We were told that we had overstayed by 11 days (this wasn’t really our fault as the Indian Embassy in Indonesia had issued us the wrong visas - we should have been given 6 months and were only there for 6 weeks) and that we needed to go to an office in the centre of Mumbai to sort it out. If this wasn’t bad enough we were then told that the office would be closed until Monday due to public holidays and that we definitely couldn’t leave until then. It was Thursday when it happened.

After our bags had been taken off the plane and returned to us we were free to leave the airport. Slightly bizarre as we were in the country illegally at that point but definitely preferable to being detained by the Indian authorities. We initially decided to go back to Goa until the Sunday night and bought bus tickets but later decided against that plan so we got a partial refund, bought a bottle of rum, and got a hotel room in Mumbai.

On the Friday we went down to the office on the off chance and were pleased to find out that it was open on Saturday so we went back then and after filling in a number of forms, being sent between about seven different people many times and paying a fine we were cleared to leave on the Sunday.

This whole episode, especially as it involved dealing with Indian bureaucracy, was a bit of a nightmare but Mumbai isn’t actually the worst place to be stuck as it is quite a good city, or has nice parts to it at least. On the Saturday we met up with a guy called Huzi (a friend of one of Ellie’s friends) at the Hard Rock Café where he works to have lunch.

That night he took us to an outdoor rooftop bar in Colaba which was really cool and it revealed a slick and stylish side of Mumbai. Each table was set in it’s own gazebo and the waiters would supply shisha pipes, drinks (non-alcoholic) and amazing food to all the tables with slick house music playing in the background. There were also awesome views of the city from the roof.

We had a really good night and then got up early the next day to go to the airport again and this time left the country without any hitches.

As a result of being stuck in India we unfortunately missed a party that Ellie's friends had arranged for us in Cheltenham but were still welcomed home by Ellie's parents with some nice food and wine and went out for lunch with friends on the bank holiday Monday.

We got the train up to Edinburgh on the Tuesday as planned and were welcomed back by Mike's family when we arrived.

On the Saturday we had a night out in Edinburgh with some our mates.

HIGHLIGHTS

We thought it would be a good idea to list our top 10 activities to remember the trip as a whole. It was hard to decide and we had to miss out things like our trip to the equator line in Equador and cycling down death road in Bolivia but here are our top 10 (in chronogical order)...

Scuba Diving in Utila, Honduras - We had a really enjoyable week where we completed our advanced PADI courses and had some good nights out on the island with the people we were sharing a house with.

San Blas Islands, Panama - Picture postcard islands which were incredible to explore.

Tayrona National Park, Colombia - Unspoilt Caribbean paradise where we camped in hammocks for a couple of nights with Jas and Clint

Machu Picchu, Peru - Cycling and trekking up to the famous ruins was all it is cracked up to be

Salt Flats, Bolivia - Amazing landscape and a good 3 day tour. This was almost the only time we were cold on the trip and provided us with a very short winter!

Christmas at Milhouse Hostel, Argentina - This worked out really well as lots of people had arranged to meet up and spend Christmas together. The xmas dinner we all cooked for 70 people wasn't bad either!

Cycling around Mendoza wineries, Argentina - A really enjoyable day buzzing between the wineries on bikes and sampling the produce en route.

Australian Open Men's Semi Final (Nadal v Verdasco) - We were unbelievably lucky to be given free tickets to this five set classic as we were preparing to watch it on the big screen outside.

Gili Trawangan, Indonesia - A relaxed, chilled out island with friendly locals where we had a really good week with a decent bunch of people.

Backwaters Trip, Kerala, India - Crusing around the backwaters on a houseboat with just the two of us, the captain and a personal cook whilst drinking lots of rum is something we'll always remember.

AND OUR TOP TEN FOODS...

Lobster at Lobsterfest, Caye Caulker, Belize - This weekend was all about the lobster which is never a bad thing!

Mike's Birthday Cake, San Jose, Costa Rica - Probably the best chocolate cake ever made...

Continental Style Lunches, Colonia, Uruguay - Lazy afternoons spent eating nice meat, cheese and salads which often extended into evenings of drinking.

Steaks in Argentina and Chile - This speaks for itself really!

BBQ's in New Zealand and Australia - There's no excuse for not getting involved in the national pastime.

Dumplings in Melbourne, Australia - Alex and Nicole took us to their favourite Chinese restaurant and we had no idea that dumplings could be this good.

Food Halls, Singapore - Very cheap and lots of exotic food to choose from

Noodle Soups from street stalls, Indonesia and Thailand - Really tasty and healthy noodle soup. Always a winner.

Veg Curries, India - Vegetarian curries in India are not to be missed.

Seafood, Goa, India - Fresh seafood served on the beach at ridiculously low prices can't be beat

As this is our final blog we thought we'd take the opportunity to thank all of you who read it and to say that we've really enjoyed putting it together and had a fantastic trip.

Cheers

Mike and Ellie

An Unplanned Extension, Homecoming and Highlights remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On our first day we hired bikes and cycled around the main sites which include Vittala Temple, the Zenana Enclosure and the Elephant Stables (which no longer house elephants unfortunately but are impressive in their own right). We really enjoyed this as the ruins and temples contained some intricate stone carvings, there were some interesting buildings in the Zenana enclosure and all sorts of intriguing landscape and smaller ruins along the way.

The following day we walked up Hemakuta hill so that we could watch the sunrise. The sunrise itself was worth getting up for but it was also nice to see Hampi at a cooler time of day with hardly any people about.

Later that day we explored more of the area on foot which was hard going as the sun is ridiculously strong in the middle of the day at this time of year. In fact it has been said that 'only the most foolhardy or ill-informed tourists dare venture to India from April to September'. Nevertheless, we were there, trudging along, and still appreciating the scenery.

Probably the most interesting part of the day was the coracle ride to Anegundi, a small village close to Hampi. Officially the bridge to Anegundi is 'under construction', however in reality there is no work going on and the site looks as if its been hit by a bomb leaving coracles to fulfil the function of the bridge and take people across the river. Coracles are small, mostly flat, oval rafts made out of some kind of reed with a plastic sheet lining the inside. They don't look like the most sturdy of vessels so we weren't filled with confidence when the one we were about to get in started to fill up with people and motorbikes. Everything and everyone was delivered safely to the other side though.

Whilst we were in Hampi Ellie's friend Will and his mates Bill and Malcolm were also there so we would bump into them at various points in the day and go for dinner with them in the evenings.

When we left Hampi we got a rickshaw back to Hospet at 5.30am and got on our train to Goa. The train, or at least our carriage, was extremely busy and we found six guys on our seats (which were essentially an upper and lower bunk). The guys were quite polite and all got off our seats when we showed them our tickets but we decided to only use the lower bunk and let some of them pile back onto the top bunk. There was some amazing scenery along the way so it wasn't the worst of train journeys although towards the end when we were late and the carriage was roasting we were keen to get off.

The train arrived in Margao and from there we got a rickshaw down to Palolem, a well known place in South Goa. We found ourselves a beach hut and almost immediately went onto the beach to catch the last of the sun and cool down in the sea.

A lot of people complain that Palolem is over developed, which is probably true, but the number of beachside bars and restaurants certainly make for an easy and agreeable stay. We had some really good meals, particularly at Magic Italy. Over the weekend we went to a bar called Cafe del Mar in the evenings where there was a good atmosphere, decent tunes and the FA Cup Semi Finals playing silently on a plasma screen.

One thing that didn't go as planned in Palolem was Mike's bodysurfing. He went over the top of a wave as it was breaking and was thrown into the seabed where he hit his head and cut his face. He is now OK in case you are concerned!

We left Palolem after three nights which was earlier than we would've liked but we wanted to get to Anjuna for the weekly flea market which takes place on Wednesdays. It is actually a sizeable distance between Palolem and Anjuna so we got a train most of the way with short rickshaw rides at either end. We expected the train to be a bit of a nightmare so were shocked when we were confronted with something we were sure didn't exist in India: an empty carriage! The only people in the whole carriage were a couple of kids who were wandering around the train. This was by far the most pleasant and easy train ride for us in India especially as it lasted for less than two hours and there were really good views.

We didn't do much when we arrived in Anjuna and had an early night so we could be at the market early the next morning. The flea market is just behind the beach and is a vast maze of stalls selling everything from incense sticks to carpets, but mostly T-Shirts. We bought a large bag when we arrived and spent the rest of the day filling it up. There were some really good bargains to be had as it is so late in the season. In fact, many traders were saying that it was the last market of the season so they were giving much better prices than usual but you never know whether or not to believe anything they say.

After the market we were knackered and in definite need of a drink. Unfortunately it was at this time that we discovered about the state wide alcohol ban due to elections so we had to settle for chocolate milkshakes on the beach instead. It's a tough life!

We left Anjuna the next morning in a taxi that took us to Arambol. Arambol is a chilled out beach in North Goa and we stayed there for five nights. Again we got a beach hut and spent our time relaxing on the beach, in hammocks at the huts and in the sea (a little more cautiously than usual).

In the evenings we would watch the sunset, drink beer and cocktails and take advantage of the excellent and cheap seafood that was available.

We left Arambol and Goa on a night train to Mumbai. It was our last journey on the Indian railways and we felt almost nostalgic as we found people in our seats and heard the other passengers spitting out the window. One thing that we will genuinely miss though is the call of 'cccchhhhaaaiiiii' from the chai wallahs as they make their way through the train selling their hot, sweet tea that wakes everyone up. It was particularly needed on that journey as we arrived at 5.50am.

Once in Mumbai we got a taxi to our hotel, rested for a bit and then spent the rest of the day shopping and wandering around. In the evening we went out for a good curry, had another curry for breakfast (as you do) then got a taxi to the airport to go home.

One more blog to come....

Hampi and Goa remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Varkala, or the part we were staying in anyway, is a beach resort with all the accommodation, restaurants and shops on a single road that runs along the top of large cliffs, with the beach and the ocean down at the foot of the cliffs. It is quite a touristy place but this suited us fine as we were happy to continue our break from the more hectic parts of India.

One of Mike's friends from Edinburgh, Paul, was there with his mate Bryan so it was good to catch up with them. We stayed for five nights and predictably spent a lot of time on the beach and in the sea amongst the waves. We also had some good meals at the restaurants and went out drinking at a few of the bars.

It was really nice to have a rest from all the traveling we'd done up to that point but inevitably this had to come to an end. When we left we got up at 6am and got a rickshaw to Varkala train station where we caught a train to Alleppey and sat in air conditioned comfort for the short two hour journey.

When we arrived we got a rickshaw down to the jetty and got ourselves a houseboat for an overnight trip. The houseboats are in the style of rice barges and slowly meander through the Keralan backwaters. The one we got had a small upstairs section with a sheltered sitting area and an open sun deck. We spent the majority of the day up there drinking rum and beer, listening to music and appreciating the scenery. Occasionally we would go down stairs and eat the tasty Indian food that the chef prepared.

We woke up the following morning expecting to have a few hours to slowly cruise through more of the backwaters. However, the whole thing ended quite abruptly when they gave us our breakfast, set sail, and it transpired that we had spent the night moored round the corner from the jetty! We were off the boat shortly before 9am and not long after that were on a bus to Ernakulam.

When we arrived in Ernakulam we were unsure whether we should go straight to Bangalore or spend some time in nearby Fort Cochin. We couldn't decide so we tossed a coin and it determined that we should go to Fort Cochin. We ended up staying for two days and were happy that it turned out this way.

