomit in their own hair. That's what our time in Central America was all about so if you're an adult human with more highbrow interests you should stop reading now.

FORT LAUDERDALE

What a weird place to visit, huh? Getting directly from Peru to Panama was not going to be easy or cheap. Our options were either a very expensive direct flight, or a very long overland trip involving days on buses. In the end our best bet was flying to Fort Lauderdale in southern Florida, then flying to Panama City the following day. It was a little bit weird being back in a western country. I kept throwing my toilet paper in the bin and rehearsing what I wanted to say in my head in Spanish. But the USA will always hit you like a tonne of bricks with its american-ness and it wasn't long before we were watching the basketball, drinking beers and eating burgers and wings in a classic American bar. 

Air con and hot showers were another luxury we'd been missing, and our cheap airport hotel honestly felt like the Hilton in comparison to what we were used to. Fort Lauderdale is proper suburbia though, and I'm glad we really only had to spend the day there. There was just enough spare time to see Deadpool at the local cinema before we were back to the bar to scoff more wings and beers in preparation for our flight. 

PANAMA CITY

We arrived in Panama City at the incredibly convenient time of 2am, where the airport staff were incredibly uninterested in us and definitely did not want to see proof of a return ticket to the US, thanks very much woman at the Spirit Airlines check in counter who forced us to buy one, telling us we wouldn't be allowed into the country without it. Gah, what a waste of time. 

Panama City is a pretty cool place. We stayed in the old town which had a fair bit of character about it, a lot of old colonial type buildings that were being renovated and preserved. Parts of it were very hip and expensive but you didn't have to walk far to get an idea of the 'real' Panama City. A really interesting mix. There were a bunch of good spots to get coffee and a decent brewery, luckily as it was incredibly hot and humid so beer was very necessary. 

Our trip out to the Panama Canal was definitely the highlight of our time here. Completed in 1914, it's obviously an engineering marvel and it was fascinating to read about the history of it and how many migrant workers were employed because of it. We got a great tip from our hostel not to take the organised tour bus because we definitely wouldn't see any ships and it would be a bit of a waste. Instead we took a cab in the afternoon and were able to watch the locks open so that a giant car carrier could pass through. I'm not a big one for mechanics or anything but it was pretty awesome to see. 

BASTIMENTOS

Heading to Bocas del Toro, an island off the coast of Panama, from Panama City SHOULD be a piece of cake as it is the road most travelled by backpackers. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a shit show. Bus tickets can't be bought in advance, you have to purchase on the day and hope there are seats available. The bus station was also super sketchy - while we were waiting a girl had her entire backpack stolen when she turned her back for a moment. The overnight bus ride was one of the worst we've been on, with the air con on so high it was impossible to sleep even if you could get comfortable in the cramped seats. We were also asked to help pay for the conductor's medical treatment for the huge growth on his stomach, which he showed us all before announcing he'd be doing a lap of the bus collecting donations. A bus full of gringos is like the ultimate cash cow.

We didn't actually stay on Bocas del Toro, preferring to head to Bastimentos which is a little bit further out and a lot less touristy. Wanting to stay away from the 'touristy areas' always sounds so wanky but the reality is that it's just so much cheaper. We were able to get a private room in a hostel right on the water (as in you could jump into the ocean from the balcony) cheap as chips. Paradise living on a shoestring budget, we've got this down pat now.

Bastimentos is a pretty small island with one small town, some beautiful beaches and a lot of jungle. Because of its location in the Caribbean it is very different than other parts of Central America. The people look more West Indian, with quite dark skin and a certain swag. I loved the kids on Bastimentos, particularly the boys, with their shaved heads, earnest faces and little school uniforms. Some of the cutest kids I've ever seen. The locals here speak a unique mix of Creole, Spanish and English so we heard a lot of words we recognised but could never actually understand an entire sentence. They do understand Spanish though, and most of the taxi boat drivers spoke a bit of English so communication was pretty easy. 

There are two main beaches on Bastimentos, Red Frog beach (so named for the colour of the frogs in the jungle surrounding the beach) and Wizard Beach. Wizard Beach you can only access by trekking through the jungle, a walk we did a couple of times. This is a popular surf beach and not really great for swimming, but I got in some solid sun baking time. Red Frog beach is only accessible by boat so we only went there once ($20USD return and we are tight arses). This beach really was lovely and made even better by seeing a mother and baby sloth on the short walk in from the jetty. 

We also spent a lazy Sunday afternoon at Blue Coconut, an over water bar a short boat ride away where you could borrow snorkelling gear, lay in the in water hammocks or just sun bake, drink beer and hang out.  Dave saw an eagle ray and I ate jerk chicken. Win/win.

