Since there is no ATM on Isabela and no one takes credit cards, we counted how much cash we had left, subtracted out lodging and the boat ride back and realized we could only stay one more day. One of the reasons we wanted to go to Isabela was to see the volcano. The island is actually made up of six volcanoes that have merged together. We were picked up by the “tour guide” around 8 am and taken to the trail head. The rest of …

After our two day delay, we hit the ground running once we arrived. The first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station. The main attraction here is Lonesome George. He is the end of the line for the Pinta Island Tortoises. They have tried to get him to breed with other Galapagos tortoises, but no babies yet. The station also houses young turtles from multiple islands in an effort to keep them safe while they mature and then return them to the wild. They also have a large collection of …

After waiting around in the Lima airport for 5 hours, we went to recheck our bags only to find out that our flight to Quito had been canceled. The airlines thought it would be fine for us to be delayed for an entire day. What they didn’t know was that we had a flight to the Galapagos five hours after we landed in Quito. Since we are dealing with separate airlines, there wasn’t much we could do. Also considering it was Sunday night at 7pm, we were really stuck. They …

After our 4 day hike, we decided to take the tourist bus to Puno. What’s in Puno? It’s the city on the the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. What’s the tourist bus? Instead of taking the direct bus that takes 6 hours, the tourist bus makes 3 or 4 stops at points of interest and takes 10 hours instead. There are actually 3 companies that do this and we kept running into the other tour groups all day, none of the buses were full. What a waste!
Not on the …

As some of you might already know, Machu Picchu has been closed since the mudslides in January. They hope to re-open the trail by April since it is the number one tourist attraction in the entire country. We have wanted to do this hike for a long time, we even bought a Peru guide book in 2002 to plan a trip. We’re finally here and have already paid money towards a hike that’s not available right now. Good thing the Incas built more than one trail (some estimates say they …

We made it to the capital city of the Incas after a long journey through the Lima airport.

When looking up our flight from Rio, we realized that we had about 24 hours to spend in Lima before continuing on to Cusco. We spent the day downtown visiting some churches and museums, and had some great ceviche and picso sours. Back at the airport we had to wait until 4:30am to check in and get on the plane. Unfortunately, they won’t let you past security more than an hour before …

We arrived in Rio just in time to catch the final days of Carnaval. We met up with Sara, thanks to Carolyn, and got to participate with the locals. Think of a block party/street party that actually walks in the streets with singing and dancing and when one finishes you move onto the next block or park.

Sara and her friends were great tour guides the next day. They navigated us around the city, showing us the famous beaches and taking us up to the top of …

We only planned one week in Brazil expecting to go to soak in Carnaval and see some of the sights. What we didn’t plan for was accommodations. We looked around at hostels and hotels and nothing was reasonably priced. I mean $80 USD a night per person for a mattress in a room with 19 other people?!? That rate really existed, but most weren’t in a room that large. Plus since it’s Carnaval, a minimum 5 to 7 night stay. We “tricked” the system and booked for the 2 nights …

We’re in the jungle now, anything can happen here.

Iguazu Falls is the real topic of this post, but don’t worry, there are butterflies involved. The falls are an amazing thing to see. There are actually a series of falls stretching over a mile long, with the most dramatic point, and longest drop being the “Devil’s Throat”. That section is a circular shape and generates so much mist and water spray that you can’t see the bottom, even though they built a walkway over the river right up to the edge. …

We have spent the last 10 days, including our trekking adventure, in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche for short. Bariloche is on the northern side of Patagonia and is written about as the Switzerland of Argentina.

The first 2 days were spent wandering around the city, taking a tour of the 7 lakes district entirely in Spanish and putting our plans together for the hike, not to mention staying in 3 different hostels. The next 3 days were spent on the trail, as mentioned in our previous …