On our first full day we got a vehicle ferry the short distance to Vypeen Island and then a local bus to Cherai Beach. Despite not being the most attractive of beaches it was worth going to and was interesting for us to see as it is popular with Indian holidaymakers who use beaches in a very different way to westerners. There is no swimwear or sunbathing and the women, dressed in full saris, timidly go up to the edge of the water to briefly stand in the shallowest point of the ocean.

The next day we stayed in Fort Cochin and looked around the sites there which include a few temples, some Catholic churches which were built by the Portuguese and massive Chinese fishing nets which line the northern shore. The whole place has a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere and looks like an English country village at some points and a regular Indian town at others so is enjoyable to walk around.

We left Fort Cochin and got a night bus from Ernakulam to Bangalore. Bangalore is a large fairly uninspiring city but we easily kept ourselves entertained for a day. We went to a shopping mall where we bumped into Ellie's friend Will and his mates who we planned on meeting in Hampi. We had lunch with them and in the afternoon the two of us went to a few bars, one of which is called Nasa and is amusingly designed like the inside of a space ship. After a few pitchers of beer and a curry we went back to our hotel room, chilled out for a bit, then went to the train station to get a night train to Hospet.

Kerala and Bangalore remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived in Chennai very tired but relieved to be off the train. We didn't want to spend any time in Chennai so got a rickshaw to take us to the bus station so that we could get to Mamallapuram which is two hours away. The driver then offered to take us all the way for a price that wasn't too bad. The choice between going to a chaotic bus terminal then cramming onto a packed local bus in the midday sun or sitting where we were and getting taken straight to our destination in comfort wasn't a hard one to make. We enjoyed the rickshaw ride along the ocean road and were in Mamallapuram in the early afternoon.

Mamallapuram is a fishing village on the coast of Tamil Nadu that faces the Bay of Bengal. It has become popular with travellers in recent years and with its long beach, cheap accomodation, good seafood and laid back pace (by Indian standards anyway) it is easy to see why.

At the southern end of the beach the impressive Shore Temple is set in its own grounds and looks out towards the ocean. The temple is comprised of two spires and is adorned with intricate stone carvings.

On one of the days we were in Mamallapuram we hired bikes and cycled to Shore Temple and some of the other main sites. These included the Five Rathas where there are a number of stone carved temples and life sized stone animals including an elephant and a cow.

We also went to Ganesh Ratha where there are more stone carvings and Krishan's Butter Ball, a massive rock which is precariously balancd on a slope. After that we cycled 4km's out of the village to the Tiger Temple.

The only other activity we did in Mamallapuram was visit the sculpture museum. We also spent quite a lot of time relaxing in our hotel or swimming in its pool or doing the same on the beach and in the sea which had some excellent waves. After three nights we got up early and caught a bus to Pondicherry at 6.45am in order to avoid the heat and the crowds later in the day.

Pondicherry (now called Puducherry) is only a couple of hours down the coast from Mamallapuram so we arrived the same morning we set off (a first for us in India). We got a cycle rickshaw to a hotel, chilled out for a bit, then went to explore the city.

Ponidcherry was a French colony unitl the 1950s and as such is characterzed by French architecture, tree lined boulevards and a seafront promenade. It still has a distinctly Indian feel to it but is a world apart from the hustle and bustle of some of the other places in India that we have visited.

We walked along the promenade and past the large statue of Ghandi, into Bharathi Park, had a quick look at the Church of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception and down to the Sacred Heart Church which is distinguished by striking Gothic architecture.

The following day we checked out of our hotel and walked to the Botanic Gardens which don't seem to have been tended to much since they were opened in 1826. Maybe that's a bit harsh but they certainly aren't up to the standards of most botanic gardens.

We then went to a few cafes to kill time until our night train to Trivandrum in Kerala that evening which was going alright until we found out that we didn't actually have seats for the train. There is a strange system for booking tickets online in India which often involves being put on a waiting list and not finding out if you have a seat until a few hours before travel. Every other time we have been on a waiting list we had got seats, but not this time. We went down to the bus station to see if we could get a bus and found out there was only one every 24 hours. Fortunately it was leaving in two minutes so we got on board and were glad that we could continue our journey without a delay.

Tamil Nadu, India remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The first place he took us to was Akbar’s mausoleum which is a tomb commemorating Akbar who is regarded as the greatest of the Mughal emperors. Despite being a ‘tomb’, the massive buildings, gateways and gardens make it feel and look much more like a palace.

After that we saw Itimah-Ud-Daulah (known as the Baby Taj) from the outside then Chini-ka-Rausa, a riverside tomb which was set in nice gardens and actually resembled a tomb, albeit a very grand one. We also stopped briefly at a couple of mosques. This trip also gave us an opportunity to see more of Agra which was interesting although, like much of India, it is fairly desolate and poverty stricken.

Finally we went to the sandy banks of the Yamuna River for sunset where there are excellent views of the back of the Taj Mahal. It was really enjoyable to sit there, relax and take in a quintessential Indian scene; guys playing cricket in the sand with the Taj in the background.

We got up at 5.30 the following morning to be among the first to see the Taj Mahal that day. We were at the front of the queue with a few others until a tour group turned up, about five minutes before the gates opened, and barged their way to the front with the help of their tour leaders and the security guards. Despite this we still got the benefit of being there before it got ridiculously busy later in the morning.

After leaving the Taj we chilled out for a bit before going to see Agra Fort later in the day. Agra Fort is an immense sandstone structure built by the Mughals and is definitely worth a look.

On our last day in Agra we did the Taj Nature Walk which is basically a stroll through a park with occasional glimpses of the Taj in the background. We had time to kill before our night train to Varanasi so we stayed in the park for a few hours and drank chai at various cafes, including the one on the rooftop of our hotel that has yet more views of the Taj.

We arrived at the train station to find that our train had been delayed by an hour and this set the tone for the rest of the journey. When we got on the train and found our seats we were met by an Indian woman who asked us which seats were ours. We told her that we were 12 and 15 and then she started repeatedly and aggressively shouting ’42 and 44’ in our faces. Eventually we worked out that she wanted us to swap seats with her so we reluctantly walked down the carriage and saw that her seats were occupied. It was turning into a farce, with her shouting at more people in Hindi, so we went back to our proper seats which she wasn’t happy about. She then refused to let us put our bags in the space for luggage as she said that our bags would break the things in her bags so we spent an uncomfortable night with our big bags on our bunk beds. The situation deteriorated at about 2.30am when the lights were turned on and lots of people started playing Indian pop music on some speakers as well as talking and spitting loudly until about 5am.

Our predicament didn’t get any better when we arrived in Varanasi two and a half hours late. We got into a rickshaw and told the driver which hostel we wanted to go to. When we left the station the driver turned round and said that he wouldn’t take us to the hostel we wanted but to ones that were ‘better’ (i.e that he gets commission from). We didn’t like the first one he took us to so once more we asked him to take us to where we wanted to go. He agreed to this then took us to a different place. We’d had enough by this point and were really tired so ended up taking a room there

We relaxed in the hotel for a few hours, had showers, then decided to go for a walk. On our way out the owner of the hotel tried to sell us a tour. We said we’d think about it and left the hotel. He then followed us and said that he’d show us how to get to the ghats at the Ganges River (which are extremely easy to find) and wouldn’t take no for an answer. As he walked with us, and we tried to get rid of him, he was going on about how we shouldn’t trust anyone who might try to sell us silk whilst trying to get us to come to a silk factory with him so that he could sell us silk. It was all very strange and after he eventually left us alone we were glad to have some peace.

The next morning we got up at 5.30 to go on a boat trip on the Ganges River. This turned out to be the first ‘sunrise tour’ out of all the ones we’ve done this trip where we actually saw the sun rise so our efforts to drag ourselves out of bed were vindicated. Varanasi, and the Ganges River in particular, is the holiest place for Hindus in India and is regarded as being where the physical and spiritual worlds meet.

The trip along the river allows you to see the famous ghats. Most of which are bathing ghats but there are also some burning ghats where bodies are cremated. The river is unbelievably polluted with dead dogs and sewage visible so seeing people washing their bodies and clothes there isn’t very pleasant.

Whilst we were in Varanasi we also went on a tour of some Hindu temples and the university.

Other things we did included going to a swimming pool at an upmarket hotel for an afternoon, going on walks along the banks of the river and the narrow side streets and hanging out at Brown Bread, a German bakery with good food and comfy seating.

Agra and Varanasi, India remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The following morning we got a taxi into the city centre to see some of the sights and as we were driving through the streets it was very apparent that we weren't staying in the nicest of areas. We did kind of get that impression when we arrived as there were a number of people sleeping rough outside the hotel. Later in the day we were speaking to a friendly Indian woman at a train station and when we told her where we were staying her response was; 'Who the hell put you out there?'

We found the centre of Mumbai to be extremely chaotic with people, cows, shops, market stalls and vehicles all over the place. There were some impressive buildings amidst the chaos though such as the High Court and the Royal Mint. After walking through some interesting markets we came across Azad Maidan park where an improbable number of games of cricket were taking place simultaneously.

From there we walked down to Colaba, the area where most foreigners stay, which is home to the Gateway of India, an imposing basalt arch which looks out to Mumbai Harbour. We then got a taxi back to the Northern part of the city which we explored for an hour or so before going back to our hotel and heading for Mumbai Central for our first taste of the Indian railways.

As we expected the station was extremely busy. There were people everywhere, especially on the floor in the huge central plaza. Most folk were waiting for trains whilst others were there as it was a good a place as any for them to be. There was even a family living in the women’s toilets.

We walked up the platform where our train, which was unbelievably long, was waiting to depart. We had a slight moment of panic when we realized that our carriage didn't exist but someone explained to us that more carriages would be added to the already massive train at the next stop. We squeezed on and stood in a cramped corridor with a number of others for twenty minutes or so until we got off and waited for the extra carriages to be attached. Once this happened we found our seats (which turn into beds) and the rest of the journey went smoothly.

We arrived at our destination, Ahmedabad, just before 7am and got a rickshaw to an area where we could find a cheap hotel. We took refuge in our room for a bit then had lunch at a street stall before getting a rickshaw to Ghandi's Ashram which is the only real tourist attraction in Ahmedabad.

The Ashram was a peaceful place and felt like an antidote to the rest of the city which is very crowded and noisy. We saw where Ghandi lived and had a look at the museum dedicated to him. Amongst other things the museum featured photographs of Ghandi taken throughout his life, a letter he wrote to Hitler in 1939 advocating peace, and the envelopes of letters which Ghandi received some of which were delivered from overseas despite only having a sketch of him in place of an address.

That evening we went out for a nice meal at a restaurant in a hotel and enjoyed more of the fantastic food available in India. This meal, including drinks, cost less than ₤2 each and is indicative of how cheap things are here. The overnight trains, in Sleeper Class, cost about ₤3 each, lunch at a street stall can be less than 10p and hotel rooms cost about ₤4.

After the meal we went back to our room, got our bags, and headed back to the train station to get a night train to Udaipur. We arrived at about 8am and got a rickshaw to a hotel where we stayed for three days. The hotel had nice rooms and a roof terrace that looks across the river to the main part of the city. It was good to get to somewhere that we could properly relax and wouldn’t be leaving straight away after all the traveling we’d been doing recently.

Despite being quite touristy in parts Udaipur is an enchanting place which is graced with a number of palaces and temples. During our time in Udaipur we visited the Mountain Palace where we watched the sunset, walked around the City Palace and saw the Lake Palace (which is now a luxury hotel) from the shores of the lake.

Whilst we were there we also walked around the streets a fair bit, adjusting ourselves to life in India.

Udaipur was used as one of the main locations for filming the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy, a fact which the locals seem very proud of. It is shown at bars and restaurants around the town on a daily basis and it is practically obligatory for tourists to watch it at some point during their stay. We watched it at the restaurant at our hotel and felt sorry for the staff who must know every line in the film backwards.

