planning During our relaxing weeks in Wassenaar, as well as catching up on blog posts and spending quality time with family and friends, we began to plan our cycle tour of the Netherlands. 'Ronde van Nederland' is the ultimate cycle challenge in the Netherlands. It links together 1,385km of cycle trails, following the border of …
Cozumel and Tulum
En-Route to Cozumel We finally tore ourselves away from Merida and jumped on a bus to Playa De Carmen, from where we planned to catch a boat to the island of Cozumel. Since we had cancelled all our advance plans in Mexico our trip to Cozumel was a very last-minute decision. We spent, what was …
Merry in Merida
Traffic light cops, Nomades Hostel, Thai food and Salsa in Mexico's safest city: As you know from the previous blog, our stop over in Merida was meant to only be a short 3-day affair before hustling along to Campeche, a beachside town. However, our hostel in Merida, combined with the liveliness of this city, kept …
Mexico – Cancun, Isla Blanca and Valladolid
Kite surfing in Cancun and Sightseeing in Valladolid: Our flight to Mexico was a blissfully short four hours before landing in Cancun. The airport officials were useless and we spent the next 2 hours working our way through the Mexican immigration queue. There were about 200 people standing in line for immigration (with more people …
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Peru- from Cusco to Lima with Peru Hop tour
Luckily I did get to see a few of the enormous pelicans on the beach of Paracas before joining the last leg of our Peru Hop tour to Lima that evening. We stopped briefly at a Hacienda San Jose where we were taken on a tour through the ‘secret slave tunnels’. These tunnels are entered via a hidden staircase which descends under the estate and connects to a network of tunnels that cover more than 30km and connect various haciendas in the region to the old Chinca port. The secret tunnels were created so that the rich landowners could secretly ‘import’ slaves and avoid import taxes. One of the underground rooms even had the skeleton of a slave still in it, which was rather creepy and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the fact they have turned this into a tourist attraction. Still feeling ill, I struggled to enjoy the tour or survive the rest of the bus ride.
From Chile to Machu Picchu
When you ask people about their highlights in Peru, they will tell usually tell you two things: number one is Cusco and hiking to Machu Picchu, and number two is usually Arequipa and hiking the Colca Canyon. Some more adventurous people might tell you about jungle trekking in the north Peruvian Amazon and Ayahuasca ceremonies (a hallucinogenic plant that is legal because the government wants the indigenous people to rediscover lost traditions and knowledge relating to this ‘spiritual medicine’). Human testing for this drug is currently being conducted by multiple over-eager tourists, many venturing over to Peru for the sole purpose of trying Ayahuasca.
San Pedro de Atacma to Uyuni
What is the difference between a llama and an alpaca you ask? Well get ready for a knowledge drop… Both animals are from the camelid (camel) family, both will spit on you when they feel threatened and both are bred for their wool, meat and sometimes milk. However llamas are bigger, easier to train, and are used more as pack animals or as guard animals (can you imagine them chasing a burglar!) while alpacas are more skittish. Alpaca wool is more valuable because it is finer and hypoallergenic. The easiest way to tell them apart is the ears; Llamas have long banana-shaped ears while alpacas have smaller straight ears. Their faces are also a bit different with llamas having a longer face, while an alpaca's face looks smushed (like a pug).
Chile – Paradise in Pucon
Pucon is a small town situated in the foothills of the Andes, in the Araucania region of Patagonia. This charming little alpine town reminded us so much of Queenstown and made us feel right at home. It lies right between the gently smoking Villarica Volcano on one side and Lago Villarica on the other. If Chile is the home of adventure tourism in South America, then Pucon is the capital. Skiing, snowboarding, hiking, white water rafting, kayaking, canyoning, horse riding and even countless natural geothermal pools to unwind when you are ready for some relaxation. In summary, this was the perfect place to volunteer for a while and save money on accommodation and food while dropping all our dough on the expensive adventure activities around Pucon.
Georgia – Kutaisi and Sazano wine
After splashing out on an amazing (and still cheap) stay at Sazano winery and bouging out on all the free wine related tours, we headed to Kutaisi airport and left Georgia. After seeing our post that we were on the way to Barcelona, and having a free weekend away from study, Rebekah spontaneously jumped on a plane from France and flew to Barcelona to hang out and party with us!
Georgia – Svaneti
Now, imagine 12 people packed into one tiny Mashrutka (name for local mini buses). The driver is holding a cigarette in one hand and talking into his cellphone with the other. Meanwhile he is also driving 100km/h + along a rural ‘highway’, which is basically just a one lane windy road through the fields and mountains. Add a few full-grown “free range”cows in the middle of the road (usually hiding just around a blind corner) and you’ve got a pretty good picture of what our Mashrutka trip to Svaneti was like
Sean and Marlous travel diaries 