The best thing about Bastimentos was the vibe of the hostel we were staying at. So chilled out and relaxed, with volunteer staff (sidebar: two of the volunteers were a couple from Australian and they were lovely, although old mate had a tendency to drink his beers too quickly and then just drink whatever was left in the fridge, regardless of who it belonged to. One night he drank a couple of our beers and Dave was livid, saying 'you don't touch a man's wallet, you don't touch his beer'. Evidently touching his wife is okay...) and a local owner known as 'Jaguar'. Jaguar was also a teacher at the local school and when he wasn't in his 'professional' clothes he was decked out head to toe in New York Yankees paraphernalia. I've never seen a more committed fan of any sport, anywhere. He made sure we knew that there was a band playing at the hostel next door on Monday night and that beers were $1. That was enough to get us through the door and we were very well rewarded. The band was a collective of independent musicians who have been travelling together in a converted school bus which runs on bio fuel since 2009. Anybody is free to come and go as they please as long as they bring some skill of value to the group and are committed to living a zero waste lifestyle. They played a fusion of reggae, ska, funk, calypso and latino music styles and we danced our arses off. 

SAN JOSE

Welcome to Costa Rica, the most expensive country in Central America. San Jose is also widely considered to not be a very nice place to stay so we had just one night here to break up the trip from Panama to the Costa Rican coast. In our first hour in the country we managed to get ripped off by a cab driver to the tune of $60USD. He had his meter on but it was turned away from us and he clearly fudged the numbers somehow. We were seething but there was nothing we could do about it. Luckily our Airbnb host was the loveliest mama you could ever want and greeted us with coffee, cake and sympathy. She called a cab driver she trusted and arranged for him to take us to the bus station the following morning so we wouldn't get ripped off again. She even got up early to cook us pancakes and make coffee so that we could have breakfast before our 6am departure. Too lovely. 

PLAYA NEGRA

We missed out on tickets for the 7am bus which meant an annoying wait at the bus station for the next one. The trip to Santa Cruz was four hours and we still had another 2 hours on public buses to get to our destination of Playa Negra on the pacific coast. Unfortunately our Airbnb was nowhere near the bus stop so we had to catch the bus part of the way back and get a cab from the nearest main town. People with money would have just paid the $35 for a cab from Santa Cruz but we always have to do things the hard way. It made for a testing day in 35 degree heat with a hot, dry wind but once we got to our little treehouse room and cracked a cold beer we were feeling much better. 

We noticed on our bus trip that the landscape looked remarkably similar to the bush back home in a period of extreme drought. Everything was so dry and fried by the sun and there had obviously been a lot of burning off recently to try and prevent the whole place going up in flames. Our host told us that the water restrictions were getting tight and there had been a lot of fighting between residents over water wastage. Ahh, just like home.

The only reason we had come to Costa Rica was to meet up with my brother Dan who has been living in Toronto since last February. He joined us on our second day in Playa Negra and arrived with a big smile and a duty free bottle of Hendricks. We lay in the hammocks for a bit, drinking gin and tonics and catching up before walking down to the beach to catch the sunset. We jumped into the water and what started as a relaxing 'oh let's lay about in the water and watch the sun go down' soon turned into 'let's try and body surf these giant breaking waves and get repeatedly dumped on the beach'. I was an unenthusiastic participant in this game but Dan and Dave kept swimming back out for more, spurred on by one particularly savage dumping which earned Dave a round of applause from a bunch of surfers up on the beach. The one wave I 'caught' was enough for me as I ended up covered in black sand (Playa Negra literally translates to black beach) and almost lost my bikini bottoms. In hindsight, this was a pretty dangerous activity after a few gins with big waves and fading light but at the time it was a lot of fun.

We made ourselves at home at the giant tiki bar on the beach for the remainder of the night, drinking their overpriced beer and eating their overpriced hamburgers, sampling freshly caught fish from some locals, hanging out at the beach bonfire, stargazing and making new friends. It seemed like a good idea to finish the bottle of gin when we returned home, which unsurprisingly ended with me vomiting in the treehouse and the vomit dripping through the cracks in the floorboards down to the next level. 31 year old Mel is a really mature, adult human. 

The howler monkeys living in the tree outside our window woke us up the next morning with their terrifying sounds. If you've never seen a howler monkey before, picture a small, black monkey, cute and innocent looking with a roar on it that is straight from Jurassic Park. These things sounded like a murderous velociraptor and once the monkeys were up, we were up. I nursed my hangover by lying in a tidal pool and playing some excellent board games (thanks Dan) at the tiki bar waiting for Dan's friend Pam to drive over from Tamarindo with empanadas. 

A few beers later we were hanging out with Jorge, one of the fisherman from the previous day while he built a fire on the beach and told us how he just happened to be in the right spot today to see a whole bunch of baby turtles hatch and take their first steps into the water. Oh Costa Rican life, what a trip. 

Even though Costa Rica blew our budget a little I'm so glad we went, especially to Playa Negra, as it was so much fun, such a chilled out part of the world and we met a bunch of nice people.

SAN JUAN DEL SUR

Onwards to Nicaragua, where a whole series of men with shotguns wanted to check our passports at the border crossing. We arrived in San Juan del Sur (SJDS) in the early afternoon and after checking out our fabulous Airbnb we headed straight to the sports bar on the beach for beers and lunch. This place would become our second home over the next few days, with daily visits either before, during or after our beach time, and Bob the owner making sure we were well looked after and the NBA was always on TV. 