We also did an Indian cookery course which was fun and very informative. It took place at the house of the teacher, Vijay, so it was also interesting to meet his family and see inside an Indian household. Obviously this isn’t the place to give away any of the secrets we learnt!

India - Mumbai to Udaipur remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our bus was meant to arrive at 5am which was far from ideal. However, things got a whole lot worse when we were woken up by a woman who cheerfully told us that the bus was early and we were already in KL. This may have been good news for her but we weren't too pleased at being dumped in the middle of KL at 3am (at the side of a main road - there was no bus terminal in sight). Fortunately we quickly found a 24 hour cafe which happened to be showing live Champions League football. We watched Man U getting cheered on by a bunch of locals as they knocked out Inter Milan then got a taxi to a bus station to continue our journey.

We got there at about 6am and had a four hour wait until we could get a bus to Jerantut which took about three and a half hours and arrived at lunchtime. Jerantut is a fairly nondescript town which is only visited by tourists as it is the gateway to Taman Negara. We ended up spending a night there and were happy to do so. As long as we had showers and a bed we didn't care where we were!

Feeling a bit more refreshed the next morning we were up early to get a bus the short distance to Tembeling Jetty and then a boat that took us up a river and into the national park itself. The boat ride was slow paced and quite enjoyable as there was lots of lush rainforest scenery to take in.

When we got to Kuala Tahan, the village at Taman Negara, we found a nice hut at the edge of the jungle and chilled out there for the rest of the day, glad that our mission was finally over.

Whilst we were at Taman Negara we did a fair bit of walking around various paths that meandered through the jungle and up to the peaks of a few hills.

We also walked across the 'world's longest canopy walkway'. The walkway is actually split into a number of sections that are separated by platforms high up in the trees which must cast some doubt on the claim to be the longest in the world. It may have a good chance of being the world's wobbliest canopy walkway though. Either way it is a really good activity and an excellent way to see the jungle from a different vantage point.

After the canopy walkway, and trek up Busik Terressick, we sat down at a picnic bench to eat our lunch which was all quite normal until a monkey jumped on the table and ran away with Ellie's sandwich. Shortly after this, his mates, who came slightly behind him joined in the fun and ran away with anything they could get their hands on, including our loaf of bread.

On another day we went on a walk through a cave called Gua Telinga which is well known for the number of bats lurking inside. We really enjoyed this although it did get a little scary at points as the bats would fly only centimetres from our heads. Some of the parts of the cave that we had to crawl / scramble through were very narrow and we could only just manage to squeeze ourselves to the other side. This was particularly true in Mike's case.

In the evenings there isn't much to do so we would eat at the floating restaurants and take it fairly easy after that. On the Saturday after our dinner we got to watch Man U v Liverpool as one of the restaurants were able to show the game after some fiddling around with a satellite dish which is precariously perched on a stool on the riverbank.

Our journey from Taman Negara to Singapore wasn't as eventful as the one from Koh Lipe but it did have its moments. We got a bus to Jerantut in the evening then had to wait until for our train at 2am, passing the time with another couple, James and Orla, in the foyer of a hotel and the hawkers market where there are some outdoor restaurants. We turned up at the train station at 1.30am to find it to be very busy which was quite strange as we expected to only see a handful of people at that time.

All of us then managed to get onto the wrong train (which arrived, without any sort of announcement, at the only platform of the station at the time of our train) and caused a bit of a scene by telling people that they were in our seats! The train started moving and after a few minutes we realised that it was destined for the opposite end of the country. Luckily at this point the train was only turning around so it came back to Jerantut. We were then able to get off, cross the tracks (literally), haul ourselves and our bags back up to the platform and wait until our train turned up.

We got to Singapore the following morning and spent two days and a night there mostly sorting out various things in preparation for India. We also walked round the city, which we are now quite familar with, and saw more of the sites and even had a British chippy as a treat. We went to Clark Quay which we hadn't been to previously and were given a free sample of a Singapore Sling. Not quite the same as having the real deal in Raffles Hotel but that was never on our agenda anyway!

Taman Nagara, Malaysia, and Singapore (again) remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Apart from going to the beach we would go for walks and see more of the island but Langkawi is of sufficient size that a car or moped are needed to see anywhere near all of it. We tried to hire bikes on one of the days but gave up after hearing a variety of explanations as to why this wouldn’t be possible.

We found a good restaurant called Cactus which we ate at a few times that had a lot of, mostly European, football memorabilia on the walls. Ellie donated a mini Cheltenham scarf that she has had with her on the trip.

From Langkawi we went to Koh Lipe, a small and beautiful island in Thailand. We decided not to get the more expensive speedboat (which takes one hour) and instead caught the ferry to Satun, three different mini buses to Pak Bara and finally a ferry to Koh Lipe followed by a long tail boat to our beach. This took much longer but saved a bit of cash.

We found ourselves a nice hut on Sunrise Beach which is a quiet and extremely pleasant strip of white sand which faces an expanse of crystal clear turquoise water. We stayed on Koh Lipe for six nights, with the pattern of our days not varying too much from that of Langkawi. We spent a fair amount of time on the beach, in the sea and relaxing in hammocks. We would also go out every evening to enjoy the Thai food at various restaurants and street stalls.

Koh Lipe is small enough to walk around in a couple of hours so we were able to stroll across to the other beaches and explore the interior of the island where the locals live in a village and there is a forest of sorts.

Despite staying on Sunrise Beach we never got up in time to see it but we did venture across to Sunset Beach later in the day a couple of times to take in the views there.

Mike visited Koh Lipe in 2006 so it was interesting for him to see how it has changed in that time. It is much more developed than it used to be with lots more shops, restaurants and accommodation options popping up to cater for the increased number of visitors. Another noticeable difference is that the roads that run through the centre of the island are now paved rather than being dusty tracks.

On the Saturday night one of the bars, Cozy Cove, put on a party at their place which is a small beach that they have to themselves and is set apart from the rest of the island. They were playing a variety of tunes from breaks to psy-trance on a fairly good sound system. They added to the atmosphere with fireworks, fire poi and a ring of fire that some people jumped through. It was a good night and it was funny for us to go back to drinking the potent cocktail of Thai whiskey, coke and Thai redbull.

Langkawi and Koh Lipe remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is low season for tourism in Indonesia at the moment and this was particularly noticeable in Candi Dasa. The restaurants and bars on the road which our hostel was on often had more staff than customers. If, indeed, there were any customers at all. This suited us though as it gave us an opportunity to chill out and stay off the booze.

Whilst we were there we spent quite a lot of time on the sun loungers in the hostels' 'relaxation area' which overlooks the sea. It was possible to swim in the sea there, which we did, although there wasn't much in the way of decent coral or interesting fish. The relaxation area was probably at its best when the sun was setting as it was a very peaceful place.

On our final day in Candi Dasa we went on a snorkeling trip which was really enjoyable, particularly as it was just us and a couple of local guys on the small boat. They took us to a few spots where both the reef and the fish were really colorful. They also took us to the aptly if unimaginatively named 'white sand beach' where we sun bathed for a few hours before going back to the hostel.

The next day we made our way to Gili Trawangan which was an all day mission. It involved getting a bus followed by a boat then another two buses and finally another boat. There was also a lot of waiting around thrown in for good measure. We later found out about an express boat which only takes an hour, although this is much more expensive.

It was definitely worth the effort to get there though as Gili Trawangan turned out to be one of our favourite islands of the trip. It is an extremely laid back place with one main road that circles the island. There are no cars or mopeds; just horse and carts.

There is quite a good system on the island for nights out. It is one night on, one night off, with a different bar taking on the mantle every second night to throw a party. The standard of parties is variable though. The best one we went to was an all night electro party with good DJs whilst another at an Irish pub had a DJ who was so disjointed in his tune selection that he had the effect of an ipod on shuffle. Whatever the situation with the music we always managed to have good nights.

We also had a decent group of people to hang out with. Dan, James, Lucie and Bernie from England, Stefan from Holland and Barbara from Austria. When we weren't on nights out we would chill out on the beach, watch movies (we saw Slumdog Millionaire at a bar with a cinema style screen), sit around and drink milkshakes and go out for meals.

The two of us also went on a snorkeling trip where the highlight was swimming with turtles. There were also numerous other types of fish but the coral wasn't that great. As part of the trip we went to Gili Air (another of the 3 Gili islands) and spent a few hours there.

In the evenings Mike played Sepak Takraw with some of the local guys. Sepak Takraw is an Asian game which is similar to volleyball expect you you use your feet (and can't use your hands) and is played with a small bamboo ball. Some of the locals are amazing at it and smash the ball by doing martial art style spinning kicks. Mike also played his diablo quite a lot and showed a few of the local kids how to do it.

One afternoon Ellie, Barbara, Lucie and Bern got horse and carts to take them round the island, which despite being a slow ride was a good way to see parts of the island we hadn't explored. Mike didn't come as he was surfing at the time.

Unfortunately our stay on Trawangan had to come to an end and we left on Saturday so that we would be back on Bali for our flight to Malaysia on Sunday. We spent a night in Kuta which is the main holiday resort town on the island. Is quite interesting to see as it is mostly geared towards Australian holiday makers. The bars show Aussie rules and rugby league, there are signs advertising 'bottle shops' and the locals promise to 'give you a bloody good price mate'.

Bali and Gili Trawangan, Indonesia remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The following day we went into the centre of the city and met up with two Dutch girls from our hostel, Miek and Rosa, and a friend of a friend of theirs called Hann. Hann is from Singapore and had agreed to show Miek and Rosa around and they asked us if we wanted to tag along.

The first thing we did was go to a food hall in Chinatown for lunch where there is a huge variety of cuisine available. We then walked through the bustling streets which are lined with market stalls until we reached the famous Sri Mariamman Hindu temple which we had a look around. There is a mosque further down the same street which some of us briefly popped into before we made our way to Little India.

Little India is an interesting and colourful part of the city with lots of shops, restaurants and cafes. We went into a Turkish coffee shop for some drinks then caught a bus out to the beach but unfortunately it started raining shortly after we arrived. The beach isn't anything special anyway!

In the evening we all met up with Mike's friend Jon who is from Singapore and went for dinner at an outdoor foodcourt that overlooked the harbour in the heart of the CBD (it had stopped raining by this point!). We had more interesting food including stingray and murtabak. We said goodbye to the Dutch girls and Hann, who had been a good guide, and went for a walk past one of the Merlions and then for some beers with Jon.

The next morning we went into the city to take a look at Orchard Road and the Raffles Hotel then we got the MRT and a number of buses to Johor Bahru airport in Malaysia and flew to Jakarta.

We arrived in Jakarta late at night and fortunately had arranged an airport pick up with the bed and breakfast we were staying at so were taken straight there. We ended up getting a really nice, ornate room which was quite expensive (by our standards) but was a pleasant change from our usual lodgings. We were in an area of the city called Bangka and during our time in Jakarta we spent quite a lot of time there, walking around and eating food from the street stalls.

Jakarta isn't a particularly great place though. It is massive, over populated, quite dirty and very polluted. The normal traffic flow is akin to rush hour in most cities and if you are unlucky enough to get caught in rush hour in Jakarta it seems improbable that the traffic will ever move! We would have left the day after we arrived but we needed to sort out visas for India through the Indian Embassy which has turned out to be one of the biggest (and costliest) hassles of our trip so far.

