Well our first impressions of Argentina weren’t the best due to the countrywide bus strike and our trouble finding a hostel in Jujuy, where we ended up for our first night. Luckily things changed rather quickly. We didn’t see much in Jujuy, although we did walk around with our bags for over an hour trying […] Read more…
The Best Tour of South West of Bolivia: Salt Flats and Beyond
It’s expensive, it’s freezing and the days are long, but despite all of this, our tour to the remote South West corner of Bolivia was spectacular. The tour began with us meeting our tour guide and cook and the other two people in our group at the Tour Office, then we set out in our […] Read more…
Diverse Landscapes in Southern Bolivia
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…
Exploring the Amazon Basin and Lake Titicaca in Bolivia
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…
Discovering Gritty La Paz, the Death Road and Coroico in Bolivia
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…
One Week in Peru: Arequipa, Colca Canyon, and Lake Titicaca
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…
Dealing With Altitude Sickness on the World Famous Inca Trail in Peru
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…
Cusco and the Sacred Valley in Peru: Past Strongholds of the Incas
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…
The Mountains and Sand Dunes of Central Peru
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…
Traveling the Mountainous Spine of Stunning Ecuador
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…