There were actually a whole row of beach bars to choose from and we snagged a front row seat in the sand at the place next door to watch the sunset on the first night, with the tide occasionally rolling right in and wetting our feet. I could have stayed there all night but my other brother Brendan was flying in from home to meet us this night so we headed back to rustle him up a midnight meal. Brendan had a long list of Australian treats that the three of us needed him to bring over and he didn't disappoint, presenting us with vegemite, pizza shapes, fantales, milo, cherry ripes, cheese twisties, Turkish delight and tim tams. We feasted that night, I tell you, and just FYI, this is the expected amount of food that any visitor from Australia is required to bring over.

SJDS is a bit of a blur of nights out and days at the beach. There are a few classic stories from our time there which I'm not going to share here because some things just don't translate well into text. Highlights are a tale involving Dan, a transvestite prostitute, a stolen wallet, two corrupt Nicaraguan cops, a small bag of weed found on Dan's person, a bribe to the tune of $100USD, a fence jump to withdraw said money from a closed ATM, and a bank card left in the machine amid all the kerfuffle. Another involves Dave taking a swim in a hotel bar's pool in just his undies, 'someone' thieving his clothes and hiding in the girls toilets, a near nude walk through the packed bar and a bouncer refusing re-entry as him smoking a J in his undies is evidently 'not a good look for the hotel'. So many fun times that we actually decided to stay an extra couple of nights in SJDS. This meant finding new digs though, and a hostel with $15 private rooms seemed okay for a night. The sight that greeted us when we came to drop our bags off at 11am on Saturday should have been a giant red warning light. The hostel was located behind the most poorly themed Irish bar you've ever seen which hadn't worried us when we first saw it as it was completely deserted. Well now it was packed full of locals who were settling in for a long day of drinking. We dropped off our bags and hightailed it out of there reassuring ourselves that if we spent the day out and came back late then the people would not be there when we returned. The people were well and truly still there when we returned, sitting at the tables outside our room, drinking and talking. There was no possibility of sleep so we joined in the drinking to knock ourselves out. There were definitely a few prostitutes working the room that night and because we had booked all the bedrooms (where I assume they normally conduct their business) they moved things into the bathrooms. The bathrooms where I was supposed to shower in the morning! One woman went into the bathroom with three guys and proceeded to make a whole lot of banging noises for the next half hour. Needless to say, we all skipped the shower the next day. 

Just to cap off our stay in this hell hole, Dave managed to put his finger through a gap in the cage of the upright fan in our bedroom when he was trying to move it out of the way. The stainless steel fan blade sliced right through his finger, thankfully hitting the nail and not chopping the tip right off. There was blood everywhere, Dr Dan had to perform first aid and we all agreed that booking a nice hotel with air con and no prostitutes was the only way to ride out our hangovers for one final night in SJDS. 

LEÓN

On to León! We had mainly come here because we wanted to do volcano boarding, and I honestly can't tell you much else about León. Our hostel was at the back of a bar so we spent a lot of our time there. On our first night they held a trivia comp and some Norwegians at the table next to us started smack talking us very early on, leading to a bet where the lower scoring table had to buy the other table a bottle of rum. Well we weren't the higher scoring table but we managed to prove that they'd been fiendishly cheating so we got the rum on principle. Dan and Dave decided to finish the entire bottle that night and a very hungover Dave could not get out of bed for volcano boarding the next morning. The rest of us went though, and goddamn it was a good time. You had to hike up to the top of the volcano carrying your board which wasn't easy in the hot sun, on unstable terrain, with a hangover. The reward at the top was a freshly cooked potato that had been buried in the ground the day before and cooked in the underground heat. These were delicious and such a cool surprise. We space-suited up for safety and then we were ready to go. The volcano had two runs marked out and you just chose which one you wanted to go down, waited your turn and then pushed off. The first section was a gradual decline where you could start off slowly, before giving way to a small drop and then a long, steep decline to the bottom. Once I went over that drop and really started sliding, I was terrified. I actually said 'I'm going to die' out loud several times and I was convinced I couldn't lean back any further as I was already going way too fast (the further back you lean, the faster you go) but once I hit the bottom and got my speed from the guy with the radar gun I was shocked to find out I was only going 38kms an hour. It felt much faster and I reckon if I had the chance to do it again I'd lean back and give it a real shake.

One guy who did give it a real shake was Dave, who went the following day and definitely did not listen to the tips I gave him. He leaned way too far back way too early and was absolutely flying by the first drop. So much so that he lost control over the drop and came off his board, which kept going down the volcano without him. He then chased it down, tripped over his own feet and face planted, ending up with a face full of gravel and a cut on his forehead. Somehow he still managed to get to his board and climb back on, only to fall off again at the bottom. I really wish I'd been there to see this escapade. 

ANTIGUA

Leaving León for Antigua meant taking a 2am shuttle from the hostel. I thought it would be a grand idea to get a couple of hours sleep beforehand so I didn't feel like death the following day. Dan and Dave disagreed, claiming the the best possible option was to go to a karaoke bar and get no sleep at all. The karaoke bar was very unimpressed with their gringo song choices and their general gringoness. Dan got through one rendition of The Other Side by the RHCP before they were told that karaoke was 'finished', although all the locals were allowed to keep singing. Undeterred, they returned to the hostel and drank until 1:30am when they woke me up with a whole range of silly behaviour, culminating in Dan stealing a packet of cigarettes from behind the bar, for which he thought lighting a small fire would create an appropriate diversion. It was going to be a very long day...

