Eating Cartagena

The journey to Cartagena from Iquitos was a long and tiring one, so when we woke in our cramped but beautiful hotel room we were very excited to be in Colombia. Cartagena is a major port on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has a beautiful, Spanish colonial walled town and an impressive fortress that was built to defend the city against pirates. We stayed in Getsamani, a small neighbourhood outside of the old walls where back in the pirate day the African slaves used to live, more recently its where prostitutes made their living and today it’s very backpacker friendly!

Border Mission: Peru to Colombia

Iquitos was a very different city once we returned from our trip into the Amazon. It was early afternoon and everybody was in town, the streets were literally buzzing with rickshaws, it was so noisy and almost impossible to cross the road as there was so much traffic. Such a contrast to the serenity we’d just experienced in the jungle! 

Amazon Adventures With Jungle Man

Our journey to the mighty Amazon jungle began in Lima, after a couple of days hanging out in the trendy bars and restaurants of the Barranco neighbourhood, we boarded our $80 flight to Iquitos. Our decision to venture into the Amazon was made just one week before whilst we were in Cusco. After a few hours research and a couple of emails we chose to stay at the native owned Abundancia Ecolodge over the many American owned luxury lodges also near to Iquitos. Our guide would be Miguel aka Jungle Man! 

Learning To Sandboard

When we first heard about the huge sand dunes in Huacachina we were a little skeptical about them. In Vietnam, we’d visited the pretty but underwhelming dunes at Mui Ne the year before. Fellow backpackers and bloggers assured us that sandboarding in Peru was something we had to try. All buses from Cusco to Lima go via Ica so there was lots of choice on buses, as it was 14 hours overnight we decided to treat ourselves to the 'Cama Total' seats downstairs. 

We Made It To Machu Picchu!

Cusco is the gateway to the incredible mountain top Inca village of Machu Picchu and it would have been a major fail for us if we didn’t at least try and visit. The scenic, adventurous route was no longer an option (see why here) so, we decided to see if a local travel agent could help get us there another way. 

"We made it!"