Chennai is the gateway to Tamil Nadu, (one of India’s most underrated states) and many people use it as a stopover. If you’re a backpacker or on a budget then here are my top 7 things to do in Chennai….
What is it like to come home after a long trip?
I spent 2008-9 travelling from South to Central America. In my last week, I got on a train from San Jose to Denver and changed to a flight to San Francisco. I was exhausted by this point but ultimately satisfied, at…
Looking for lava at La Fortuna
I followed a Canadian girl to La Fortuna from Tortuguero as she seemed to know which different buses to take as there were quite a few changes to make. On one bus a tourist was so overweight that the conductor…
Mud volcanoes and cocaine in Cartagena
Cartagena burnt down 19 years after it was founded in the 1500s by Spanish colonialists and named after the city of Cartagena in Spain. It is only permitted to use non-flammable materials for buildings, a rule which has affected the…
How hard is the hike to Colombia’s lost city of Ciudad Perdida?
If you always wanted to go to the Lost City of Atlantis but couldn’t as it doesn’t exist then The Lost City is a very good bet. It takes six days and it is a slightly edgier and considerably lower…
Wildlife watching in Venezuela’s Los Llanos
After travelling up from Manaus into Venezuela via a stopover in Santa Elena and spending two solid days travelling including 12 hours at a bus station I was thrilled to be in Merida. Merida is a city on the Western…