My notes for Antigua talk a lot about drunk nights and hangovers but in addition to that it really was a beautiful colonial town. Gorgeous old churches, bustling squares and nice architecture. The place just had a nice feel to it, the kind of place you'd visit and not want to leave. Not surprisingly, there was a big expat community, a lot of whom we managed to befriend over the few days we were there.

There was a welsh bar called the Ocelot that we stumbled across on the night that Prince died. The owner had just completed three months sober and his way of 'getting back on the wagon' was to shout the entire bar free tequila shots repeatedly over the course of the night. I don't think that's actually part of the twelve step program. I hate tequila but I love free drinks and the tightarse in me obviously won this battle. I definitely remember singing Purple Rain at the top of my lungs, having a long conversation with a girl from North Carolina about how great Bernie Sanders is, and possibly doing a very small vomit into my hair and pillow while I was sleeping. 

My punishment was to wake up with no voice the following day (apparently singing all night when you have a sore throat isn't a good idea) and 24 hours to ensure that I organised a fun day for Dave's birthday. We booked in for a Guatemalan cooking class, bought a Cuban cigar, devised a delicious breakfast menu and scoped out the best bars to hit up on Sunday. Sorted.

Dave's birthday was so much fun. The cooking class started at 10.30 and the free wine was flowing from the moment we got there. We made a spicy chicken pepián, tortillas, Guatemalan rice, beetroot salad and deep fried plantains stuffed with chocolate. It was amazing and so much food. The staff had also organised a birthday cake for Dave which was such a nice gesture and we sang happy birthday (my voice still just a whisper) as Dave sat there awkwardly, hating being the centre of attention. After a brief power nap (daytime drinking makes you so tired) it was onto The Snug where the beer was cheap, the peanuts were free and two old American guys were singing blues, complete with a selection of harmonicas. The night wore on, new friends were made, a change of venue took us to a 'cafe' that was really a bar with a giant selection of tequila and an excellent night was had by all.

Dave and I had to leave Antigua very soon after his birthday as we had a flight from Cancun booked in less than a week, and we also really needed to give our livers a rest. We said goodbye to my brothers and headed north to Flores.

FLORES/TIKAL

Flores is in the north of Guatemala and isn't really much to write home about, except that it's kind of a little island in the middle of a lake. It's the perfect base for trips to Tikal and it is also ridiculously hot. We had hot weather everywhere in Central America, Antigua being the coolest spot we visited with daytime highs only around 28 degrees. Everywhere else was really fucking hot, but Flores was on a whole other level. Our hostel didn't have air con (of course) but we could pay for it for $12USD extra per night. No thank you sir, I will just sleep in a pool of my own sweat thank you very much.

Our day trip to Tikal was definitely a highlight of Central America. We knew we wouldn't have the time or money to get to Chichen Itza in Mexico and we had heard that the temples at Tikal were as good, if not better so we were very excited to go. The site was fantastic and really well preserved. A lot of excavation work has been done but it was really interesting to see the temples that have only been half uncovered. The jungle really reclaimed these structures and I'm so impressed that they were able to locate them and clear the overgrowth on so many temples. The site is massive and you can't cover it all in a half day tour but we were really pleased with how much we saw. Unfortunately our tour guide was crap, not really explaining things properly and more interested in telling the history of his life rather than the history of Tikal. We loved seeing the beautiful carvings on the top level of temples and hidden stone faces in underground shafts. So much work went into these temples, it's overwhelming to imagine how beautiful they would have been in their glory days. Our tour was the 'sunset tour' and we were able to climb to the top of a west facing temple to watch the sunset. The climb wasn't hard but the stone steps on these things are massive. I'm talking at least my knee height for the smaller ones and they were inconsistent sizes so some were much higher. This is strange because the Mayans were a very short race of people, probably shorter than me. How they walked up such giant steps daily is beyond me. Anyway, my short legs and I made it to the top and settled in to watch the sun set over the jungle and the tops of the temples. Unfortunately there was a low lying cloud which stole the best part of the view but it was still a lovely experience. The climb down was obviously terrifying (I realised halfway up that I had no idea how I was going to get down) but once that was sorted it was just one more sweaty night until we would be in Mexico.

TULUM

God, overland travel is a pain in the arse in Central America. Not only do you need to do a whole bunch of border crossings (I have stamps in my passport for countries that I only saw out the window of a minivan) but there's never anything really 'direct'. There's no network of buses like there is in South America so a lot of trips are like private shuttles in minivans with seats that don't recline. 'Cama' night buses are non existent so you have to waste precious time traveling during the day. There's no central bus station in most towns, instead there is a whole bunch of tour operators booking you into these 'private shuttles' and ripping you off like there's no tomorrow. I won't go into the details of how shitty some of our trips were (Guatemala to Mexico was particularly bad) but it was not an easy transition after being in Peru where the buses were some of the best we had ever taken. 

Anyway, we had a few days in Mexico and we'd originally planned to go to Cancun, until a fellow traveller mentioned that Tulum might be a better option for us. I'm so glad she did because we loved it here. Tulum is kind of like everything from 'stuff white people like' together in one town. Sweat lodges, juice bars, yoga retreats, couples clay masks, vegan restaurants, overpriced cocktails, babes riding bicycles in crochet bikinis - in short, totally my kind of place. We stayed in the pueblo though, not down by the beach where all the things I've just mentioned are, because beach accommodation is hella expensive. I'm very keen to return when I have money and make the most of all there is on offer. 

