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 [View Full Entry]

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...or in between earth and heaven is being on the Salt Flats of Uyuni tour in southwestern Bolivia. It is a tour completed entirely in a 4x4 jeep. It is one of the most surreal, magical, and beautiful experiences I have had on this trip. The breathtaking scenery included multicolored altiplano lakes filled with wild flamingoes, snow covered volcano peaks, gushing geyers, natural hot springs, ancient rock formations in the orange desert with roaming wild llamas and vicuñas, 1000 year old cactuses, and of course the star of the show...the dried up ancient salt lakes that seem to extend forever i [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Wow...not sure what else to say but WOW. And hope you enjoy the pics. :) PS. I highly recommend the tour group that I chose to go with on the Inca Trail. They are called "Peruvian Treks" and are a nonprofit agency based in Cusco. They go above and beyond to make sure their paying clients and very hard working employees are well taken care of. The difference in the working conditions between our porters and the porters working for the other for- profit tour companies was OBVIOUS!!! Again, if you are planning to do the Inca Trail...please consider hiring this [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in the southern Peruvian city of 1 million called Arequipa on Thursday morning. Rewind 2 days to when my travels began. Monday night I moved out of my ¨home away from home¨Macondo Hostel in San Gil, Colombia. Tuesday morning I jumped on the first bus to Bogota...was only supposed to be 6-7 hours, but of course turned into an 8 hour trip. Got to the airport in Bogota and on my plane at pm...landed in Lima, Peru 3 hours later at 1am. Slept in the waiting area in the arrival wing of the Lima airport for a few hours...me [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Here are some photos of the children that I worked with for the last few weeks. I volunteered for a few hours a day during the week at a children's home where these children are currently living. Some of them live at the home full time because their parents have abused, neglected, or abondoned them, or have passed away. Ot Then there are a few children whose parents are not able to take care of them due to work, illness, or other problems and pay for the children's home to take care of them during the week. These children go home [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Last week I went with a trio of Frenchies on a 2 hour hike through Cueva Vaca. It was loads of fun! We wore our crappiest clothes...which isn't hard to find considering we are all backpacking...put on the head lamps and helmets provided by our guide, and off we went! The best part was that I got to take pictures the whole time in spite of the fact that for most of our time in the cave we were crawling through mud, swimming through cave rivers full of mud, and maneuvering our way around rocks, stalagtites and stalagmites. I borrowed my [View Full Entry]

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