Back in Brazil and at the end of our year-long round trip around South America, the dreaded moment was now upon us - it was time for Beruška and us to go our separate ways. As emotionally attached as we had become to that Toyota Banderainte, the time had come to let go. Or not. Letting go was, in fact, not the hardest part. This instead became the difficult task of convincing someone to take her off our hands. It seemed that Beruška’s inner beauty was visible only to us, and everybody else saw only the damaged and rusted body of [View Full Entry]

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As we left backward Bolivia and arrived in advanced Argentina, we felt how the Yanomami Indians must have felt after leaving the jungle and finding the city. It was almost too much for us to believe - the bright lights, European-looking people, paved roads, hot showers and flushing toilets. No longer were we appalled and feeling sorry for our fellow human beings. Now, instead, it was them that were staring at scrawny-and-scruffy us. The next couple of weeks we got ourselves cleaned up with the functioning facilities and regained lost kilos with the succulent steaks. Thereafter, we made cont [View Full Entry]

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On all that we’ve gone through the past 2 weeks we could probably easily write a 100-page novel - not quite fitting for this little blog. However, writing just a short paragraph or two would not do justice in describing this final journey - the climax of our year-long escapade, perhaps. So, we’ve deviated from the usual format for this blog entry, and instead are going to put down some summarized extracts from our personal diaries. Day 1 - Too Easy! We arrive in Uyuni, a remote town of 10 000 people nearby the world’s largest salt plane, to investigate the [View Full Entry]

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Bolivia is, by a long shot, the least developed country we have visited so far. The conditions are rougher - lodging is a lot more basic; clean, flushing toilets are rare; hot water even more so; food is way more risky; and only 10% of the country’s roads are paved. The temporary discomfort is, however, rewarded with the most unique and authentic culture this continent has to offer. The vast majority of this country’s people are the indigenous tribes of the Quechua and Aymara people. The women, from girls to grandmothers, wear exuberant, large, pleated dresses of various colours [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Peru only 1 week after the level 8.7 earthquake and saw firsthand the might of mother-nature, or Pachamama as they call her here. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Driving through the most effected areas on the recently-built highway, which was now cracked in half through the middle, was like driving into Berlin at the end of the WW2. Ancient towns like Ica and Pisco - an ex tourism mecca - were now reduced to modern day ruins. Sad to see how this cruel world took away what little they had. The crumbling remaining walls of the adobe mud-brick [View Full Entry]

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On the moment the plane touched down on the strange new terrain with funky-looking cactuses everywhere, one British voice blurted out: “By golly! We’ve landed on the moon!” - and we knew this was not going to be no ordinary place. According to Darwin (who also developed his theory of evolution on the islands), because the islands were never connected with the mainland, any plants or animals that somehow made it onto the islands were allowed to evolve differently to their counterparts on the continent. Consequently many of the plants and animals on the islands are completel [View Full Entry]

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This country full of snow-capped volcanoes is the beginning of the South America we know from TV. Descendents of Indians everywhere put on their traditional costumes not just for the church days but also for everyday life. Due to the mountainous character of their country they are bit colder and introverted but still keep to the South American standards. After the inflation reached shocking numbers, the Ecuadorian government decided to change the country’s currency from their pesos to US dollars - a pretty strange move for a country in patriotic South America. So instead of the usual [View Full Entry]

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Colombia was one big surprise. After hearing all the terrible, horrifying stories about Colombia from the Venezuelans and Brazilians, we prepared ourselves to drive through Colombia in as little time as possible. We were pretty excited to leave Venezuela and Chavez behind, but were also worried about what would happen to us in this country that has such a bad name, and which is so full of criminals, drugs and guerillas. Well, as we should know by now, not everything you see on the TV news, or hear from the mouths of people who have never left their own country, is [View Full Entry]

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A trip to ancient Tayrona Indians’ Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) is more like a journey to another world. It’s an intense 6-day uphill trek that can only be described as unique. On the way up through seemingly boundless dense rainforest one can easily why this country is such an easy place for guerillas to hide. Fortunately, this is now one of the areas that are back in the control of the Colombian government, and the various army posts along the way ensure that the chances of you running into trouble are small. Along the path, as well as on the actual [View Full Entry]

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After 4 memorable months, it was finally time to say goodbye to Brazil and hello to Venezuela - the land of free petrol and no eggs. Venezuela is an interesting, but not too welcoming of a place to visit. Political tension is always in the air and the communist mood is inescapable. We had to quickly get used to societal climate change - coming from the warm, caring Brazilian people to the cold, unconcerned Venezuelans. The socialist president, Hugo Chavez, recently said something along the lines of “what the Americans don’t understand is that Hugo Chavez is not just Chave [View Full Entry]

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