We still had a really great time in Tulum, albeit in a different way. The hostel we stayed in was swell, with legendary owners who were so furious when they found out that Dave's phone had been stolen from our dorm room (we are pretty sure it was a dirty French carnie who was travelling with a group of wannabe acrobats. You know the type, usually Argentinian or French, they travel with no money, but they juggle and make human pyramids at red traffic lights for a bit of spare change and really just sponge off society.). We were pretty annoyed as my brother had literally brought it over from home two weeks prior. Fucking carnies.

Anyway, back to the fun bits! The beach in Tulum was nice, with soft white sand and nice clean waves. There was a slight seaweed issue but I'm a beach snob so obviously I'll never be happy. We hired bikes and rode the entire resort strip, choosing a reasonably cheap beach bar to park ourselves at and chill on the sun lounges. We also became regulars at a ridiculously cheap taco joint, where we could each eat five delicious tacos (they were small, don't judge!) with two drinks for less than $7 Australian dollars. We had a great night out with some of the other guests and staff when we got taken to a local dive bar where 200 pesos (about $18) would buy you a beer and half a gram of coke. Oh Mexico. Your reputation ain't for nothing.

One thing I was very keen to do in Mexico was to swim in a cenote, and there were a few to choose from near Tulum. We went to Gran Cenote and spent a couple of hours snorkelling in some of the clearest water I've ever seen. The underwater world here was so cool, I actually wished I could scuba dive and check it out properly. We watched some divers in action, swimming under the rock shelf and down into the caves, the beam of light from their torch the only way to see down there. Above the water was a cave with a heap of bats, and stalactites reaching all the way into the water. Swimming amongst these was so cool, as was having schools of little fish right in front of your face. The network of cenotes and the history around them is just amazing and something that has fascinated me for a long time. I know that we will get back to Mexico one day, and swimming in as many cenotes as I can is high on my list of priorities.

From there it was just a quick one night stop in Cancun (where we ate a pizza that is easily in my top five best pizzas of all time) before our flight to:

¡NEW YORK!

Man, this city has a hold of me and it shows no signs of letting go. We were so lucky to get back to NYC, it somehow worked out to be the cheapest place to fly to Sri Lanka from the US and we were able to use our about-to-expire flight vouchers AND we found cheap flights from Cancun to New York. It all just fell into place perfectly for us to squeeze in about 43 hours of drinking, eating, stocking up on first world products at Duane Read, basketball watching, subway riding, city walking, sightseeing and shopping for hiking shoes to replace my stolen ones. The weather was a not very Spring-like 11 degrees, and coming from weeks of sweltering heat I felt quite unprepared for it. We made the most of the time that wasn't raining though, with a walk along the Highline, hot dogs and pretzels in Bryant Park and strolling around Soho and the West Village. When it started to rain we took refuge at the NY Public Library and various cafes and bars across the west side of Manhattan. The list of things we wanted to eat in NY was long but I'm pleased to say we managed to achieve every item on it. I don't want to say we're heroes but we probably are.

All too soon we were back at JFK to hop a plane to Asia for the final leg of our journey. Central America was so much fun and the only thing I would change is more time to explore it properly. We were definitely looking for a relaxing, holiday break with our time there and that's what we got, with a lot of beach time and a lot of drinking. Obviously there is so much more to do and now having just skimmed the surface we are very keen to see what else these countries have to offer. Central America (with the exception of Cost Rica) is wayyy cheaper than South America and it's easier to travel, in my opinion (you can get by in CA with zero Spanish, something that isn't possible in SA). You could certainly backpack on a budget here a lot more easily and cheaply than we did in South America. No regrets though, just a whole new trip to plan for next time!

Saying 'See you next time' to South America

Hi guys! Greetings from Bastimentos, an island in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama. We are here for a week to unwind from a hectic past 6 months of travelling. Our plans consist of drinking beer, swimming, tanning and eating. We really do live a tough life.

I reckon i'mma dot point this bad boy because I'm really feeling the island vibe and there's no point doing something the hard way when you can do it the easy way.

When last I blogged we had just finished an epic 5 weeks in Bolivia and were en route to Arequipa in the south of Peru.

- Arequipa is a beautiful town, with stunning churches, a lively main square and a really nice local market. We stayed here for a day before heading to Colca Canyon and then three days after we got back. The Monastery in town is the biggest tourist attraction and it was undoubtedly lovely but unfortunately overpriced. Story of my life. We drank some great coffee in Arequipa and visited the craft beer bar almost every night. It really was a delightful town where you could easily imagine spending a lot of time. If I hadn't already taken Spanish classes in Buenos Aires this is the spot I would have wanted to settle for two weeks and take them. Prices were reasonably backpacker friendly too, with private rooms for great rates and really cheap food - you could get a three course lunch for only 7 soles (less than $3)!

