I just arrived this morning to Huaraz below the maginificent Cordillera Blanca range, via an overnight economico bus (seriously freezing at 4am as we traversed a 4000m pass). I met Lukas again (woke him up at 6am at his hostal) and we're now preparing for a 4-5 day hike to the Alpamayo Basecamp via the Santa Cruz valley. Except our preparations don´t seem to be going very well as they take their lunch breaks seriously here! Huaraz itself is a lovely building site nestling in the valley below the cordillera. We´ve been told that the building works are due to finish [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow! What an incredible last 4 days! It´s going to be hard to do the trek justice with words so I´ve uploaded loads of photos. The trek started with an early 5am start. I found myself sitting on the coach taking us to the trail next to Adam, a 33-year-old guy from Tuscon, Arizona (I´ve been there which helped break the ice!) who it transpired was to be my tent mate for the next 3 nights. An interesting character - studying literature indefinitely at Universtiy of Arizona, and a Shakespeare fanatic. That first night in the tent we had an interesting [View Full Entry]

---

---

My photos are now going to be on http://picasaweb.google.com/nickthetrick since I've run out of space on the old page (up to 23rd May) http://picasaweb.google.com/nick.in.south.america [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well I’ve finally arrived in Cusco, Peru, to start my Inca Trail trek in a couple of days. I had to arrive by today at the latest to pay the full trek fee and to ‘acclimatise’ to the high altitude (of couse the fact I’ve just been through Bolivia should have rendered that unnecessary). So why do I say ‘finally’? Well I’ve had another south american bus adventure to get here. Oh how easy the overnight luxury semi-cama (Cruz Del Sur - one of the better coach companies) should have been. However unfortunately of all days today (or this morning [View Full Entry]

---

---

Don't worry i'm alive and well and in an unknown suburb of Arequipa (just got on a bus which was supposed to be going to the centre of the city, but it didn't). In the last week I've: a) recovered from diarrhoea thanks to wonder drug Enterocolin, b) done the worlds most dangerous road via mountain bike and lived to tell the tale (crazy german guide couldn't shake me off!), c) been to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca, d) been to floating islands and eaten very well in Puno, e) left travelling companion Lukas (he's now in Cusco doing a [View Full Entry]

---

---

I'm now back in La Paz after 5 days away in jungle to the north in a place called Rurrenabaque. The flight back took 40 mins, an altitude change of approximately 3500m from a balmy 29 degrees in the shade (according to my watch which tells funky things like the altitude and the temperature as well as telling the time) to a modest 15 degrees in the sun. The plane was a 20 seater, two seats per row. Unfortunately it was also an oven (steamy windows so alas not the best view either), so it was a quite a shock to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hohooo i'm not going to write anything today! Right now i'm in La Paz and Tomorrow i'm off to the jungle by plane and will be back in about 5 days. A full update then! Some photos of Potosi... [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today we arrived in Potosi, the highest city in the world, standing at approximately 4050m, after a dusty 7 hour bus ride from Uyuni. Alas no longer the luxury buses of argentina; here we mixed with locals (plus the obligatory group of Israelis), in fact rather too close for Lukas' liking. Half way through the journey, a couple of natives sporting typical bolivian dress were squeezed onto the bus, and ended up literally sitting on Lukas, which is apparently acceptable practice in these parts. Unfortunately said typical Bolivian dress had apparently been worn unwashed for the better part of thi [View Full Entry]

---

---

Arrived safe and sound in Bolivia, and now all set up for a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni starting 10am tomorrow. My opinion of Bolivia so far... well it´s very different from Argentina. Straight away from the border at La Quaica-Villazon the difference was evident. An explosion of gnarly old women wearing ill-fitting bowler hats and bright ´ethnic´ garb and carrying cute smiley kids on their backs. Of course that wasn´t quite the first impression. The first impression was being kicked out of the bus on the argentinian side at 6am into a bus terminal full of locals, [View Full Entry]

---

---

The last week has flown by since I arrived in Salta. It certainly lives up to its name ´Salta La Linda´ with a nice plaza surrounded by buildings in lovely pastel shades that would make any picture postcard photographer pout with pleasure. It´s also surrounded by nice forested mountains. The closest one has a convenient teleferico to get you up and a nice view at the top which i´ve just done. I rewarded myself with an even nicer lomito (see pic) which must surely compete in unhealthiness with anything you could get from Botley Kebabs. We(me+Lucas)´ve had a night in [View Full Entry]

---

---