I arrived in Cuyabeno, the gateway to the Ecuadorian Amazon, after a gruelling night bus from Quito. The bus didn’t have a toilet on board so stopped every 2-3 hours on the journey, where the lights would blaze on and the driver would ceremoniously announce our bathroom break over the microphone, as if we couldn’t …
Next stop: The Secret Garden Cotopaxi, a hostel run by the same owners as Quito but about 2 hours away near Cotopaxi National Park. This place was one of the most picturesque hostels I’ve ever stayed in, isolated on its own plot of land with amazing views of the Cotopaxi volcano. It felt completely different …
The media coverage of Ecuador left me feeling slightly unsettled about travelling there. It was made worse by Mums repeated messages, mostly capitalised, about making sure I did not go to Ecuador. It wasn’t a red zone country – fake news I went anyway and I’m still here to tell the tale. I arrived late …
Salento is located in the heart of Colombia’s coffee region, a 5 hour bus from Medellin. It is less touristy than Medellin and Cartagena and noticeably safer. I didn’t feel the need to clutch onto my phone and wallet like my life depended on it during my time here like I did in other cities …
Not everyday is a good day when you’re travelling for as long as I am, and the start of my Medellin journey was certainly evidence of this. I packed up my things and got the bus from Rio hostel to Santa Marta airport where I took a short flight to Medellin. I met up with …
The next week or so of my trip was spent in various hostels in the North Coast of Colombia, near Santa Marta. The city Santa Marta itself is easily forgettable and supposedly quite sketchy, with most travellers using it as a gateway to the more picturesque and remote parts of the coast. My first …
Minca is a jungle ‘city’ nested in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Colombia not far from Santa Marta, in the North of Colombia. I got a morning bus from Cartagena to Santa Marta and then shared a taxi to Minca about an hour away into the jungle. The hostel was super nice, perched on a …
Cartagena was brutally hot and humid, more so than anywhere I had previously been. Expectations were low for the coastal Caribbean city of Colombia, after various poorly reviewed accounts of the city from other travellers. The city itself is visibly stunning, boasting colourful colonial architecture, bustling markets and a nice port surrounded by the …
Sailing to Colombia was something I wanted to do from the very beginning of organising this trip as the infamous Blue Sailing, the company that runs the trip, is very well known and I had heard this trip was the highlight of many peoples Central America trip. It is a 4 night sailing journey -but …
The long bus to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, started with a 6am hostel pick up in La Fortuna. The bus then stopped at the coastal city of Puerto Viejo, which many backpackers stop off at but I opted to skip and go straight to Bocas. The next bus was very delayed as I was left …
