After a flight from Bogotá to Lima, onto a bus and, after 52 hours, lots of deserts, mountain ranges and the deep blue Pacific on my right, I pulled into Santiago in Chile. What a trip through the arid south of Peru and northern Chile, watching the sun rise and set from the top of the double decker bus. As I was still in need of more bus travel(!) I got straight on a bus to Valparaiso, 1.5 hours from Santiago on the coast and the former home of Pablo Neruda and ...

Wow.. A journey of five days into the heart of the Colombian countryside.. First stop from Cartagena was Mompos, a small town left stranded on a piece of land in the 16th century after rising river levels. People just sitting around in rocking chairs in their beautiful courtyards..watching you carefully as you walked past.. Perhaps not the best place to invest in a hairdresser but figuring that she didn´t have much hair to play with, she couldn´t really get it ...

Caribbean colours.. Melting into life in the beautiful, beautiful, city of Cartagena after one week on the Caribbean coast with Jean-Philippe.. First stop Palomino, a remote village on the La Guajira coast where we could hear the waves crashing metres from our cabaña..buying fresh langoustines from fishermen on the beach and eating rice cooked in coconut milk..laying in hammocks near the frangipani and hibiscus trees..afternoon tropical rainstorms..paradise at o...

Arrived in Latacunga a bit worse for wear after four days of the squids and having not eaten for the last two days.. Who would like to be travelling alongside me when I haven´t eaten?! An angel at the hostel gave me crushed garlic and lemon juice (I felt like I was back at the blue house!) and that combined with the antibiotics worked like magic.. Up at 6am the next morning to catch the bus to a little town called Zumbahua up in the mountains where the Saturday ...

Arrived in Baños on Wednesday, having heard that it is a relaxing little town with lots of lovely walks to do in the mountains nearby..and massages.. Aware of the risks of being only a few kilometres (and directly in one of the lava channels) of Volcano Tungurahua, an active volcano for which the locals will take you up to watch `nightly eruptions´. So when our beds started shaking at 7am on Thursday morning I looked out the window to see if anyone on the stree...