A Travel Blog by Katie Chavez
So of course it didn’t end up being as straight forward as we thought it would be to get to Sucre in Southern Bolivia. It never is in South America. Our bus trip was terrible due to the fact that there is no toilet on the bus and the driver refused to stop until 1.30am […] Read more…
So our journey continued with a flight on Bolivia’s Military airline, TAM, from La Paz to Rurrenabaque. It was a bit too bumpy for my liking but in the 50 minutes we were flying the change in landscape was very dramatic. We flew over snow-capped peaks and milky turquoise lakes then dramatically the mountains dropped […] Read more…
La Paz is a big, dirty city but what makes it different than most is its spectacular setting, in a natural bowl surrounded by high mountains to protect it from the harsh climate. I wasn’t overly impressed by La Paz on my first day looking around. There aren’t a lot of obvious attractions and I […] Read more…
Arequipa We arrived in Arequipa after possibly the worst night bus yet, replete with seats that hardly reclined and no legroom. As it was only 6am, it was too early to check into the hostel so we waited in the TV room watching movies before our room was ready. I was feeling pretty terrible but […] Read more…
Our epic journey to Machu Picchu began with us getting picked up at 5.30am from our hostel in Cusco by Peru Treks, and driven to Km 82 via a breakfast stop near Ollantaytambo. This is the start of the Inca Trail and where you sort out your bags, your paperwork is checked and your passport […] Read more…
On our first day in Cusco, none of us were feeling our best. The boys were both not feeling great with a food poisoning re-occurrence and I was feeling pretty rough myself with a combination of a blistered and sunburnt bottom lip, a cold, fatigue, and shortness of breath due to the altitude (Cusco sits […] Read more…
So as I mentioned in my last post, because of the damned Paro in Colombia, we were going to have to hurry to get down to Cusco on time to do the Inca Trail on the 27th March. We were missing the beach (and the sun) as the last time we had been by the […] Read more…
Our last stop in Colombia before crossing into Ecuador was a quick detour to Santuario de Las Lajas, a minor basilica church, built spanning a beautiful canyon. The church was built against the wall of the canyon where a local girl saw the Virgin Mary appear to her. There is a lot of tourist tat […] Read more…
Our first stop in the Coffee region of Colombia was stunning Salento. Salento is a small town surrounded by verdant mountains and coffee farms and is a popular stop on any Colombia backpacking route. We stayed at a lovely hostel on the outskirts of town that is also attached to a working coffee farm owned […] Read more…
We started our time in the Colombian Andes in San Gil, a small and busy town that is nice enough but nothing special. Most people come to San Gil to do the various adventure activities in the surrounding area, and to visit the colonial mountain town of Barichara. We arrived exhausted and spent the first […] Read more…