First Up - The Eagle Eyed among you may have actually seen me in various places around London in the last week or so. Well, you are not mistaken and I am in fact (Delighted to be?) back home and back at work. It's not as much fun writing these blogs from my office in Uxbridge as in various internet cafes around South America I can tell you. And it snowed here at the weekend - In April! Miami - enjoying the trip up to the bitter end Miami was the final 2 day stopover of the whole adventure then. The [View Full Entry]

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On to the final country of the trip then and into Ecuador the hard way. From Trujillo, it was 3 separate bus trips, totalling 24 hours, to get the city of Cuenca on the Central highlands route through Ecuador. Unfortunately, bus comfort deterioates into Ecuador so it was no comfortable bus seats to sleep on for us. Instead pretty hard seats, that didn´t recline much, accompanied by that much loved South American synthesiser music and 1970´s Mexican musicals on the TV at full volume. Although all of this was interrupted by a 12:45am border crossing at a mosquito infested river with [View Full Entry]

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Pisac After getting back from Machu Picchu, i had one day free in Cusco, which i spent going to see yet more Incan ruins. This time in Pisac, around an hour North of Cusco, in the Sacred Valley. The ruins at Pisac are actually larger than those located at Machu Picchu and they are spread across a hillside in another spectacular location. Most of them are made up of agricultural terracing. Above are 3 separate sets of building ruins - a military complex, a temple area and a small collection of houses. I spent a couple of hours wandering around the [View Full Entry]

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Machu Picchu After waking up at yet another ridiculous hour (Not for the first time on this trip it has to be said!), our group excitedly set off for the walk up to the ruins of Machu Picchu. Hoping for a great clear morning to see the famous sunrise over the ruins, we awoke to mist and drizzle, not the most promising start! Its a 500m vertical height gain up a path from the town of Aguas Calientes, which takes around an hour and a quarter. As we walked up the path, we moved actually into the cloud, getting wetter, and [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Cusco on a very rainy morning, off the night bus from Arequipa. I was pretty excited to have finally made it to the centre of the gringo world in South America. Surely every backpacker on this continent comes through this city at some point, and most them move on to trek to Machu Picchu. Cusco is a really nice city with loads of colonial buildings throughout the city, and particularly around another huge Plaza de Armas. However, there is also evidence everywhere of the remains of the Incan empire, with some bits of stonework, walls and archways remaining [View Full Entry]

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Rather than following the traditional backpacker route North from La Paz, to Peru via Lake Titicaca, i decided to go West and explore the very North of Chile first. So i hopped on a bus in La Paz and travelled over to Arica in extreme Northern Chile. Arica...ca...ca...ca Arriving in Arica is a really nice change after the high altitude, cold nights of Bolivia. Its situated right on the coast, with a lovely warm climate. The Pacific also crashes into the beaches located both North and South of the town. The town has a really nice feel about it, with a [View Full Entry]

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Bolivia is just such a country of contrasts. One day you will be gasping for breath in the high altitude of La Paz, the next down into the tropical, humid air of the jungle. This was how it was when i finally arrived in Rurrenabaque, coming off the 19.5 hour bus journey feeling, well not that fresh really. Rurre is a totally different feeling town to anywhere else i have been in Bolivia. Even more laid back, if thats even possible! I got picked up by motorbike taxi from the bus station. Me and 2 rucksacs on the back of the [View Full Entry]

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Much to the probable disappointment and worry of my mother, after climbing Huayna Potosi, i had a renewed sense of adventure which had to be filled in Bolivia. How to keep the adrenaline flowing? Well, when you have reached 6,000m, the only alternative is to go down.....quickly. Enter, the world´s most dangerous road. To the North of La Paz, the high levels of the altiplano drop off rapidly to the low level pampas, continuing into the amazon jungle beyond. On the way out of La Paz, the road climbs up to a point at 4,660m altitude. In this area, you are [View Full Entry]

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Call it a sense of adventure, call it stupidity, whatever, it has been a goal on this trip to climb a 6,000m mountain. So my first opportunity arose near to La Paz where Huayna (Pronounced Why-na) Potosi stands, 6,088m (19,974 ft) high. (Warning - this blog contains lots of geeky figures and measurments that may impress some, but will probably bore most!). Its said that this is one of the easier 6,000m + mountains to climb in the world, but i can say now, if this is an easy one i never want to attempt a challenging one! Off i set [View Full Entry]

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Potosi From the water bombing, carnaval related madness of Uyuni, i moved on to the water bombing, carnaval related madness of Potosi. Different town, but the same activities of spraying water and foam at everything that moved for another couple of days. Except in Potosi, they had moved on to the cunning tactic of the drive-by attack, spraying water and foam from the windows of passing cars. Its just not cricket really! However, after a couple of days, the town was returning to normality, with only the occassional sporadic attack. Back to the business of sight-seeing then. Pot [View Full Entry]

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