The first day we went to the embassy they wouldn't accept our applications as we didn't have Indonesian and Indian 'references' nor passport photos. We returned the next day, Friday, after much rushing around and photocopying, and this time our applications were accepted. However, we were told that we couldn't pick them up until the following Thursday. The whole thing is quite ridiculous though as most countries we've been to don't require visas and others, such as Indonesia, issues visas on arrival which take 30 seconds!

The one touristy thing that we did in Jakarta was visit the national monument which is a 450ft tower in the centre of the city. We joined the queue and waited our turn to take the lift up to a lookout platform at the top where there are panoramic views of the sprawling urban jungle below.

Obviously we didn't want to stay in Jakarta until we collected our passports so we decided to go to Yogyakarta which is at the opposite end of Java (there weren't any attractive options closer). The 10 hour train journey to get there was a bit of a nightmare! It left at 6.20am from a station at the opposite end of the city so we were up at 4.45am to start the mission. The train itself had no air con and was ridiculously humid. When it picked up speed there was a welcome breeze coming in through the windows but most of the time it was either going slowly or was inexplicably stopped in the middle of nowhere. To cap things off there was a seemingly endless stream of hawkers, buskers and beggars harassing all passengers in sight. The journey did take us through some spectacular scenery so it wasn't all bad.

The hostel we stayed at in Yogyakarta for 4 nights was probably the best value we've had on the trip. It cost £2.20 each a night for a private room with bathroom, included breakfast and there was a large swimming pool. We spent quite a lot of our time in Yogyakarta relaxing at the hostel and taking advantage of the swimming pool which we had to ourselves most of the time.

The main activity that we did in Yogyakarta, and indeed one of our main reasons for visiting, was going to Borobudur and Prambanan. Both of these highly spiritual places are very impressive and well worth making the effort to see. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and has been restored to its former glory.

Prambanan is a large Hindu temple which was partially destroyed in an earthquake in 2006 and there is currently a lot of restoration work being carried out at the sight.

On another day a local tuk-tuk driver took us on a mini tour of the city that included visiting the Sultan's palace. The Sultan is very popular in Yogyakarta (many people want him to be president) as he does a lot of work to help poor people. He even lets 25,000 people live within the grounds of his palace. It is unlikely the British royal family will follow suit.

He also took us to see some Batik art which was really cool. The artists start off with a bit of cotton or silk and sketch the drawing in pencil before coating the pencil markings in wax. They then dip it into various coloured dyes and 'de-wax' it to complete the process. Our driver then took us to a workshop where they make puppets in a traditional style.

We got a night train back to Jakarta on Wednesday which wasn't anywhere near as bad as the train down but was marred significantly by extremely loud Indonesian pop music that was playing throughout the train. We arrived in Jakarta at 4.15am and had to hang around at the train staion until it was a more reasonable hour when we could drop our bags off at the bed and breakfast we stayed at previously. We then had a number of hours to kill until we could pick up our visas from the Indian Embassy and suprisingly found refuge in KFC, McDonalds and Burger King! These establishments were not like the outlets which we know from home as we were able to while away the time reading on leather sofas, watching FA cup football on plasma screens and using free internet. After a period of waiting in the rain outside the embassy we got our passports back then headed straight for the airport and got a flight to Bali!

A rather unusual aspect of our time in Java has been that a number of locals have come up to one or both of us and asked if they could have their photo taken with us. It must have something to do with a lack of white faces on the island but was quite amusing for us as we felt like we were famous. Sort of.

Java, Indonesia (via Singapore) remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The following day we went into the city where we wandered around for a bit and once more took advantage of the cheap sushi that is available throughout Australia.

We met Katie and Stu when they finished work and went to a pub for dinner with two of their friends, Rob and Claire. After the meal we drove up to Kings Park (the largest inner city park in the world apparently) where there are excellent views of the city skyline.

The next day we borrowed Katie's car so that we could go on a short road trip to Fremantle, a port town close to Perth which is one of the attractions of the region. We stopped off at Scarborough on the way and went for a walk along the beach there. Although Scarborough takes it name from the famous English seaside resort comparisons between the beaches would always favour the Australian namesake with its white sand and backdrop of the Indian Ocean.

When we arrived in Fremantle and found a parking space we had a look around the market which has a number of interesting stalls. It would be very easy to spend a lot of money there but we resisted the temptation! We then walked around a bit more and went into an amusement arcade where we played on various games. After that we went into a couple of large secondhand bookshops and stocked up on novels. Instead of going to the beach at Fremantle we got back in the car and stopped at a quieter beach close to Scarborough. Mike went in the ocean but came out fairly quickly as there was a very strong current and large dumping waves that could be dangerous. Although it was still fun to be in there for a short time!

That evening we went round to Stuarts parents house for a BBQ with some of his family. There were about 18 people in total so it was a good evening with his parents providing more than enough tasty food for everyone. We played a Dutch game called Sjoelbak which involves sliding wooden discs along a smooth surface into narrow lanes at the opposite end of the long thin board. After that we played some pool then went home before midnight as we were getting up early the following morning.

We were back at Stuart's parents house at 7.30am so that his Dad, Tony, could take us to Rottnest Island. We drove to the local mariner and launched his boat into what turned out to be pretty rough water. There was a fairly large swell and strong southerly wind making it a bumpy ride to say the least. Tony said it was among the worst conditions he'd seen crossing to Rottnest.

We did make it though and it was well worth the rough ride. Tony stayed at the boat whilst the four of us bought tickets that allowed us to hop and off the regular buses that circle the island. The first place we stopped at was a beautiful bay where we all relaxed on the shore and Mike and Stuart did some snorkeling. We then caught the bus to a beach that had an amazing strip of white sand and even better snorkeling with more colorful coral and a wider range of fish.

We then went right round the island on the bus and back to the boat where we had lunch and some drinks. We chilled out on the boat for a bit then went to look for quokkas, an animal that is unique to Rottnest and a handful of other island. Quokkas look somewhere in between kangroos, rats and wallabies. Dutch explorers actually mistook quokkas for rats and named the island accordingly. Rottnest is Dutch for Rats Nest.

Tony showed us a bit more of the island on his boat then we braved the seas and made it back to the mainland, this time with Stu at the helm.

One of Stuart's mates was having his 30th birthday party that night so we drove across town to his place. It was a decent party with lots of people and a lot of drink! It went on quite late so we all ended up crashing there and drove back the next morning.

We were all quite hungover that Sunday so had a fairly lazy day. Unfortunately news was coming through of the bush fires which destroyed parts of Victoria so we were following that on TV. That evening we had a BBQ at Katie and Stu's house. We had the obligatory steaks, lamb chops and salads as well as abalonies which we hadn't heard of before arriving in Perth. They are a type of shellfish that Stuart and his Dad fish for and are in such short supply that the season for them only runs for 6 weeks a year, one hour for each of those weeks! They have a rich and quite intense flavour which we really liked. It will probably be a long time until we eat them again though.

We got up early on Monday morning, sorted out a few things we needed to do like posting some stuff home, then went to the airport to fly to Asia!

Perth, Australia remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Whilst we were there Melbourne was in the middle of a heatwave with temperatures reaching 44 °C on three consecutive days. Apparently it was the hottest week in over 100 years.

On the first of these days we went into the city and walked around a couple of parks and the botanic gardens. Because of the heat we had to take lots of breaks and sit in the shade until we had the energy to carry on. Fortunately there were lots of water fountains around so we could refill our water bottle regularly.

We stayed in the city that evening and met up with Alex and Nicole when they finished work. We went to an outdoor bar down a side street where we were joined by Jonny and Nat (they were on holiday in Melbourne) and a couple of their friends. We had a few drinks there then all went to a Chinese restaurant that Alex and Nicole know where we ate loads of dumplings. Jonny and Nat then went off to a Neil Young gig with their mates and the rest of us went round to Codi's flat for some drinks.

The following day Alex was off work so we went to St Kilda beach with him which is a short tram ride away from the city centre. The beach, or more accurately, the ocean was definitely the place to be during the heat wave. Nicole came down after she finished work and we all went to the St Kilda market to have a look around and a bite to eat.

The Australian Open was taking place whilst we were in Melbourne so on the Friday we bought ground passes that allowed us to watch the days big matches on the giant screen in Garden Square. There was a good atmosphere inside Melbourne Park and there was a Garnier tent set up where Ellie got her hair put into a fancy style for free and we were given goodie bags full of products worth much more than we paid to get in.

We watched the women's doubles final, won by Serena and Venus, and one of the mixed doubles semis in a good spot at a table in the shade. Between the games Mike got out his diablo and a Channel 7 camera man asked him to stand in the middle of Garden Square and do some tricks that he could film. We never found out if any of the footage was used on TV. Probably not.

We were then sitting back at our table when a woman came up to us and asked if we had tickets for the Nadal vs Verdasco semi final. We said we didn't and then she gave us her two tickets, worth A$180 each, that she wouldn't be using! It was almost surreal for us to have ended up inside the Rod Laver arena as we had planned on watching it on the screen outside. We had an amazing view of the court and of what turned out to be one of the matches of the tournament. It went to five sets with Nadal, the eventual champion, just edging it. The match didn't finish until after 1am (it started about 8pm) which meant that we missed the last train home.

On the Saturday we had a BBQ at Alex and Nicole's house with Codi and a couple of their friends. We got the food from the local market in Preston, the suburb that Alex and Nicole live in, so it was all fresh and really tasty. It was an enjoyable day and the drinking went on until the early hours meaning that Sunday was a bit of a write off.

After the weekend we had two more days in Melbourne and we did some more walks around the city. We went to Fitzroy Park where we saw James Cooks house, walked down the river where there is some interesting artwork and good views of the city, and through various shopping arcades. We also explored some of Melbournes side streets a bit more where there are lots of bohemian cafes and bars as well as some really cool graffiti.

On our final night we went back to the Chinese restaurant we were in the week before and had more dumplings then went round to Codi's again for more drinks before catching the last train home.

Melbourne, Australia remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The following morning we were up quite early so that we could go with Dave to his house on the Hawksbury River. It is in a beautiful and quite secluded location. Although it is part of the mainland the house is only accessible by boat which definitely adds to it's charm. Dave and Christina have been doing a lot of work on the house and garden so it was good for Mike to see how it had changed in the four years since his last visit.

Whilst we were there we took a walk through the bush and went to the 'secret swimming pool'. It is a freshwater pool that is filled up by a trickling waterfall and doesn't show up on any maps (even OS ones). After that we had lunch on the decking at the side of the house which overlooks the river and then chilled out for a bit before Dave took us back to the city. When we were on the boat back we saw literally hundreds of big orange jellyfish which were quite cool, if a little scary, to be so close to.

We briefly went back to Dave and Christina's before they drove us to Jonny and Nat's flat in Newtown. We stayed with Jonny, Nat, and their cat, Lyra, for four nights. During our time there we saw the sights in the city and visited some of the beaches that Sydney is famous for, and met up with various friends. We went to the botanic gardens and a pub with Jane who we met in Nicaragua (although she is from Sydney). On another day we walked from Coogee beach to Bondi beach with Laura who we met in Peru. This walk is a fairly popular activity and takes in a number of other beaches and bays along the route. We also went back to Coogee on a different day with Neil Wyman, one of Mike's friends from Edinburgh.

In the evenings when Jonny and Nat were back from work we would hang out with them. We spent a fair bit of time chilling out in their technologically advanced flat, had a few meals (and drinks) in their local pubs and one night we went to Surry Hills and had a meal at a Thai Restaurant called 'Spice I Am' which was a favourite of Mike's from when he lived in Sydney. Another of Mike and Jonny's friends from Edinburgh, Dave Rees, came along to that.

