CAHUITA It’s easy to cross over from Bocas del Toro in Panama to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. As we needed a boat, a bus, a border crossing and then another bus, we used a very efficient and highly recommended company called Caribe Shuttle to organise our transport. We decided to stay in...
Caribe time! – Bocas del Toro islands
After a week of sweltering in a metropolis, we were rather glad to leave Panama City and head towards the Caribbean coast. We were excited not just by the destination that we had picked; the Bocas del Toro islands, but also because we had welcomed the arrival of some good friends from London, who...
The Top 5 things to do in Panama City
We weren’t quite sure what to expect from Panama City as it was to be our first capital city in Central America, and indeed it was quite unlike any city we have seen to date. We could immediately feel the American influence from the colossal malls, imported products and series of fast food restaurants...
Getting From Colombia to Panama – San Blas Island Hopping
Unless you fly (expensive), getting from Colombia to Panama is not as easy as you might think, as the land crossing is the only missing link in the Pan American Highway. The connecting land area between the two countries is known as the Darien Gap and consists of 100 miles of deep swampland and...
Our road tour of Northern Colombia
SANTA MARTA After visiting the delightful walled city of Cartagena de Indias, we rented a car and drove to Santa Marta, about 3 hours east along the coast, to begin our road tour of Northern Colombia. The city is a major seaside destination for Colombians, and has been quite heavily developed with many tall...
A taste of the Caribbean – Cartagena de Indias
When the time came to take on our 8th and last county in South America, we decided to miss the hustle and bustle of Colombia’s big cities of Bogota, Medellin and Cali and head for Cartagena de Indias for a taste of the Caribbean coast. SOME HISTORY Cartagena was officially founded in 1533 and...
What to do in Quito for 2 days
We visited Quito, the capital of Ecuador briefly after our glorious time in the Galápagos Islands. It’s a huge city perched on a plateau in the Andes and, at 2,850m above sea level, it’s the second highest city in the world after La Paz in Bolivia. It’s also surrounded by volcanoes, but as we...
Our Chilean culinary experience – Seafood and wine in Chile
Chile, South America’s long and thin country has over 4,300km of Pacific coastline; it is therefore no surprise that seafood features heavily on the menu. There are some cracking fish markets which we thoroughly enjoyed, but we noted that the mega-supermarket and industrially produced goods like plastic ham and cheese have a place in...
Paradise on Earth – Our Guide to the Galapagos Islands
When we began our adventures, we always knew that we wanted to visit the famous Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. We also knew that it would be one of the most expensive portions of our travels, in fact as soon as we arrived at the airport we felt like our pockets had holes in them....
Peruvian jungle food – What to eat in the Amazon
There’s a rumble in the jungle and it just happens to be our stomachs. We experienced the Amazon jungle whilst in and around Iquitos and the Loreto district, Peru, but also the lower jungle in Tarapoto and the Amazonas department. We found the Peruvian jungle food here markedly different to other parts of the...