Ride Em' Cowgirls! Isla Margarita - Venezuela

Lauren and I headed down to the CabaCaribe ranch for a beautiful afternoon of galloping on golden beaches, through the Caribbean ocean and cantering through the cacti! The two of us went on the most amazing ride led by Larry, the ranch owner and cowboy at heart, who was great fun and gave us a couple of beautiful horses. I rode Chocolate, a local Criollos and Lauren had Teardrop, an American Quarter horse. We rode for a couple of hours through the local villages, across the hills and along the beach dodging fishing boats and locals as we raced along - it was so much fun!

After the ride, we had an ice cold beer with Larry and his wife Anita, chatted horse talk, watched the new fools playing in the fields and checked out their brand new puppies - so cute. A perfect afternoon down on the ranch...

Party in Pampatar, Isla Margarita - Venezuela

We had a bit of an engagement celebration in a lovely restaurant called Casa Caranta in a little town called Pampatar. After dinner we treated ourselves to some swanky table service at a club called Stigma, before heading across to the islands capital Polymar to a club called Kamy Beach! It was 100 bolivars in ($12), all you could drink good drinks and right on the beach! We all danced and congo-ed the night away.... perfecto!

Beach bums - Playa Caribe, Playa Parguito & Playa del Agua, Isla Margarita

For all it's chaos and craziness, Isla Margarita has the most beautiful white sand beaches. We hung out and had fun on Playa del Agua only a few minutes from our villa, joined in the party on Playa Parguito on Easter sunday and fell in love with Playa Caribe, a wild and quieter beach on the north coast.

Snaps are paddling in Playa Caribe, Oli on Parguito tickling the chin of a friendly Macaw, the boys on Caribe at sunset, Oli modelling surf and sun on Parguito and Lauren baby sitting the gorgeous Wilfred and his sister on Playa del Agua. The video is of samba on Playa Parguito.

Day tripping in Juan Griego, Isla Margarita - Venezuela

Juan Greigo is a little working fishing town on the north coast of Margarita, with a pretty bay full of fishing boats, fisherman and plenty of pelicans. We took a taxi from the villa along the coastal road to take a look at the town and walk up to the old Spanish fort for some panoramic views of the bay.

Stopping for a long lazy lunch at a little restaurant on the beach we enjoyed some typico food, Chilean vino and sampled some local firewater! Then we took a ride down to Playa Caribe to watch the sunset and have a cocktail or two. A great day out!

Under water action in Los Frailes, Isla Margarita - Venezuela

Here's some under water action snaps from our day trip to Los Frailes, islands that are a 45 minute boat trip from Margarita. Though we thought we had hired a little private boat, in true Margarita style, when we turned up we were on a big old wooden dive boat with quite a gang of us. But it turned out to be an awesome day and the boat had a nice crew (one took quite a shine to Loz)! We got two dives at different sites and saw some pretty unusual fish including star fish and luminous crabs.

We also had a tasty BBQ lunch on the island, got to know a cool Argentinian couple (we invited them for a party but we think they never found the house - oops!) and were treated to a free bar. The rum and cokes went down a storm on the ride back to Margarita!

Friends invited - Isla Margarita, Venezuela

After an amazing time with the folks, we jetted across from Panama City to Caracas in Venezuela to meet Lauren, Oli, Adam and Morwena on Isla Margarita! We were so excited to see everyone, we jumped on a plane to Margarita that got us to the island a day early to collect the keys and set up the villa for the next couple of weeks fiesta! Santa Semana (Easter in South America) was in full swing and Margarita was full of party people over from the mainland to enjoy Easter with friends and family. Our villa was a stones throw from Playa del Agua, an action packed beach with beautiful Caribbean waves. Pete and I spent the day stocking up the villa with essentials, plenty of booze and BBQ food for a big party when everyone arrived off there flight from London in the evening!

It was just amazing to have everyone with us in South America, absolute friends in a million and we had a wild two weeks of hanging out in our rock n' roll guitar shaped pool, chatting the day away, making the islands best cocktails, BBQ-ing up a storm and dancing to the early hours!

We made the most of the island too - chilling out on the beautiful beaches, taking a snorkeling trip out to the Frailes islands, visiting a traditional fishing village Juan Griego, galloping some horses from a local ranch, touring the lagoons and of course, checking out the local night life!

We embraced the daily power-cuts and having no running water for 3 days as the joys of a developing country and 'all part of the adventure'! Margarita as islands go is a pretty rough and ready place but with super friendly locals, a fiesta spirit, gorgeous beaches and the cheapest duty-free booze in South America, it couldn't have been a better place to get back together!

Taking a hike in National Park Volcan Buru, Boquete - Panama

Whilst Linda and Tony enjoyed visiting some local gardens, Pete and I decided to take a hike in the National Park Volcan Buru that sits about 30km's outside of Boquete. As you can see from the pictures, it was absolutely beautiful and made up for the fact that it was a seriously steep hike on the way up. We took the Quetzal trail through the forest, rather than heading volcano bound, and just did the first part of the trail as landslides have caused it to close further up. On our way we passed coffee plants, banana trees, crossed grazing land and roaring rivers and saw the most beautiful flowers. The roads were lined with Datura flowers which look like fairy's drinking cups!