Over the Australia Day weekend Jonny and Nat were going camping with some friends of theirs so we moved into a hostel in the city centre. On that Saturday we met up with Jane again and drank some beer and wine in the botanic gardens before going to a pub for steak. We then got some goon (boxed wine) at the ridiculously cheap price of $9.99 for 4.4 litres and drank at our hostel for the rest of the night.

On our final day in Sydney Ellie went over to Manly with Laura but Mike was too hungover to join them. Drinking too much goon results in particularly brutal hangovers. That evening we walked up to Taylor Square and had a curry at a restaurant on Oxford Street, in the heart of Sydney's gay district. We then walked the short distance to a house that Mike used to live in. It is still pink!

Sydney, Australia remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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When we arrived in Wellington early the next morning we locked our bags up in a hostel then caught a bus to Roura which is the starting point of the Northern Walkway. The Northern Walkway is a series of paths that meander up hills, through forests, clearings and parks before finishing in the centre of town. Along the way we saw some excellent views of the city and surrounding countryside. We even went for a dip in an outdoor public swimming pool that is free to use. In the afternoon we met Siona, one of Ellie's friends, who we were going to stay with for a couple of nights. When we arrived at his house on Tuesday afternoon our journey which started in Santiago on Saturday afternoon was finally over (we did essentially miss a day though from crossing time zones).

We were very grateful to have showers and then some cold beer in the garden with Siona. That evening we went for a walk on the nearby beach then Siona and his wife, Mel, treated us to a curry which was a welcome change to the food of South America.

The next day we headed into the city to have more of a look around. We ended up going to the Te Papa museum which had a number of interesting and interactive exhibits. The most impressive of which was a colossal squid; the largest of its species on display at any museum in the world. Later that day we met up with Greg, a kiwi guy we know from Panama, and had a few beers with him on an outdoor table at a pub on bohemian Cuba Street where we amused ourselves watching various pretentiously dressed people walk past. That evening we had some more drinks and food with Siona and Mel at their house.

Greg came round to Mel and Siona's the following morning in his car and gave us a lift to our next destination, Rotorua. We had in fact already paid for the bus as we only found out the previous day that Greg was going that way. No doubt the bus companies were happier than we were about the number of unused tickets we were accumulating! It was much better in the car with Greg and his mate Hamish than it would have been on the bus though. There was a lot of beautiful scenery to take in along the way and we stopped off at Lake Taupo for a spot of cliff jumping and also visited Huka Falls. We passed through a place called Cheltenham that we didn't know existed so Ellie put on her Cheltenham Town shirt and posed for a few photos by the sign. Late in the afternoon Greg dropped us off at our hostel in Rotorua before him and Hamish continued their mission to Auckland for the Big Day Out music event.

We stayed for two nights in Rotorua which is a pleasant little town, if a little touristy. We didn't do a huge amount when we were there but we did manage a walk along the banks of Lake Rotorua which the town is built around. It is an enjoyable place for a stroll despite the smell of sulphur emanating from the lake. There is a lot of geothermal activity in the area which has resulted in a number of bubbling mud pools being scattered around.

From Rotorua we finally managed to catch a bus that we had booked. It took us to Waihi Beach where we were met at the bus stop by Ellie's friend Tissy who gave us a lift the short distance to the beach front house which she shares with her boyfriend, Bree. We had a couple of beers with them on their balcony before going out in their car for a guided tour of their town. We picked up some booze on the way back and had an enjoyable evening drinking at their house. We also went out for some kiwi fish and chips that night which we ate at a lookout point not too far from their house. We could only see silhouettes of the landscape but the stars were out in force.

The following day we went to the beach where we did some body boarding and swimming as well as taking some time to relax on the sand. We then cooked a tasty BBQ at their house before Tissy had to go to work. Bree took us back up to the look out point where we had eaten our dinner the previous night so that we could see it in all its glory. We had time for a quick drink at Tissy's work before catching a bus to Auckland in preparation for our flight to Sydney the next day.

A week in the North Island of New Zealand remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We met up with Stewart and Beth on our second day there and spent the afternoon hanging around their hostel by the pool with the two of them and Rob and Molly who they were traveling with. That evening we took our turn to use the BBQ at their hostel and cooked 3kg of steak. The six of us and an American guy called James had no trouble eating all of it. Incidentally, James also had no trouble in helping himself to our beer!

The following day the six of us went to nearby Maipú so that we could hire bikes from the legendary Mr Hugo and cycle around the bodegas (wineries). Our first stop of the day was the wine museum where we looked at various paraphernalia relating to the wine making process and, more importantly, drank some of the produce. We then went to the Chocolate and Liquor factory where, after a short tour, we enjoyed some excellent samples. These included a variety of top notch condiments and, obviously, some chocolates and liquors.

The next stage of the 'Tour de Mendoza' was longer than the first two and took us to Bodega Familia Di Tomaso which we'd heard through the grape vine had the best tour. Stewart took the stage victory and the two of us secured podium finishes. Our breakaway had in fact opened up a sufficient gap on the peloton to mean that we went on an earlier tour of the winery than the others.

After learning more about how wine is made and about the particular varieties produced at this bodega we sampled four different wines. Whilst the others were on their tour the three of us ordered a bottle of cider, produced at the winery, which we drank in the sunshine. This was no ordinary cider. It came in a champagne style bottle and was served in champagne flutes. They were so particular about how their cider should be drank that the waitress insisted on putting the bottle back in the fridge between refills to ensure it was consumed at the correct temperature.

The next stage of the tour, won by Rob, took us to an olive oil factory. We sampled the olive oil with bread and sun dried tomatoes. With lunch taken care of we went to a nearby bodega and picked up three bottles of wine. This proved to be much more cost effective than all paying for a tour and receiving small samples. We then cycled to a cheese factory and bought some of their produce.

By this stage in the day, time had got the better of us and we weren't able to go to a nearby river to swim and drink our wine and eat our cheese as we had planned. Instead we took a quick dip in an irrigation channel that flowed through the fields and had a sufficiently strong current to act as a water slide. This was lots of fun. After that we cycled back to Mr Hugo's to return the bikes and take advantage of the free wine that he has a reputation for giving his customers. We ate our cheese with some bread and salami but didn't have to open our wine thanks to the regular top ups.

The following day we left Mendoza on a bus that took us to Valparaiso in Chile. Or it would have done had we not got off a stop early at Viña del Mar, a neighboring town. We didn't realise our mistake until after a taxi driver had taken us to the address of our hostel. The building we were standing outside clearly wasn't a hostel so we pulled out a map to show the taxi driver where we thought we should be. He pointed out that our map showed a different town to the one we were in (Avenida Ecuador 355 also exists in Viña del Mar)! Fortunately the two towns are close together so the driver took us to the correct place for a small fee. In our defense the bus we were on had Viña del Mar displayed on a large sign in its windscreen making it look like that was the final destination (therefore making Valparaiso the penultimate stop).

We spent two days in Valparaiso, occupying ourselves by wandering around its centre, going to the beach in Viña del Mar (intentionally - we took the metro!) and drinking with some others at the hostel in the evenings. One night the hostel held a BBQ which inevitably involved eating steak and drinking lots of wine and beer.

From Valparaiso we got a bus the short distance to Santiago. It was our last bus trip in South America and, appropriately, there was skulduggery afoot. A local guy tried to pick pocket Mike's wallet as he was stepping onto the bus but fortunately Mike caught him in the act and knocked the deviant hand away from his pocket. The would be thief politely smiled and apologised before calmly walking away.

Once we had dropped off our bags at our hostel in Santiago we set off to explore the city. We went to a couple of parks, a few squares (including Plaza de Armas) and then negotiated our way back to the hostel through the busy streets. We then went for our last evening meal in South America. We chose to go to Bellavista, an area in the centre of the city that is brimming with restaurants, bars and clubs. We got a table on the street so we could soak up the Friday night atmosphere whilst we ate our meal. Needless to say we both had steak.

The next morning we went out for empanadas which have more or less been our staple diet throughout South America. They are one of the few types of food that we will genuinely miss when we are out of the continent. After this we went to a large park where we got a funicular (a series of small carriages that get pulled up a hill on train tracks) to the zoo. After looking at the various animals we got back on the funicular until it reached the top of the hill where there are spectacular views of the sprawling city. We then rode the teleférico (cable car) that soars high above the city and enjoyed more amazing views. When we returned to street level we had time for one more steak before getting our bags and heading to the airport to start the next leg of our trip.

Argentina and Chile - our last week in South America remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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An English guy called Jon who was staying at the hostel put up a sign which asked people who wanted to be involved in preparing a Christmas dinner to come to a meeting at midday on Christmas eve. It was decided at this hungover gathering that Jon, Carlos and Mike would be in charge of cooking various elements of the meal for what turned out to be sixty people. We pretty much stuck to what we decided with the exception of Damien being in charge of cooking the chickens. That afternoon a group of seven of us went to a supermarket to get the ingredients. In what closely resembled a task from The Apprentice we managed to track down every item on our list. Sir Alan would have been proud.

Carlos, Mike and Jon

The two of us went for our own Christmas dinner in the early evening of Christmas Eve. We had a parrilla (grill) and a couple of bottles of wine. Parrillas are almost as popular as Maradonna in Argentina and involve steaks, black pudding, chorizo sausage and various offal, including intestines, kidneys and even testicles (we haven't eaten testicles!). The standard of parrillas is variable to say the least and the one we had that night wasn't great but it was still an enjoyable meal.

The Milhouse were hosting a big party on Christmas Eve and about 300 people came. It was a really fun night, spirits were high and a large amount of alcohol was consumed. Later in the night a lot of people went to Pacha but we decided that we couldn't afford the A$130 (£26) entrance and instead we carried on drinking at the hostel with some others.

It had been a late night so most people didn't rise on Christmas Day until the late morning and early afternoon. This meant that the cooking didn't get started until later than planned. By this point Ellie had already been out for chip butties and wine with Maria.

When the cooking was eventually underway there was a flurry of activity in the kitchen with a number of people helping to wash, peel, chop, grate and do whatever else was required. Mike, Jon, Damien and Carlos took control of their respective parts of the meal, making use of the relatively small amount of oven space.

As the day went on the drink was flowing and everyone was in a good mood. In typical Argentine style the food wasn't served until about 11pm but most people seemed to agree that it was worth the wait. The ingredients included 12kg of beef, 5 chickens, 17kg of potatoes, 7 broccoli, 7 cauliflower and 5kg of cheese.

We had a very lazy day on Boxing Day and then on the 27th we headed to Tigre to spend a few days relaxing before returning to the city for New Years Eve.

Tigre is a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with a picturesque centre that has the Rio Tigre running through it. It is a popular weekend retreat with porteños (people from Buenos Aires) and so was very busy for the first two days that we were there. It was an enjoyable place though and we spent our time chilling out on the banks of the river or the garden at our hostel, going for walks and on one of the days we went to the large craft and fruit market.

We were back in Buenos Aires, for the third time in as many weeks, on the 30th and had plans for an early night at our new hostel. Inevitably these good intentions went out the window when we visited the Milhouse and we ended up having another drunken night with the others.

We didn't do anything productive on the 31st, unless you count going to an eat all you want Chinese buffet. In the evening we met up with Diego, who is the boyfriend of one of Ellie's friends, and he gave us a tour of part of the city that we were yet to see.

Later that night we were back at the Milhouse once again for their New Year party. The DJ was playing quite a lot of electro tunes, most of which lacked basslines, until about 15 minutes before midnight when he decided to turn things up a notch. There was a good countdown to 2009 and after that the DJ played party tunes until about 2am at which point most people went to Pacha again. We went to a place where there was a night on called Fiesta Internacional, a cheaper alternative, which wasn't very good but we still had a decent night on the whole.

