Tag: Backpacking
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World-Class Birding in Manizales
From Jardín, our journey continued along some of the most scenic roads in Colombia towards the city of Manizales. Nestled in the Central Andes range, Manizales sits at a higher altitude of around 2,150 metres and is surrounded by diverse ecosystems, including cloud forests and montane rainforests. It also lies in the shadow of Nevado…
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The birding starts in Jardín
If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you might have noticed a significant trend over the last year we’ve been travelling… More and more birds popping up in the posts. Yeah… sorry about that 😂 I’ve always been into wildlife, more than the average person, for sure, and most of my travels in my…
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Medellín: From Notorious to Noteworthy
So… We were supposed to be going to Panama next, to complete the journey through central America, then fly onward to Colombia afterwards. But as I was starting to seriously plan the Panama trip (aka looking the land border crossing, the bus to David, then a bus to Almirante (the port for boats to Bocas…
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Finding peace (and Quetzals) in San Gerado de Dota
Since we’d had such a hard time spotting Quetzals in Guatemala – we tried three separate places with no luck, I hedged my bets here in Costa Rica, and although we’d already had an amazing Quetzal experience in Monteverde, our next stop was another quetzal haven (just in case we hadn’t seen one) and was…
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Sloths and Snakes in Rio Celeste
Next stop in Costa Rica was the Rio Celeste region. Here, two clear rivers (the Quebrada Agria and Río Buena Vista) meet. One is slightly acidic, the other is rich in aluminosilicate particles, both thanks to the local volcanic activity. When they merge, the change in pH causes the particles to clump together in just…
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Granada: Hot Streets and Cold Peaks!
Our next stop in Nicaragua was the pretty, colonial city of Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua and in the shadow of Mount Mombacho, another active volcano. We had booked 4 nights here as there seemed to be a lot to do in the region. We looked at public transport and all the buses…
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Viva León!
After a bleary-eyed 2:45am pickup from our apartment in El Zonte, we finally bagged the best seats on the shuttle – marginal win! With a quick stop in El Tunco to scoop up a few more travellers, we were soon winding our way towards Nicaragua, ready to trade surf towns for smoky volcanoes, political murals,…
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Facing the waves in El Zonte
We hadn’t planned to stay too long in El Salvador – more to claim back some days from staying longer than expected in Guatemala! We had planned to visit Honduras next overland on our way to Nicaragua, but just at the start of this year the Honduran government changed it’s entry requirements for British citizens…
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A-maze-ing Ruta de las Flores
Our time in Guatemala was at an end, and so we booked a shuttle to take us across the border into another new country for the both of us; El Salvador. We booked with Gekko Travel, but a G Adventures bus is what eventually picked us up (about 40 minutes late). It had come from…
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Motmots, Volcanoes and Alfombras in Antigua
To get from San Marcos on Lake Atitlan to Antigua Guatemala by public bus looked like a bit of a mission, with potentially 5 different buses changing in 4 towns… So we booked a tourist shuttle to take us for Q140 each which we didn’t think was bad for such a long journey. We arrived…
Travel Alchemist 