When someone told us Ayacucho was holding Peru’s (and possibly South America’s) biggest Easter celebration, we were a bit sceptic, but intrigued none the less. So we decided to leave Pisco for the Easter weekend and arrived 8 hours later in Ayacucho on Thursday to find a fairly quaint place. However trying to book into a hostel, we realised that they were all completely full up and families were offering their rooms to rent for a ridiculous price. We found the most dingy hostel you have ever seen (but were thankful just for the bed), and then went to find a program of the weekends activities (which unfortunately was only offered entirely in Spanish). In my broken Spanish I understood that there was an “Easter” performance happening the next morning in the town square, so we ... read more

Leaving the distinct smell of urine behind in La Paz, we headed west to Lake Titicaca, the largest high-altitude lake in the world. We spent a night and two days eating the most amazing trout you have ever tasted (and cheapest), drinking wine, and hiking across the island exploring Inca ruins and local villages. Sadly, it was then time for us to say our final goodbyes to Bolivia and with a tear in the eye, we jumped on a night bus bound for Peru and woke up in the town of Arequipa. Peru’s second largest city and enclosed by stunning mountains and a stand alone volcano, Arequipa is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately it was here though that Zack got sick with a flu (possibly man flu) and after 6 nights, the city started to loose its appeal ... read more

“Bolivia’s own Jurassic Park”…..sounds promising? Maybe not, but definitely worth checking out! So from Potosi we headed to Sucre, a Bolivian city popular for it beautiful surrounding valley but also Cretaceous Park, a dinosaur theme park. Racked with curiosity, we caught the ‘Dino Bus’ (pretty much a truck with plastic dinosaur head stuck on the front) out to the park and paid a ridiculous entry fee. About 20 years ago, when the Bolivians were busy mining away their land, they came across fossilised prints of about 8 different dinosaurs…and hence have now turned it into a tourist attraction. Now standing there looking at the prints, it was pretty cool thinking about what they actually were, however it was hard to take the whole thing seriously when you were surrounding by huge plastic dinosaur figures and a ... read more

A mere 12 hours after leaving white sandy beaches, and two bus changes later, we arrived in the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert. Our destination was a town called San Pedro De Atacama, and at a height of 2440 metres above sea level, it was our first experience of being at altitude so far. Now San Pedro makes its claim to fame as being the tourist, archaeological and astronomical capital of Chile and we soon realised why. Valleys, geysers, sand dunes, mountains, lakes, and everything in-between are all features of the surrounding area. So after a quick nap, we signed up for an afternoon of sand boarding in the nearby “Death Valley” (sounds promising hey?). Having never done it before, we had a blast trying to surf down 120 metre sand dunes, tumbling, ... read more

We arrived in a the small town of Pureto Natales, just across the Chilean border, with one plan….to do the “W” Trek in nearby Torres De Paine National Park. And exactly how we were going to do this?? Well that we would work out later. After doing some research on the Patagonia region way back in England, we had decided this particular trek was something we really wanted to do. I did a quick Google search we found multiple companies which offered packages to do the trek, ranging from $1,000 US right up to $3,000. Zack scoffed at the prices and the ‘tour’ idea and assured me that we could organise it ourselves when we arrived for a fraction of the price. So we turned up with this notion in mind and as much as I ... read more