- Outside of Arequipa is the Colca Canyon, which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world. There's some argument over whether it is actually the deepest but we learned that there's another canyon not too far away that's a little deeper. At any rate it's twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and very pretty. We booked a three day guided hike so we could really see it properly, beginning with the ungodly pickup time of 3am. Fortunately the first day more than made up for our lack of sleep after we had the chance to watch two condors in full flight from a very close distance. Condor viewings have been so disappointing for us on this trip, with our only sightings being from a long way away. These birds however, were right above our heads and we could really appreciate their gliding abilities. Condors are cool AF.

- The hike itself was pretty amazing and we were so lucky to get three full days of sunshine in Peru in the wet season. The recent rains had ensured that there were lots of flowers blooming on the plants and everything was looking very green. To get into the canyon you basically have to walk straight down so that's what we did on our first day. They've thrown a whole bunch of switchbacks into the trail so you're not walking straight down the side of the cliff but it's still pretty steep and tough to walk as the terrain is just small shale-like rocks. The trek includes basic accommodation in the local towns and it was interesting to see the communities that exist at the bottom of a canyon and the way they live. People down here are reasonably self sufficient  and everything at the shops is way more expensive than anywhere else in the area because of the logistics of getting it all down there. 

- The second day hike was much easier in comparison, we only had to walk across the canyon to get to the promised land of Oasis Sangalle. Along the way our guide Nelson (hands down the best guide we've ever had for anything, anywhere) explained all about the medicinal plants and different fruit trees growing in the canyon and the history of the native people of the area, which involved graphic descriptions of skull drilling and deforming. Charming. What was charming though was the oasis, which included a swimming pool and a bar with two for one cocktails. The drinking started early and also finished very early as our walk the following day was scheduled to begin at 5am. That puts a dampener on any party. One of our best drinking companions this night was a border collie who had tacked himself onto our group at the very start of the hike on the first day, then come all the way with us on both days hiking and slept at our accommodations. He even managed to beat us to the oasis and was patiently waiting by the pool when we arrived. Crazy bugger must do this hike all the time, finding a group at the beginning of the three days and just enjoying the company and food scraps until it's time for them to go, then he chooses a new group. Border Collies are such a stupid, endearing, beautiful breed of dog. 

- Nelson had made it pretty clear that the last days hiking was the toughest and we had to start so early to give ourselves enough time to beat the heat of the day. Once the sun started to rise we saw the most beautiful colours reflected off the mountains and in the sky which made the early start so worthwhile. We were essentially walking straight up out of the canyon so this was definitely a tougher hike, especially at altitude. Dave and I powered up though, keeping a steady pace and only stopping to take in the views, drink some water and for me to do a poo. We hit the top just after 7am and were rewarded with a lady selling bananas and sublimes (chocolate covered peanut bars, probably my favourite chocolate bar of all time) and the 60 year old French man in our group telling me I was 'a very strong girl'. Thanks mate, I'll take that.

- We had to wait up the top for all of our group to finish and because of the altitude and the fact the sun wasn't providing any heat yet it was really cold. I was wearing all the clothes I had in my bag until Nelson finally arrived at the back of the group with his iPhone blaring out 'We Are The Champions' and a round of high fives for everybody. A great moment while we were waiting was when three French girls from our group who'd been nothing but rude to all of us the whole three days rolled up to the top on their mules (these were available at a price if you didn't think you could make the walk) and then proceeded to roll and light up a fat joint. Fucking French. 

- We had a few more nights in Arequipa once we'd returned from Colca Canyon and we were keen to make the most of them. Unfortunately we had very little opportunity to do this, as both of us were struck down with some sort of food poisoning or a virus. This was super debilitating 'I don't know which end to put above the toilet' kind of stuff. Luckily we had our own room with a TV and private bathroom but it was a really rough couple of nights and then an even tougher final day in Arequipa waiting for our night bus to Cusco that didn't leave until 8pm and we had to be out of our room at 11am. We were willing to pay for an extra night just to use the bed for the day but the bloody hostel was fully booked so we had to sit in the common area which was like a rooftop patio, on plastic chairs in the cold and rain. We couldn't even kill the afternoon at a warm, dry cafe because both of us were too sick to even stomach coffee. Sometimes travelling sucks. On the bright side, the guy sitting next to us on the bus was a doctor and not only did he offer us whatever medicinals we wanted from his bag (!) he also asked the stewardess to bring us chamomile tea as that would be helpful for our stomachs. What a guy.

- Cusco gave us a great chance to recuperate a bit in our charming hostel with hot showers and crepes for breakfast. This is our idea of luxury these days. We also had the chance to eat great vegetarian food from a few nice local restaurants. Our favourites were a four course vegan meal for only 12 soles and a place doing ripper veggie burgers for only 10. If anything was ever going to turn me vegetarian it would be the sight of the whole roasted Guinea pigs on skewers with a little pepper in their mouths which were commonplace at every market we went to in Peru. I had no desire to try them, and after spending so much time looking at the way meat is stored and sold at the markets all over South America I have really lost my appetite for it. I can't remember the last time I bought and cooked a piece of meat and I will only order it when I'm out if the restaurant seems super hygienic. 

