TravelStream™ news feed for member briancrooke on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/briancrooke en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:02:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/briancrooke/1/1252436454/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/briancrooke/1/1252436454/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/briancrooke/1/1252436454/tpod.html Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:02:05 -0400 Around the World in 18 Months

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Puerto Lopez, Ecuador

Boat trip from Puerto Lopez in Ecuador to check out some 18 metre whales during mating season...
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Lima, Lima, Peru

Boating in the Amazon basin and hanging out on the farm in the Peruvian Jungle...It took an overnight bus and two days on a boat to get to the farm, just outside of Sepahua in Peru
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Paracas, Ica, Peru

Checking out the wildlife at the ¨poor mans Galapagoas Islands.. ¨
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Cusco, Peru

Update to follow
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Cusco, Peru

5 day trek to Machu Picchu from Cusco
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Arequipa, Peru

Did a 2 day trek in the canyon. Long days but amazing scenery. The canyon is twice as deep as the grand canyon. Was worth the packed bus journeys. Plenty of condors knocking about too....I took a 3 hour bus at 6 am from Arequipa to a town called Chivay at the beginning of the canyon. From Chivay I had to run to catch a local bus heading towards Cabanaconde a further 2 hours away, where I was going to start the trek into the canyon. The driver dropped me in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed). All I had was a few donkeys for company. At least I know where I was going, well the driver had pointed a finger in the general direction anyway!The beginning of the trek was quite easy as it was all downhill as you would expect. Stunning scenery all the way down. It was really hot though as I trekked through the midday sun. I had planned to stop for lunch at a town called San Juan close to the canyon floor but having crossed the Colca river by footbridge and after 4 hours of trekking there was no sign of a town. I bumped into a local called Joel who obviopusly thought I had the look of a lost tourist about me so decided to lead me in the right direction. He was going the same way apparently (at least that´s what he told me). It was almost 5 pm by the time I reached Oasis, the town I had planned on spending the night. By this stage Joel had decided he was with me for the duration of my trek. He seemed like a nice guy but it was a bit strannge that he was not looking for any money as he was acting in every way like a guide. Met 2 girls from France and an Argentinian guy at the camp. It was an early night all round after a long day with another early start ahead. Cool location to fall asleep though, under the stars at the base of one of the worlds deepest canyons.Got up at 5 am the next morning to begin the hike back to Cabanaconde and out of the canyon. Started out a bit tough as the sun had not risen by this time and there was not much moonlight to guide us. Still we made quick progress and we were back on level ground and in the town of Cabanaconde in about 3 hours. The next struggle was trying to squeeze onto the packed local bus the Cruz del Condor viewing point. I have never been on a bus this packed in my life, this was even busier than the 39 at rush hour. One local man even brought a sheep on with him.I pushed my way off the bus at the Cruz del Condor viewing sight and got some amazing pictures of the low flying condors. Some even swooped only metres over our heads. Next job was to squeeze onto yet another local bus and stand for the 90 minute trip back to Chivay. I said goodbye to Joel and wished him well at Chivay. I was disgusted however to find out that there was no seats left on any bus back to Arequipa that day. I really wanted to get back to the city so I got chatting with a Chilean family that were in the same boat as me. We managed to persuade a local guy to drive us the 4 hours to Arequipa at a cost of 50 Soles per person. Worth it to get back to Arequipa, a shower and some clean clothes...
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Arequipa, Peru

Lovely city. Base for the Colca Canyon trek
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Copacabana, Bolivia

Trekking on Isla Del Sol in the middle of the monstrous Lake Titicaca
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La Paz, Bolivia

Managed to climb above 6088 metres...wasn´t easy though!!
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La Paz, Bolivia

Soon
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