On New Years Day we walked around the city in the early afternoon which was quite surreal as the streets were deserted and none of the shops were open. Things got a bit more lively later in the day and we went out for a meal with 15 others in Palermo which is a trendy barrio of the city. After the meal, or steaks as was everyones choice, we went to a bar which turned into a club as the night wore on.

On our very last day in Buenos Aires we had more steak at lunch time then walked around the touristy areas taking photos.

Christmas and New Year in Buenos Aires remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We got off the bus twenty three hours later and immediately caught another bus to Foz Do Iguacu, the town on the Brazilian side of the famous falls. Most people only see the Brazilian aide on a day trip from Argentina but we decided to spend a night in Foz so we could at least experience something of Brazil on our trip.

After 6 months of being in Spanish speaking countries it was strange to be in a place where we had no clue how to speak the language. Despite the communication problems, we were invited to join some Brazilians in our hostel to share their BBQ and beer.

The following morning we caught a local bus to the falls. On the Brazilian side there is a walkway that has a number of viewpoints along it which provide panoramic views of the spectacular waterfalls. The final section of the walk is a bridge that takes you closer to part of the falls where you get a clearer sense of their power, and also get slightly wet from their spray.

After this visit, which only takes a couple of hours, we crossed back into Argentina and found a hostel in Puerto Iguazù. We went out for a decent dinner that night where we sat on tables on the street and drank some nice wine which was really cheap. The standard of food we've been eating has increased considerably since leaving Bolivia!

The next day we went to see the Argentinian side of the falls. There are a number of walks to do on this side, some of which take you really close to the most dramatic falls. There is also a boat that takes you over to an island where people swim in the water and climb to the top of the hill in its center for further close up views of the falls. The Argentianian side is much more varied and interesting than the Brazilian side so we were glad to see them in the order we did.

Towards the end of this day, whilst we were waiting for the little train that takes you up to the falls that are further away, we realised that our watches had been an hour behind for almost three days! There was a change in time zone between Salta and Puerto Iguazù that we were completely unaware of. When we were in Brazil we went for breakfast at 10.40am (they stopped serving at 10), made them give us food then we discussed how ridiculous it was that they had cleared away all the breakfast things when there was still 20 minutes left!

The day after we had seen the Argentinian side we had a night bus to Buenos Aires so decided to make use of the day and went to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, which is a short bus ride away. Paraguay is the cheapest place in South America for electronic products so is a popular place for Brazilians and Argentinians to shop due to the proximity of their countries to Paraguay. Ciudad del Este caters for this and is quite a dirty and hectic place full of traders trying to sell almost everything under the sun. We could have got a good deal on a new camera there had we known that ours would be stolen two days later! Instead, we just bought a few cheap things from the market stalls. Unfortunately all our Paraguay photos were on the camera so we don't have any for this part of the blog.

The bus we got to Buenos Aires that night was luxurious as we got a good deal on cama (bed) seats. We were given two glasses of wine with our dinner and a liqour before we went to sleep.

The reason that we got down to Buenos Aires so quickly was to go to the last Boca Juniors game of the season (until a few weeks ago we intended to get there just before christmas). Going into this game Boca were joint top of the league with two other teams so it was possible they could become champions at the game we went to. As it turned out they won 3-2 but San Lorenzo and Tigre, the other teams at the top, also won so in the following week there was a three way mini league to determine the winner. Boca won this on the day we returned from Uruguay and we saw lots of fans celebrating on the streets by setting off fireworks.

The tickets that we got were for the second tier of the north stand which is where the most hardcore fans are. The atmosphere was really intense, and quite intimidating, with constant drumming, chanting and drug taking happening all around us. Because a number of people stood on top of the barriers that ran across the terracing hardly anyone (including us) could see the pitch, only the backs of those jumping on the barriers. It was a good experience but we only saw one of the five goals! We also had our camera nicked which obviously detracted from the day slightly. Fortunately we had most of our photos backed up and we bumped into Adam and Paula at the game so now have copies of their pictures. We also got some pictures from Kate who was at the match but in a different stand. Her pictures show the end we were in from a distance (the one with the massive flag).

After the match we went to a nearby pub with Adam and Paula and drank with them for the rest of the night, first at the pub and then later at our hostel. We had all bought fake shirts at the game and none of them were the same; this is particularly true of the badges and the colours!

The morning after this we got a ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay with Adam, Paula and Kate, where we had decided to spend the week before christmas. Colonia is a pretty little town with a relaxed pace and cobbled streets that are lined with trees. The appeal of the town is increased by the fact that there are a couple of beaches in walking distance from the centre.

It turned out to be a good choice of location to relax and it felt a bit like a mini holiday within our trip. We spent our time relaxing in the courtyard at the hostel, swimming in the nearby outdoor pool, waking up late and having long, late lunches with good food, gin and tonic, wine and beer. We obviously spent some time at the beaches as well where Mike and Adam would play football with the locals.

On our last full day we decided to visit Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. After the two and a half hour bus ride we looked around a shopping centre for a bit before getting a taxi to Mercado del Puerto, a nice part of town, which is famous for its parrillas (BBQs). We got one steak between us because of the size of them. It would of probably been enough for three people! After that we wandered around the town center for a few hours. It is a pleasant enough place and is not without its charms but isn't somewhere you would go out your way to visit. We then bought a replacement camera before getting the bus back to Colonia.

Iguazu Falls, Boca Juniors match and a week in Uruguay remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On the second day that we were there we went on a day trip to Isla del Sol, an island in Lake Titicaca, and did the three hour walk from the Northern end of the island to the Southern end. Isla del Sol is the birthplace of the sun in Inka mythology and as such is regarded as an important site in the history of Inka civilisation and, predictably, is peppered with ruins. The walk itself was really enjoyable and had some amazing views but was marred to an extent by the amount of charges the locals levied on passing gringos. It got to the point that we were having to buy a new ticket every few hundred metres to be allowed access to the next part of the island. To be fair these didn´t amount to much but it did get slightly out of hand.

The following day we got a bus to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. This was a fairly normal bus journey apart from the point, about an hour after leaving Copacabana, that we had to cross the lake. There was no bridge so all the passengers had to get off and take a boat whilst the bus was taken over on a separate, much slower, raft.

We ended up staying five nights in La Paz. We spent quite a lot of time just wandering around the city, especially in the area where there are hundreds of market stalls. There is one place, known as the witches market, that sells all sorts of strange things, including llama feutus´s. These are said to bring luck. On the second day we were in La Paz Clare and Maria arrived and we had a big night out with them and some others from the hostel. We ended up at the infamous Route 36 nightclub and stayed there until the early hours of the next morning.

Most other evenings we spent time at the hostel bar where they organized activities such as killer pool and a pub quiz. One exception to this was on the Sunday evening when we went to Cholita's Wresting. This is essentially a very poor imitation of America's WWF wrestling, whose selling point is that some female wrestlers wear the traditional Bolivian dress. The costumes worn by the men included Raphael from the Turtles, a skeleton and a red indian. There was even a midget getting involved at one point. They all put on a good show though and it was worth going to.

On another day when we were in La Paz we went mountain biking down the 'worlds most dangerous road', also known as the Death Road. The total length of the route was 62km, with a descent of 3550m. The first part of this was on a normal tarmacked road so the cycling was fairly easy. It was really cold though and we both wore two pairs of gloves! There was even snow at the top of the mountain where we started.

It was at the half way point that the Death Road itself began. It is a bumpy, gravelly, narrow road that corkscrews down the side of a large mountain. Fortunately a new road opened two years ago so now Death Road is used mainly by cyclists and the minibuses that follow each group. Our guide told us that on average 55 people died each month on Death Road before the new road opened. No one really knows how true any of these figures are though as every group seems to get told different statistics.

We left La Paz on a night bus and had a very bumpy ride to Uyuni due to the state of the roads. We arrived at about 5.30am (earlier than expected) and were shocked by how cold it was - it was definitely the coldest we´ve been since leaving the UK (although probably not as cold as it currently is in the UK)! We ended up going to a cafe where we had a very early morning fry up, then waited in the office of our tour company until about 11am when we set off on our trip to Salar de Uyuni (salt flats).

Our first stop of the tour, which came shortly after leaving Uyuni, was the 'graveyard of trains', a site next to the railway line that connects Bolivia and Chile where some of Bolivia's earliest trains, from the 1850s, have been left to rust.

Soon after this we found ourselves driving through the vast expanse of the worlds largest salt flats. The next place we visited was a salt factory where they processed the salt from the flats so that it was fit for consumption then bagged it up for sale in shops. They produce 2000kg a day. It is quite typical of Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, that the one thing they still have an abundance of fetches such a low price in the market.

After leaving the salt factory we drove a bit further to the salt hotel. This is a building that is made almost entirely of salt that has a few bedrooms and another, quite large room, that houses a number of sculptures which are carved, predictably, from salt.

After another hour or so of driving we arrived at Isla del Pescado (Fish Island). This island basically involved a lot of cacti, a lot of rocks, and had a path that led to the highest point. From the top there were amazing views of the salt flats but it was hard to see in what way the island resembled a fish.

We ate some llama for lunch then all took the opportunity, provided by the vast whiteness of the salt flats, to attempt some rudimentary trick photography.

The rest of the day was spent driving to the end of the salt flats then across some more rugged and rocky terrain to reach the hostel in which we were spending the night. The hostel was in the middle of nowhere so there wasn't much in the way of evening entertainment. We all had dinner, played Yahtzee (with dice made from salt), drank some wine and had a fairly early night.

Our first destination the following morning was a viewpoint where we could see a volcano that was half in Bolivia and half in Chile - still active apparently. The viewpoint, and surrounding area, was formed entirely of volcanic rock which was quite fun for walking and climbing.

We then went on a tour of various lagoons. All of these were impressive in their own way and were nearly all populated by flocks of flamingoes.

We also stopped off to see the Arbol Piedra (stone tree) which is a fairly impressive topographical feature. There were also more volcanic rocks to be climbed at this site, although climbing the arbol piedra itself was forbidden (and probably very difficult). That night we stayed at a very basic hostel which had neither showers nor heating. It got ridiculously cold and we all ate dinner in hats whilst wearing almost every layer of clothing available to us!

The next morning we all had to be up at 4.30am so we could see the sunrise and drive to Sol de Mañana where there are a number of geysers. It was all very beautiful but because it was so early in the morning it was ridiculously cold and we weren't keen to leave the warmth of the jeep for long periods of time! Our guide told us at this point that Salvador Dali had once visited the deserts we were driving through and had used them as inspiration for some of his famous pictures.

We then drove to some hot springs where there was a large man made bath to warm everyone up. We also had breakfast there, which was fortunately served indoors.

We had time to fit in one more lagoon before driving to the Bolivian border checkpoint where we said goodbye to our guide and the two Bolivian girls in our group. Our guide wasn't that good though as he wasn't particularly friendly and didn't speak English - Mike ended up translating quite a lot of the Spanish for those in the group who only spoke English.

At the Bolivian border we transferred to a bus and went to San Pedro de Atacames in Chile. This was actually a last minute decision based largely on the fact that going to Chile vastly reduced travelling time to get to our next destinations in Argentina. San Pedro is a laid back little village with dusty streets and a nice central plaza. We spent two days there enjoying the warmer climate as well as the Chilean cuisine and wine (well, we mainly drank boxed Clos actually!).

Bolivia- Lake Titicaca, La Paz inc. Death Road, & Salt Flats remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We stayed in a hostel which had a swimming pool and plenty of sun loungers which people took advantage of everyday as the weather was consistently excellent.