- Cusco itself was such a beautiful city with really breathtaking architecture and history, but a little too crawling with tourists for my liking (yes, I say this as a tourist in the city - I understand the irony). There were spruikers on every corner trying to sell you tours to the sacred valley, treks to Machu Picchu, massages, photos with guys dressed up as Incas and the like. As annoying as this was it really worked in our favour as we were able to book the Salkantay Trek for the crazy cheap price of $185 per person including sleeping bag rental. We had assumed that our budget wouldn't allow us to do a trek at all and that we'd be seeing MP as part of a day trip by car. It did mean that our entire budget for Cusco was going towards Salkantay and we wouldn't be able to buy a tourist ticket to visit the other sites around town but that was a small price to pay. Mach Picchu really is THE drawcard.

- So, the hike. It was great. Really great. However, I think the saying 'you get what you pay for' is true because we had a few issues due to booking with a cheap company. Our 5am pickup was half an hour late and they didn't have our names listed nor the fact that we are vegetarian (ahem). Add to that the fact that our guide may or may not have had a drinking problem and you could tell you were on the budget tour. But still, the scenery is just as amazing as if you paid more for a better company and we were so freaking grateful to have the opportunity that nothing was going to bring us down.

- The first two days walking were probably the more difficult days, needing to go up quite a lot in elevation to pass Abra Salkantay. These were our favourite days. On the first day after lunch we walked up to Humantay lake which is at the base of a glacial mountain which runs off into the lake. It is such a beautiful colour, almost turquoise green. It's also really fucking cold (that would be the glacial waters). I was not game to go in but, as ever, Dave ran in headfirst and took a very quick dip. You can't keep that kid out of the water. A few of us did a bit of extra walking up to the top of a hill where the views of the lake were even better. It was here that we made our first apacheta (rock stack) and said a prayer to Pacha Mama that we would have a good day for hiking tomorrow. 

- Our guides woke us up at 5am on day two with hot coca tea delivered straight to our tents. That's the kind of wake up call I could get used to. They were clearly buttering us up for the morning where the hiking was going to be tough! Getting up to Salkantay Pass required walking pretty steadily uphill for three hours until we reached our highest point of 4,600 metres. Phew. We were so lucky that we had spent so much time at altitude prior to doing this hike and didn't struggle with the altitude the way that others in our group who had flown into Cusco the day before the hike did. It never gets easy to breathe at altitude but somehow your body just eventually gets used to it. At the peak we sat and listened to our guide explain some customs of the Quechua people and we made apachetas. This time we each stacked enough rocks for members of our families and prayed for their health and wellbeing. I'm not one for religion in any way but this is a nice ritual and I enjoyed doing it. I stacked 10 rocks so if you're wondering whether I prayed for you, that will probably help you to figure it out. Your continued health is entirely because of me, and you're welcome. The next few hours of hiking saw our landscape completely change from glaciers and mountains into lush jungle. Peru is a country of such contrasts.

- On day three we had cake for breakfast because it was the birthday of one of the girls in our group. Birthday goals for the rest of my life - cake for breakfast. This day our walk was mostly along roads through the jungle and it got really hot, really early. By lunchtime we were all exhausted so it was good that the afternoon involved a car ride to our next camping spot and a trip to the hot springs. Hot springs in South America have been largely disappointing, it's something they tack onto a lot of tours but often they are really average and uninviting. These hot springs though, these were amazing. Really well made and they felt natural but also super clean and hygienic. There was even a bar at this place so you could have a beer once you felt that you were sufficiently rejuvenated. The relaxed atmosphere continued back to our campsite where the pisco was flowing, the music pumping and the birthday celebrations kicking off. Dave and I probably put away a few too many beers and definitely not enough water and also stayed up way past our bedtime.

- The morning of day four was a complete clusterfuck. It seems we weren't the only ones who had drunk too much the night before, with no wake up call from our guides and a disorganised mess of orders being shouted and nobody knowing what was going on. Most people were going zip lining this morning but we opted out because it was an extra expense and we could not afford that. So we walked with shocking hangovers in the beating sun along a track that had no shade whatsoever. Not our finest moment. At lunch we met the rest of the group and then walked along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, our final destination and the closest town to Machu Picchu. Our hostel was way nicer than we anticipated and we very much enjoyed a hot shower and sleeping in an actual bed. 

- Our 4am wake up to climb up to Machu Picchu greeted us with torrential rain. We had been so lucky on this hike, in wet season, to have only copped about 45 minutes of rain in the late stages of our hike on day two. But this rain was not going anywhere anytime soon so with our ponchos on we headed out into the dark to make our final trek. The walk up was not easy, requiring you to climb these giant stone steps up and up. I had a duffel bag on my back and my daypack on my front as we had to carry all our own stuff on the final day. My daypack is the worst backpack of all time, not only is it falling apart, it's also far too big to wear on my front and consequently my thighs were pushing it upwards with every single step I went up. Add to this the rain and the dark and I was convinced I would never make it to the top. Luckily one of our guides saw me struggling and said 'give me your bag'. I practically cried with relief when he took it from me and  then I ran up those motherfucking steps like I was Mohammed Ali. Okay that's not really how it went but it did make the world of difference. 

