We took the night bus to Arequipa (which arrived at a painful 5 in the morning). After a bit of a nap, we had a look around the Santa Catalina convent. Today, there are only 30 or so nuns living in the convent, but in its day, it would have been quite a little village. The complex takes up a whole street block and has its own internal streets and parks. The nuns had it relatively good. Most were the second daughters born to rich colonial families. They could take in a dowry and so had their china tea sets and [View Full Entry]

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We found mid June to be a good time to visit Cusco. The city put on its party hat and for our entire visit, there were celebrations and parades in the street, dancing, fireworks and the odd protest just to get in on the action. We saw the Corpus Christi parade, where the locals dust off all the saints and parade them around the town square. They are then carted off somewhere to have a bit of an all saints gathering, before being returned to their respective churches. We spent days roaming Cusco´s narrow streets, some of which are a curious [View Full Entry]

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The first stop on our Lake Titicaca itinerary was Copacabana. We didn´t see any show girls called Lola, but there were a large number of hippies that must have arrived and never left. We took an instant liking to ´Copa´. It was small and beachy, the weather was warm (despite being at 3,800m above sea level), and there were lots of cheap places to gorge ourselves on trout. Ben was so excited, he went for his second run since we arrived in South America. He decided to race up the hill behind the town. It happened to be Corpus Christi - [View Full Entry]

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After the jungle, we had a few days up our sleeves to play in and around La Paz. We explored the markets, oohing and aahing at the llama foetuses and jaguar skins. We also spent a good 3 hours or so experiencing the bureaucracy of the La Paz central post office trying to send a package home. We also did a day trip out to some ruins near Lake Titicaca. The site was an important cultural and political centre for the Tiwanaku culture between about 200BC and 1000AD. Unfortunately, the Spaniards were not fans of devotion to anything but Christianity, so [View Full Entry]

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Most people associate the Amazon with Brazil, but a good 60% or so of Bolivia is in the Amazon basin. A trip to the jungle was at the top of Ben´s list (he, secretly fancying himself a bit of a tarzan - grrr). The overnight bus to La Paz was interesting of itself. At some ungodly hour, the bus stopped and a whole bunch of locals proceeded to jump on with their blankets and luggage. Ben had a sack of quinoa in his ear and was whacked over the back of the head by a baby. The other Bolivians on the [View Full Entry]

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After Uyuni, we drove up to Potosi, supposedly the highest city in the world. Yep, its pretty high. And cold. Cerro Rico, the silver mountain, dominates the city of Potosi and has been its fortune and curse for 462 years. By some estimates 8 million people (mostly indigenous people and slaves from Africa) have died working in the mines, either from cave ins or through long term inhalation of the poisonous dust filling the tunnels. Even today, a miner can expect to live for only 10-20 years after starting work in the mines. On the other hand Potosi was, at one [View Full Entry]

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We have just spent the most awesome 3 days or so, traversing the Bolivian side of the Andes . The scenery was spectactular. Heaps of volcanoes, vast flats, multicoloured lakes, and cold looking birds (including me). Six travellers were sqeezed into a rather temperamental landcruiser, which refused to go into 3rd gear. We mostly chugged along the altiplano in 2nd gear, which allowed time for photographs. Occasionally, our chauffer, master chef and mechanic, would get the beast into 4th and we would nail it along the dusty tracks, skidding all over the place. Each time we stopped, our driver [View Full Entry]

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Continuing in zig-zag fashion, we once again crossed the Andes over to San Pedro de Atacama, a dusty little spot on the edge of the Atacama desert. The Paso de Jama (pass) was a good deal over 4000m and, for the first time, we really felt the effects of altitude. We both got raging headaches and I couldn´t feel my hands or my feet for some of the time. A guy told us that we really shouldn´t drink alcohol if we are feeling the altitude. He got drunk in Cusco and stayed drunk for a week. We heeded his advice, stuck [View Full Entry]

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Back to Argentina, again. It looks as though the border guards have been testing out their stamps in our passports. The crossing over the andes was spectacular. Once again, we had a bus driver that was eager to beat the queues and happily cruised up the outside lane past lines of trucks. At least this gave us a good view from the bus window! Our first taste of Mendoza was a lesson in how not to arrive in a city. Our hostel was only about 3 blocks from the bus station and so, we bumbling kiwis decided we would walk. Unknowingly, [View Full Entry]

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We had low expectations of Santiago, but were pleasantly surprised. It seemed a relatively nice place, although it was a shame you couldn´t see the sky due to the smog. I had the unfortunate experience of being wedged on the subway into town. Ben shoulder barged some old ladies to get off at the right stop. However, he pushed them in my direction and, despite my pleas in rather average spanish, I could only watch as the doors of the train slid closed and the train took off. Ben didn´t seem too alarmed and patiently waited for me to find my [View Full Entry]

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