The hostel quite regularly put on eat and drink all you want BBQs. We went to two of these, both times ensuring we got value for money. Especially where the drinks were concerned! We mostly drank Pisco Sour, the local cocktail of choice. Unfortunately it wasn´t a sleep all you want hostel as the loud music from the bar could be heard clearly in plenty of rooms (including ours) until about 4am.

The main activity in Huacachina is sandboarding and we did this on our second day. The sandboarding itself was fun but very difficult and we both resorted to using the sandboards as sledges on some of the larger dunes. Many others did the same and in some ways this was better as you could go straight down without worrying about crashing so much.

An added bonus of this trip was riding in the buggy that took us to the dunes which are used for sandboarding. The driver was crazy and went out of his way to go up the steepest dunes and over ridges with sharp drops on the other side - this invariably prompted a lot of screaming in the buggy! When the sandboarding had finished our driver took us to a secluded spot to watch the sunset which was really spectacular. All you could see in every direction was massive sand dunes which made it seem as if we were on another planet.

We ended up staying in Huacachina for four nights but didn't do that much else. We were hanging around with some English people, Stuart & Beth and Mark & Chrissie, and spent a fair bit of time by the pool in their hostel. In the evenings Mike would play football with some of the local guys and Ellie would climb up the sand dunes. Like the other activities in Huacachina these were only possible later in the day as it was always too hot earlier on.

After leaving Huacachina we had a (relatively) short 2 1/2 hour bus trip to Nazca with Stuart and Beth. We arrived quite late in the day, found a hostel, went out for dinner and a bit of a walk around the fairly uninspiring town centre.

We were up early the next day and got a taxi to the airport so that we could arrange a flight to see the Nazca lines. It was easy to sort out and within 45 minutes the two of us and Beth were in a four seater light aircraft flying over the lines. The Nazca lines are spread over a vast area and can only be seen properly from the air. The most elaborate ones (which are mainly of animals) are between 60 and 300 metres in length and can be made out clearly from the sky. They include a monkey, a dog, a spider, an alcatraz, a tree and a parrot. A lot of mystery still surrounds the ancient lines and no-one really knows who made them and what their significance is. Probably the most reasonable theory is that they were made by humans for religious purposes. However, others claim they were made by aliens!

Getting between Nazca and our next destination, Cusco, turned out to be a bit of an ordeal. The bus left Nazca at 8pm and was meant to arrive in Cusco at 10am the following morning. This would have been bad enough in itself but as it turned out the bus broke down in the middle of the night and they had to wait until it was light to fix it. We didn't get to Cusco until 4.30pm (over 20 hours after we left Nazca) so essentially we lost a day! This only gave us a day to sort out a trip to Machu Picchu. We weren't able to do the Inka Trail as it needs to be booked in advance (although Ellie has done it previously), so we decided to go with the Inka Jungle trek which involves a day of mountain biking, a day of walking and a day to see Machu Picchu itself.

We left to go on this trip early in the morning in a minibus with the seven others in our group. This was going well until about 11am when we came across the first landslide. This had blocked the narrow mountain road we were driving down but fortunately it was almost cleared by the time we came to it. We were only delayed by about half an hour so this wasn't too bad. We weren't so lucky the second time though. About 10 minutes after the first one we encountered another landslide which was much larger than the first and had happened more recently meaning there were no bulldozers on the scene to start clearing it. Our guide made the rather bizarre decision to leave our bikes on one side of it whilst getting everyone in the group to run across the landslide to wait on the other side (whilst small rocks were still falling). This time we were delayed for about three hours, which was spent standing about in the rain.

Eventually our bikes were allowed to pass but no vehicles could get round it so we had to start cycling from where we were. In the end we spent about three hours cycling to the point where we were meant to start! This is where we finished for the day. It was an enjoyable ride though which was almost entirely downhill and took us past some amazing scenery.

The following day, fortunately, went much more smoothly than the first. The days activity was a walk through the 'sacred valley' which wasn't particularly strenuous but provided some good views of the surrounding mountains. We walked along some paths at first and then onto a railway line that took us to Aguas Calientes, the town that is used as a base for visiting Machu Picchu. We thought these were disused train tracks until we were told to stand to the side as a train was coming! We arrived in Aguas Calientes in the afternoon and had time to relax in some hot springs before having dinner with everyone from the group.

The following morning we were up at 4am in order to set off for Machu Picchu at 4:30am. This involved walking up a lot of steps through some forest that took us to the entrance for 6am. We had a tour of the ruins about half an hour later which was quite interesting but would have been more beneficial had everyone in the group no been so knackered.

After the tour we decided not to climb Wyna Picchu mountain (the one you can see in the photo above) which is what the majority of people do, but instead climbed Machu Picchi mountain which is something that most people are unaware is even possible. We probably only saw about 20 other people the whole time and got some amazing views of the ruins. Fortunately we had good weather so we were able to see everything clearly from the top which is not always the case as it is often very cloudy.

When we had finished looking at Machu Picchu and walked back down to Aguas Calientes we had some ridiculously over priced pizza and some most welcome cold beer with the three Brazilian guys from our group before getting a train and bus back to Cusco.

The day after we got back to Cusco one of our friends from home, Louise, arrived with her friend Mim. We ended up staying for another 4 days to spend some time with them. On one of the days we went on a walk around some of the archaeological sites near Cusco but on the whole we didn't do too many activities. Stuart and Beth also arrived during this time and we went for a Sunday Roast with them - our first of the trip. On our last night we all went out for dinner and the two of us had the local specialty - guinea pig. Predictably there wasn't much meat on it and it wasn't very tasty but when in Rome...

Peru - Huacachina, Nazca, Cusco and Machu Picchu remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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However, we later got into the spirit of things. It was a staff members birthday so they had a bonfire and drink promotions and the celebrations went on until the early hours.

We spent a couple more days in Mancora, spending a bit of time on the beach, hanging around at the hostel and playing a bit of beach volleyball. Our last day was Halloween so throughout the day there were games such as jelly wrestling taking place. We missed the party that night as we got an overnight bus to Trujillo, but have heard rumours that it wasn't actually that good!

The hostel we stayed at in Trujillo offered tours to the nearby pre-Inca ruins of Chan Chan and Huacas de Luna y Sol so we signed up for this the day we arrived with two others: Laura who we'd travelled down with from Mancora and Steve, an old America guy who we'd previously met in Cali.

It was a tight squeeze in the hostel owners old VW Beetle which was used for the tour, although the journey in this around Trujillo was probably the highlight of the trip. The guide didn't speak very good English so it was hard to understand what she was saying about either of the sites.

The next morning Ellie went on ahead to Huaraz with Laura whilst Mike went to Huancayo to do some surfing. The journey to Huaraz involved some very tight corners on steep mountains with huge drops below and had some amazing scenary.

Huaraz is a town up in the Cordillera Blanco y Negra mountain range and is a base for mountain biking, trekking and horse riding. Ellie went horse riding with Laura one day up the Cordillera Negra - the horse was very slow and tired, but got some great views ofthe Cordillera Blanco mountains which have snow at the top of them.

After Huaraz we got the night bus to Lima where we spent 5 nights - longer than planned as some friends we'd met in Vilcabamba were coming down for the weekend. We spent the first few days seeing the sights around Central Lima and Miraflores where we were staying. Last time Ellie was in Lima 8 years ago there were large protests taking place in the main plaza so it was good for her to see it again on a normal day. We also had a tour of the San Francisco Monestry, which has catacombs under the building, and the Spanish Inquisition museum.

On Friday, Liz and Conner arrived so we had a few drinks with them, and then a big night out on Saturday when Clare and Maria arrived too. We went out to a bar in Barranco and then onto a club in Miraflores.

North Peru remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Baños takes its name from the thermal baths that are scattered around the town and this was traditionally the main appeal of the place. Incidentally, 'baño' is also the word used for toilet in most of South America! The baths that we went to, on a couple of occasions, had four pools of varying temperatures that people would switch between. Probably the best thing to do was go from the hottest one into the cold plunge pool (or vice versa).

Another activity which is now popular in Baños is cycling from the town down to the village of Rio Verde. This route is more about the scenery than the cycling and takes you past a number of waterfalls on the way down. At one point on the route you can take a cable car over a gorge where there are particularly spectacular views of one of the waterfalls and surrounding mountains. When we reached Rio Verde we saw another waterfall called el Pailón del Diablo (the Devils´s Cauldron) then got a taxi back up the hill to Baños.

The hostel that we were staying in was quite a social place and had a roof terrace where people would meet in the evenings to drink, listen to music, play cards etc. The roof terrace also had amazing panoramic views of the town during the day. On quite a few of the nights that we were there we went into the town to go to some bars with the people from the hostel.

The hostel also had a steam bath which we visited on three of the mornings that we were there. It was quite a long process (each session took about 45 minutes) that largely involved sitting in a wooden box, with only your head poking out, whilst getting steamed for four minutes at a time. In between bouts of steaming you would encounter cold water in various ways. These included sitting in a pool of cold water, having it tipped over you from a bucket and getting sprayed with a hose.

On our final day in Baños we hired a buggy which is basically a large go-kart that has two seats. Quite unbelievably, they allow your to drive these things on the road with all the other traffic. We followed the same route as we did on the bikes a few days earlier. This was quite a fun activity, particularly for Mike who doesn't have a drivers licence and had never driven on roads before. At one stage, on the way back, we had to drive the buggy through a windy, dark and fairly long tunnel. A large bus ended up getting stuck behind us which actually turned out to be a bit of a blessing as the lights on the buggy weren't the strongest and we were struggling to see the road in the tunnel. Mike was driving at this point! We did make it back to Baños safely though and ended up going out for one of the best meals we've had the whole trip at a Swiss cafe.

From Baños we got a bus to Riobamba. Riombamba is a fairly nondescript town and the main reason that people go there is to go on the Nariz del Diablo (Devil´s Nose) train journey. The day after we arrived we had breakfast, with the majority of the guests in the hotel, at 5.30am in order to be at the train station in time to get a good spot on the roof of the train! Sitting on the roof of the slow moving train is the main appeal of the journey as it provides the perfect vantage point to take in the views. Of course the novelty of siting on the roof is also part of the attraction.

We returned to Riobamba by bus after the train ride and were up early the next morning to get a bus to Cuenca. This took longer than expected as a result of the bus repeatedly breaking down but we still arrived by mid-afternoon as the driver and other guys from the bus always managed to fix the problem(s).

Cuenca is a fairly large colonial city and probably has slightly more eye-catching churches and plazas than other similar places in Latin America. It is regarded as Ecuador´s finest city and has quite a European feel making it a pleasant place to spend a few days. We didn´t do a huge amount when were there though apart from take in the sites, do a bit of shopping and eat at a decent Mexican restaurant.

We left Cuenca on Saturday morning and got a bus to Vilcabamba so that we could stay at a hostel called Izhcayluma. Izhcayluma is quite high up in some beautiful mountains and is owned by the comically named German duo, Peter and Dieter. There was a really good crowd of people there at the same time as us so was a perfect place to spend Ellie´s birthday.

We were there for three days but didn´t really take advantage of any of the daytime activities. We just relaxed at the hostel and enjoyed the views. At night things got a bit more lively as they have a good bar in the hostel. On separate nights they organized pool, table tennis and poker tournaments. For the pool and table tennis tournaments there were bottles of rum up for grabs and they always came to our table! The staff at the hostel also gave our table a bottle of rum for Ellie´s birthday as well as baking her a cake and giving her various other free drinks!

Ecuador - Baños, Devil's Nose Train, Cuenca and Vilcabamba remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The next morning we explored Quito old town. The first place we went to was Plaza de Independencia. There happened to be some kind of independence celebrations going on and we caught the end of the speech given by the President.

