In San Pedro La Laguna, a small idyllic village on the shores of Lake Atitlan we spent five intensive weeks learning spanish at the Casa Rosario Spanish School. Living with the Raxic's, a large Guatemalan family whose first language is Quechuan.

Back in May 2003, a week after we had booked and paid for our round the world flights a 30 day state of emergency was declared by Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo. Three months later when we entered the country it was impossible to tell the country had been through troubled times. The friendliness and kindness of these people shone throughout our journey in this intriguing country. From the coastal capital of Lima, death defying bus journies through the Andies and Amazon frontier towns to Lake Titicaca the largest navigable lake on the planet.

Travel to the valley of flowers, visit the Colca Canyon the world's deepest canyon and of course, home of Machu Picchu: a 4 day trek with a great group of people and Eric our brilliant guide.

Todo es possible, nada es seguro, everything is possible, nothing is certain is the slogan often seen in Bolivia, and aptly describes the feeling one gets from experiencing this amazing country.

Climb a 6000m glacier, the guide book recommends experience but hey they let you do it anyway. We went horse riding in Tupiza. "Got any experience?" they asked, no we replied. Didn't seem to matter a few minutes later we were off cantering through the fantastic scenery anyway!

Party! New Year's Eve on Copacabana beach, dancing and swimming the night away. Sally & Dai came over from the UK and joined in the celebrations.

Home of the Tango. Buenos Aires, the capital has great night life (no-one goes out before 11pm!), wonderful architecture and a lovely climate. Argentina has mountains, lakes, beaches and the most southerly town in the world.

We visited Argentinian friends Evelyn had met whilst on her previous travels, shown wonderful hospitality and experienced the way of life in this fantastic country.

The most remote island in the world. Home of the Moai. There are numerous theories to explain why and how these extraordinary stone carvings were created but we are not entirely convinced about the alien one! Locals await visitors to the island with traditional garlands of flowers which are delicately put around the necks of visitors as they disembark the plane and necklaces made of colourful beads given when leaving this very special place.

Janine, a lady we met whilst crossing the Brazilian/Argentina border surprised us at Easter Island airport by greeting us as we disembarked the plane. "Come stay with Rafael and I at our home!". Janine living on the island with her partner Rafael is teaching English and now also providing guide services to tourists.

We enjoyed the beautiful scenery: met some old friends, stayed on 'The Farm' and caught up with Ben's parents & enjoyed a wonderful week together.

We are now in our final destination. We started in Sydney where we met up with Viv and Andrew (recent expats from Wales) and other friends. Flew over to Adelaide getting a feel for the way of life from more expats! Onto Alice Springs, Uluru and then over to Perth.