Chona

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world and its obvious as soon as you step off the plane/bus. Especially since while walking around the city you always seems to be going uphill and are immediately out of breath! :) It is a very fun city to be in for a budget backpacker. Lots of gingo-run party hostels, discos, yummy restaurants with international cuisines (had Sushi and Indian food there!), very cool coca museum, the Witches Market with crazy herbs, dead vanimals, and other offerings for sale, beautiful views of the city from various miradors, and a bustling urban center (hold onto your purse!). The other capital city is Sucre. It is somewhat smaller, more beautiful, once had been very wealthy and it showed. I also took a very backed, somewhat smelly buseta ride ... read more

I arrived to Cusco from Lake Titicaca and my plan was to stay only a few days. I wanted to get to know the city, nearby Sacred Valley sites, do the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, and then move on from the very touristy Cusco to the North of Peru where the gringo trail is not quite as crowded. However, as most backpackers experience, when you make a plan, things rarely end up that way. And that is one of my favorite parts of this type of travel...I have the time and freedom to change where I want to be and for how long. When I arrived to Cusco in November, I met up with a girlfriend I had made in September in Medellin, Colombia. Her name is Courtney and she is a journalist from Sydney, ... read more

This lake is so beautiful and so are its Quechua and Ayamara people whose ancestors have called Titicaca home for thousands of years. In spite of the tons of tourists that seem to be everywhere (can´t imagine what it is like in the high season), I really enjoyed my days here. It was borderline magical to spend time in a place and with people who are so different in so many ways from what I am and from where I come from. Without any electricity, running water, and limited resources, these communities seem to be stuck in time. And yet they function so beautifully and smoothly on their own and in their own way. I love these kinds of opportunities that prove that in spite of whatever superficial yet equally significant cultural and physical differences between ... read more

I lived in Macondo Hostel for almost 2 months in the town of San Gil, Colombia. One of the reasons I stayed in San Gil for so long was because of how much I enjoyed this hostel, its very helpful, chill, and informative owner Shaun the Aussie, its lovely Colombian lady staff of Blanca and Gloria, and the MANY other backpackers from all over the world that I got to meet and sometimes befriend while our time overlapped in this hostel. I truly enjoyed my time at Macondo. Comfy, friendly, and had all you needed. Instead of feeling like just another backpacker who was paying for a bed for a couple nights in a strange hostel, it was like we were all just friends of Shaun and he was hosting us at his house for a ... read more

I arrived to San Gil from Bogota on September 10th. It is now October 23rd and I am still here! Originally, I wasn't even going to go to San Gil. Instead of coming here from the coast like most other backpackers do, I went from the coast of Colombia to Medellin. Then I headed to Bogota and was planning to go directly on to Cali. However, when on the coast, I met many backpackers with stories of San Gil and all the affordable adventure sports that they did here. My interest was peaked...especially when I saw all the cool pictures of my friends doing paragliding, rafting, and absailing down the waterfall. When I was in Bogota, I was cold and a little bored...so I decided to change my plan, not continue south and instead head back ... read more