There were soldiers marching in formation and various people in fancy dress entertaining the crowds, in quite random ways. At one point Ellie was taken from the crowd by a woman dressed in a kind of green pixie outfit and put on a stretcher where people dressed as doctors and nurses pretended to inject her with a large plastic syringe. It was all very strange and we didn't really know what to make of it but everyone was laughing and it was all being filmed for TV!

We then had a further look around the Old Town at churches, plaza's and important buildings.

We bumped into Sebastian and he had arranged to meet up with a couple of girls from Quito in the New Town, one of whom was a friend of his friend. We went with him and spent the rest of the day in a bar which had 2 for 1 cocktails. We drank a lot of Mojitos and it turned into an enjoyable drunken evening.

The following day we went with Sebastian to the Mitad del Mundo, where the equator line is. We first went to the Equatorial Line Monument, which is on the equatorial line determined by French explorers in 1736. Inside the monument is the Museo Ethnografico which exhibits artefacts relating to indigenous cultures.

However, the original equator line as called by the French is actually 150m out according to recent GPS measurements (not a bad effort for 1736 though!). On this line where the latitude is actually 0'0'0'' is the Museo Inti-Ñan. At this museum they do various experiments relating to the gravitational pull of the equator. These include seeing water in a sink fall straight down on the equator line, clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere; showing that you have less resistance to force on the equator line; and allowing the tourists to have a go at balancing an egg on a nail (which was our favourite!).

We left Quito the next day and headed up north to the Pacific Coast. We spent a couple of nights in Atacames, which is a fairly busy beach resort. We weren't planning on going out on the first night but we ended up bumping into Ryan, a Canadian guy who we met in Cali. We had a few Caipiriña's, a local drink, in one of the many bars along the beach front with Ryan and a German guy, Max. We then had a few more back at their hostel and ended up almost missing our hostel's 3am curfew!

We spent a bit of time on the beach the next day, but despite being so close to the equator is isn't very warm and was very cloudy. Mike played football on the beach with some locals who almost started fighting a number of times during the game as they were always betting on which team would score the next goal!

After Atacames we got a bus to Mompiche, a few hours further along the coast. Mompiche is a rustic little fishing village which is at the early stages of being developed into a more popular resort, although the roads remain unpaved at the moment. Again the weather was cloudy and it was quite drizzly. We still had a good time though and did a bit of surfing, ate seafood and had a night out. We went to a bar on a beach a few times that is owned by some French and Portuguese guys where they serve excellent pizza. We also went to a club down on of the side streets where drink was really cheap and lots of locals and Ecuadorian holiday makers were dancing.

On the way back down south after Mompiche, we got off the bus a few hours before Quito in order to go to Mindo. In the manner we have become accustomed to, we were dropped at a junction in the road and had to wait for some form of transport to take us the rest of the way. This time it was three mountain bikers in a mini bus. Mindo is a small town surrounded by cloud forest and is a nice place for walking and relaxing. The hostel we were in had a large balcony with comfy sofas and hammock so spent quite a lot of time there! On one of the days we were there we walked to the top of a large hill, took a sketchy cable car contraption over a gorge, and walked a trail through the forest that took us to four different waterfalls.

Quito, the Pacific Coast and Mindo, Ecuador remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After a few days in San Agustin we decided to leave and head for Cali, the nearest big city, in order to be somewhere with a bit more life for the weekend. Getting there involved a six hour bus ride to Popayan along an unpaved road with more or less continous potholes which was a bit of a nightmare. We then took another bus for three hours to Cali which, fortunately, only involved normal roads.

When we got to our hostel in Cali (after getting dropped off by a taxi driver who told us he had been in prison in England for five years for 'the drugs') we bumped into an American couple, Nick and Liz, who we had met in Salento. We went out to a Chinese restaurant with them and some people they had been hanging out with in the hostel.

We then came back to the hostel and ended up going out to the Zona Rosa with some English and Japenese guys. We went to a salsa club that was free to get into but you were obliged to spend a certain amount at the bar so we got two bottles of rum between us. We made some fleeting attempts at dancing salsa before going to another bar where we drank a few beer towers.


It was a good night and this set the tone for the rest of the time we were in Cali. We spent a lot of time with two English guys, Alex and Tony, often in a pub where beer cost 30p a bottle. It was more of an off licence with some seats outside than a normal pub but was still a quality place to sit and drink. On the evenings that we were there we introduced a drinking element to an Israeli card game called Janiv that we have been playing which made things get quite messy. On one of the nights we got through a bottle of Rum, a bottle of Aguardiente (a Colombian drink similar to Ouzo or Sambuca) and a fair amount of beer.

Probably the most productive thing we did in Cali, apart from going to a Colombian steak house, was go to a football match. We saw America Cali play Millonaires Bogota. The game itself was OK (America won 1-0) but it was the atmosphere that made it. It was particularly intense in the south end of the stadium where the hardcore Amerca fans were standing. They had all sorts of flags and banners and were jumping up and down whilst chanting for almost the entire game.

After spending five days in Cali we went to Popayan which is a colonial city with a fairly relaxed pace. We stayed in a hostel that is run by a Scottish couple from Kinross. We were there for a few days but didn´t do a huge amount. We wandered around the town and a bit and spent time in the hostel relaxing and generally recovering from Cali.

We left Popayan and got a bus to Ipiales, a town in the south west of the country. We arrived in the evening, ate dinner then had an early night so we could get up early the following morning to visit Sanctuario de Las Lajas. Sanctuario de Las Lajas is a gothic church that is spectacularly postioned on a bridge that straddles a gorge with a river running underneath it. Unfrotunately for us it was a Sunday morning and mass was in full swing making the whole area much busier than we would of liked. After a short time admiring the church (from the outside) we returned to Ipiales and made our way to Ecuador.

San Agustín, Cali and Popayán - Colombia remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After we had dropped off our bags at the hostel where we were staying we spent an afternoon exploring the city. The first thing we did was take the Metro to a stop where there is a cable car that takes people up one of the largest hills. The cable car is there for pracitcal reasons and is mostly used by locals to save themselves the strenuous walk up the hill, but tourists also use it to enjoy the view. Maybe enjoy is the wrong word as you mostly see slum housing but it is still an interesting experience.

We then took the Metro into the city centre and wandered around there for a few hours. It is a typical hectic South American city centre with lots of market stalls and street vendors but doesn't have many places of interest for visitors. When we wanted to get back to our hostel we realised we were only one Metro stop away so decided to save a bit of money and walk. This wasn't the best of decisions as we ended up passing through some pretty dodgy areas and walked past a small park full of junkies. At one point we were walking across a bridge that crossed a busy road when a guy started shouting at us in Spanish. We couldn't make out everything he was saying but heard 'Run gringos, run...'

The following day we left Medellin and got a bus to Armenia which took about 7 hours. The journey was quite enjoyable as the route was scenic and took us through vast and spectacular mountains. We did have the customary distruption though of the bus being stopped and searched by Colombian military. We spent the night in a cheap hospedaje close to the bus station in Armenia then travelled the short distance the following morning to the village of Salento which is in the heart of Colombia's Coffee region.

Salento is quite high up in the mountains and therefore has a much cooler climate than the other places we've been to on this trip. It actually gets quite cold there, especially at night. It is a really idyllic place though and is perfect for a period of relaxation. The hostel we stayed in is a converted country house with a homely feel, large kitchen and amazing views from the garden.

One day when we were there we went to a place called Cocora so we could walk in the cloud forest and look at the 60 foot palm trees that are unique to the region. It took 40 minutes to get there in a small jeep. They somehow managed to fit 15 people into the thing. We were both standing on the back with two others and someone else was sitting on the roof!

On another day we went on a tour of a coffee farm that is owned by an English guy called Tim who also owns the hostel (and incidentially looks very similar to Jim Royle from The Royle Family). It was interesting to learn about the coffee making process and see the other fruits on the farm such as oranges, strawberries, pineapples and bananas.

That afternoon we went to the village plaza as they were having a food festival. This involved a number of stalls all with almost identical menus: sausage, trout (which is the local delicacy) in various forms and patacones (deep fried plantain in batter). There isn't much to do in the evenings so we have been taking it fairly easy which has been a welcome change.

Medellin and the Colombian Coffee Region remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cartagena is an easy place to spend a few days and we spent a fair ammount of time exploring it. The old walled town is particularly pleasant to wander around with its relaxed pace, 15th/16th century architecture, cobbled streets and plazas where you can get a game of chess with some of the locals. There are also a number of beaches close to the city on the Caribbean coast that are worth visiting.
On our second day in Cartagena we went to Volcan de Lodo el Totula which is basically a mud bath at the top of a small volcano (which looks more like a huge mound of earth than a volcano). It was the first time that either of us had been in a mud bath and we both found it a fairly surreal experience. It feels as if you are in a giant pot of honey as it is really hard to move. When you are standing your head always stays above the surface, with no risk of sinking, despite your feet not touching the bottom.

Cartagena is also famous for its night life and we had a good night out with some people from the hostel we were staying in. We found a strip of clubs near the old town, all of which were free entrance, so we spent the night stumbling between these.

After Cartagena we went to Taganga which is essentially a fishing village although it is now more developed than it used to be as it is quite popular with tourists. Taganga has one large bay set in a valley of green hills so is quite a spectacular place. Despite being on the Caribbean coast it has a strangely Mediterranean look and feel.
When we were in Taganga we did another ten hours of Spanish lessons that we split across four mornings. On one of the afternoons we walked across some of the surrounding hills to Playa Grande which is a slightly nicer beach than the one in Taganga. In the evenings we generally went for dinner with an Australian couple, Clint and Jaz, and sometimes sat on the beach drinking rum with them until the early hours.

We left Taganaga on a boat with Clint and Jas that took us to Parque Nacional Tayrona which is a large unspoilt tropical area with lots of jungle and white sand beaches. There are hardly any cabanas so almost everyone stays in either tents or hammocks. We arrived late afternoon, found a place to stay, and had dinner and some drinks on the beach.

The following day we walked along the coastline and went swimming in a few choice locations. We had our lunch at one of the camping areas then set off on a trek to Pueblito which is an indigenous village in the jungle that you reach by following a path uphill for about 90 minutes.

The way up was fine, as was looking at the site at the top, but the way down turned into a bit of an ordeal for the two of us. We had split up from Clint and Jas then got confused at a point on the trail where you had to go through a cave. We eventually figured out the way then almost immediately took a wrong turning and followed a path for about 15 minutes until it ceased to be a path and was just dense jungle. It was getting dark so we found our way back to the place with the cave as quickly as we could. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that it was raining quite heavily, there was a thunderstorm, our flip-flops were broken and we didn´t have a torch. With light rapidly fading we still couldn´t work out the way until Ellie eventually spotted where the path continued. By the time we met up with Clint and Jas it was pitch black so we were very relieved to be out in time. The prospect of a night in the jungle wasn´t appealing!

We then had a further 45 minutes to walk along the coast back to our campsite which wasn´t easy with two head torches between the four of us. Walking along the beaches in the dark was made difficult by the number of large crabs that seemed to be everywhere. After we were back we had some well deserved and much needed showers, beers and food.

We had a fairly early night then went to sleep in our hammocks. Despite putting on lots of repellent, wearing long sleeves etc we were eaten alive by mosquitos, sand flies, ticks and fleas. We woke up the next morning covered in bites and any thoughts of spending a third night there were abandoned.

We returned to Taganga, this time by road, and have been relaxing here since then.

Colombia - the Caribbean Coast remains copyright of the author elliemike, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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