Maynymoo Duncsta

We had been looking forward to this part of our trip following endless recommendations and backpacker hype. We are pleased to report that BA met and exceeded all our expectations, Its a wicked city and heres why... The city has a distinct European feel to it and walking around the streets, you could almost be in Paris or Barcelona. The architecture is impressive and the streets (in the main) are clean and safe. There are endless wicked bars, restaurants and funky shops and everything is dirt cheap!!! Locals are friendly and fun loving and despite the trecherous 80´s with Mrs Maggie T doing little for Anglo-Argentinian relations, we were welcomed with open arms and smiley faces. On advise we stayed at the Garden House Hostal in San Telmo, which was like living with yer mates in ... read more

As we dropped down a mere 2000m from the altoplano to the small village of San Pedro de Attacama, one of the first things I noted was that the cars and trucks slowly climbing the hill in the opposite direction all appeared to be shiny and new. A bit of a change to their Bolivian and Peruvian counterparts just a few kilometers away. When we reached the border control, the door of our airconditioned bus slid back and we were welcomed by the scorching heat! needless to say, San Pedro lies in the driest desert in the world, 100km from the driest place on earth. The village itself is a collection of adobe (mud brick) houses lying around a dazzlingly painted white square intertwined by dusty streets with lots of tourists. We arrived in high season ... read more

The bus we took from La Paz was heavily over booked which resulted in those who booked/arrived late having to sit and sleep in the aisle. Fortunately for us we arrived early (for once) and settled into our assigned seats for the overnight 14 hour journey. The driver's assistant had a penchant for very loud, violent films and en route to Sucre, he played three, all at 'old people´s' volume! seemingly unaware of the passengers disinterest and discomfort. The 20 minutes of white noise that followed each film was particulary mind-numbing and nearly drove us to dispair. All S.American bus journeys we have experienced so far end up taking much longer than planned and this was no exception. Some 18 hours later we bumbled into Sucre. Sucre was the original capital of Bolivia and was where ... read more

Lake Titicaca is jointly owned by Peru and Bolivia and can be visited from either side. We had originally planned to visit from the Bolivian side and visit Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna but having been told that the latter was temporarily closed to visitors, we decided to visit the floating Islands of Uros, Isla Taquile and Amantani instead (from Puno). We were slightly hesitant as this trip is supposed to be very touristy and contrived but I´m glad we decided to see for ourselves. The Lake is the highest navigable lake in the world and natives believe it is the product of tears from a God (I forget which one now) Dotted around the lake are traditional villages where Spanish is the second language and where ancient myths and beliefs still hold ... read more

After a stinky 15 hour bus ride from Nazca we arrived in Gringolandia AKA Cuzco (the only seats left were the ones right by the toilet) We have been looking forward to getting back to the fresh mountain air and were greated at the bus station by a man who claimed he was from the hostel, and had been asked to pick us up by our new amigos Kerry and Scott. This basically meant we got a free ride to the Hostal and then got attacked with a full throttle sales pitch! It turned out that Scott and Kerry had booked some tours with this agent and mentioned we were turning up. Seeing as it is the low season business can be hard to come by they took the oppurtunity and pounced! We broke free after ... read more