- Entering the site of Machu Picchu for the first time not long after daybreak was a pretty surreal experience. It's something you've seen so many pictures of but still manages to take your breath away at first sight. The heavy clouds and mist hanging over the site this morning definitely added to the aura of mystery around it. Our guide gave us a brief tour of Machu Picchu but unfortunately he didn't give us much interesting information or actually seem to know that much about it. I eavesdropped on other guides and they were much better so it was a little disappointing, as without context you're really just staring at a bunch of old rock houses. Once the guides left and we were free to look around ourselves we hightailed it to the Sun Gate and patiently waited for the clouds to clear so we could get the full view of Machu Picchu. Sure enough, they did and we could really see the scale of it and also the location of it, on a mountain surrounded by other mountains. It's a crazy place to build a city and makes the feat of constructing it even more impressive. It's definitely one of the most special man made things I've ever seen, for sheer engineering alone and the fact that the Incas completely abandoned it and it was hidden from the world for centuries. 

- Our trip back to Cusco was less than glamorous. As we were unable to afford the faster, more expensive option of the train we had to walk back along the train tracks to Hidroelectrica where we just had time to scoff a couple of egg sandwiches and a Sublime ice cream (I wish we'd eaten these together Amy, they are exactly as amazing as you would expect) before the 7 hour mini bus ride from hell. Getting back to the comfort of our hostel where there were fresh crepes and craft beer waiting for us was a pretty sweet moment. 

- 23 hours on a bus got us to Lima, a gigantic city that unfortunately didn't seem to have a whole lot to set itself apart from other gigantic cities, in my opinion. It definitely didn't help that we were in a shitty, overpriced hostel, all the local places to eat and drink were overpriced (25 soles for a burrito!) and we had a heap of flights, accommodation and buses to book in anticipation of leaving South America within the week. Not a great combination to make any city endearing. Lima does have a couple of cool craft beer joints and we checked those out along with the bloody shopping mall as we had to pick up a few essentials. I hate malls. We were back at sea level for the first time in about 6 weeks and it was such a nice change to climb stairs and not feel out of breath. The feeling wouldn't last long though, as we were heading to Huaraz, a lazy 3,000 metres above sea level.

- The town of Huaraz was our very last stop in South America. Our plan was to come here for a few days and squeeze in a few hikes in what we had heard were beautiful national parks. We probably didn't do enough research (what else is new) and we assumed that the trail heads were all close to town and easily accessible. Incorrect. They were all a few hours away by bus and you had to pay not only to enter the parks but for the transport as well. Oy. We chose to prioritise the hike to Laguna 69 as by all accounts it was breathtaking. The bus ride took three hours including a pointless stop for breakfast and it was at this moment that we realised that not only were we two of a very small number of gringos on the bus, we were also among only a handful of people who were appropriately dressed for a hike. I'm talking a hike with a reasonably steep ascent, finishing at 4,600 metres. Yet most of the locals were wearing jeans and skate shoes. Not ideal. Our hostel had organised the bus for us and it was definitely not the kind of hiking day trip we had in mind. This was a tourist bus, not a bus for hikers. We made it to the lake (which was stunning, by the way) in about 2 hours. We then sat and ate our lunch and enjoyed the view for an hour. Then we practically meandered back down, knowing that there were some very slow walkers in our group. We still had to sit and wait by the bus for an hour and a freaking half while the rest of the group casually strolled back in their jeans looking like they were about to die. I'm not being judgemental about anybody else's fitness levels here, but the whole day was a shambles and it certainly put the kibosh on any plans to do another hike the following day. Give me self paced, easily accessible trails any day. 

- So with that, it was back to Lima and then off to Panama via Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Inter country flights in South and Central America can be hideously expensive and for us it was cheaper to fly to the states and then to Panama. Crazy.

And that's a wrap for South America. We have been here for 6 months and although we didn't make it all the way to Ecuador and Colombia (next time...) I am so happy with everything that we did and the experiences we've had. The people have been incredibly friendly and for the most part so patient with me and my fledgling Spanish. I've never had any rational reason to fear for my safety and the one time that I was a victim of theft was inside a hostel, possibly by a fellow backpacker. A lot of blanket statements are thrown around by people about this continent or the specific countries within it (complete fucking flog from Brisbane who we met in Valparaiso: 'I've never met anybody who wasn't robbed in Bolivia') but seeing the way things really are is very different to the stories you hear. There is however, a huge disparity between the rich and the poor, and progress and infrastructure varies wildly from country to country or even between regions within a country. Everybody speaks the same language (except the Brazilians, obvs) but they all speak different dialects and with completely different accents. The people in Argentina are tall, thin and European looking due to their multicultural heritage, while the people in Peru are short and dark owing to their Quechuan roots. There is so much to see, so much to do and so much to learn. I can guarantee that I will return to this continent as now that I have scratched the surface I really want to keep exploring and see what else lies beneath. 6 months has been great but it's far too short a time to devote to a continent as rich and diverse as this one. I would encourage everybody to visit, with the caveat that it's not as easy as travelling Europe but for me it offered a far more rewarding experience. I'm certainly a far less anxious, more patient, less judgemental and more accepting human being than I was 6 months ago and I have my challenges and triumphs - and the amazing people I've met and learned from - in South America to thank for that. 

And for now, it's a few weeks rest and relaxation in Central America (God do we need it) and then on to the next adventure - Asia! x