A Travel Blog by Katie Chavez
After a stressful time on Greyhound buses involving late arrivals, rude bus drivers and an almost missed connection, we finally arrived in Chase, the closest town to the HI Squilax Hostel and General Store where we would be volunteering for two weeks. Trav and I signed up to a couple of websites, Workaway and Help X, […] Read more…
As our time in Vancouver was coming to an end, I started to feel anxious. Although I was excited about our road trip through the Rockies and the volunteering set up for after that, I couldn’t help but feel that the best part of the trip was over – this is the pull that this […] Read more…
In most cases there seems to be no reason why places in the New World were named after their namesake in the old. I don’t find New York to be anything like York, as far as I know New Zealand is nothing like Zeeland and New South Wales couldn’t be more different than South Wales. […] 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…
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…