It wasn't supposed to be like this. When I booked myself on the Inca Trail, way back in February, I planned it as the grand finale of my trip. I envisioned four days of trekking under beautiful blue skies, finished off with a picture postcard first view of Machu Picchu. What I didn't expect - given that May is actually supposed to be in the dry season - was that I would spend two of the four days getting rained on, and that Machu Picchu would be completely obscured by cloud when we first got there. But it was still an [View Full Entry]

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There are many things that can be said about the Spanish legacy in Peru, but one thing's for sure - they left behind some beautiful buildings. Arequipa is another one of those old colonial cities, full of gorgeous old Spanish architecture. As my first taste of Peru, it immediately seemed very different from Bolivia...a lot wealthier, at least on the surface. And very touristy...after a month in Bolivia where there were few tourists other than backpackers, it was a bit strange to be surrounded by normal Western tourists. My main reason for being in Arequipa was to visit the Colca Canyon, [View Full Entry]

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The end of my trip is fast approaching, and I'm running out of time to do everything I want to do. So my trip to Lake Titicaca could best be described as fleeting! After a night in La Paz re-adjusting to the altitude, I got the bus the next morning to Copacabana, my last stop in Bolivia. The town is like a little outpost of Bolivia on the western side of Lake Titicaca, which is otherwise Peruvian. To get there, you have to go to the east of the lake, and then cross the Straits of Tiquina by ferry. We were [View Full Entry]

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When I tried and failed to go swimming with dolphins in New Zealand, I never realised that I would actually get to do it in Bolivia, of all places. I didn't even know there were dolphins anywhere near the country - after all, it is landlocked. But there are pink dolphins in two rivers in Bolivia, one of them being the river Yacuma, where I spent three days in the pampas near Rurrenabaque. Before I could even think about swimming with dolphins, I had to get to Rurrenabaque. The sensible thing to have done was fly there. But, having made it [View Full Entry]

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There are two ways to get to Coroico. You can catch the bus. or you can go by bike. Whilst the former is definitely cheaper, and arguably safer, the latter is a lot more fun. This is the 'Death Road', so called because it used to be the world's most dangerous road. This incredibly narrow dirt and gravel track winds its way down a total of around 3,000 metres down from La Paz to Coroico. Until a few years ago, when a new road was opened, this used to be the main route for all traffic heading in this direction - [View Full Entry]

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I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting La Paz to be like - but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting. It's basically a modern city, very noisy and dirty, which is a shame because it ought to be beautiful. Its setting, in the middle of a canyon, in sight of the snow covered Cordillera Real, is gorgeous - when you can see it. Mostly the view is obscured by the 1960s and 70s tower blocks on the main street, with newer houses literally clinging to the sides of the canyon. Very few buildings from the colonial era remain, which [View Full Entry]

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Potosí is a very strange place. One the one hand, it has some fantastic colonial architecture - and on the other hand it's incredibly poor. During the colonial period, silver was found in the nearby Cerro Rico, which made Potosí one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the world at the time. All the wealth went to the Spaniards, whilst the people who were forced to work in the mines endured terrible conditions, with literally millions of them dying. Although the main silver lode dried up quite sometime ago, the hill is still mined by smaller co-operative companies. And you [View Full Entry]

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I appreciate that I may have said this before, but I mean it this time (honest!)...the landscape on the trip from Chile to Uyuni in Bolivia is the most amazing I've ever seen. The trip was also one of the most uncomfortable I've ever been on, too, but some things are worth putting up with. We started out bright and early in San Pedro de Atacama, before heading to the Bolivian border for breakfast and passport formalities. There we swapped from minibuses into 4WD jeeps. There were six of us in the jeep, plus the driver, which made it pretty crowded. [View Full Entry]

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To quote my guidebook, San Pedro de Atacama is 'more Spanish Indian than is usual in Chile'. It's a small town in the middle of the Atacama desert, with streets lined with traditional adobe houses. It would be a lovely little town, if it weren't so touristy. The main street is just lined with ways to extract money from people...travel agencies, restaurants, bars and more. Or maybe that's just me being sour grapes - after Argentina, Chile suddenly seemed incredibly expensive, so I couldn't afford to go out. But having said that, San Pedro is quite a relaxed kind of place [View Full Entry]

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After nearly six weeks in Argentina, it was time to move on. For my final few days in the country, I headed to Tilcara, a small village in the Quebrada de Humahuaca north of Jujuy. It was absolutely beautiful....you know how sometimes you get off the bus somewhere, and you just know you've made the right decision going there? Tilcara was like that. It's an interesting combination of modern and traditional - touristy without being in-your-face touristy. Upmarket tourist hotels and restaurants nestled side by side with traditional buildings made of adobe, in streets that trailed off into the mou [View Full Entry]

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