http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/RalphOnTour/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from RalphOnTour en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:58:25 BST Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:58:25 BST Potosi owns a couple of superlatives. Itrsquos the worldrsquos highest city at 4070m was once the riches city in South America and once had more inhabitants than London or Paris. That Potosi was founded in 1545 is thanks to the Cerro Rico ldquoRich Mountainrdquo which contained huge amounts of Silver. The Silver content of the ore mined exceeded up to 70 percent. Today the content of meta http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Potosi/blog-77769.html Since the beginning of my trip I was successful to circumvent the worlds most biodiverse region the Amazon without touching it. Safe the best for last could be my motto but the truth is that I was always to far away or it was just too expensive to go. I finally got my chance in Bolivia. The main hub for the Amazon jungle and pampas tours here is Rurrenabaque or Rurre which must the one of the be http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/Beni-Department/Rurrenabaque/blog-77768.html La Paz is the worlds highest capital city at a altitude of 3600. That means three things. First the city is in the Guinness book of world records second it's cold and third you are out of breath if you walk up two stairs or a steep road of which they have plenty here.Not much to report from here as I spent most of the time either shopping trying to send a parcel home in my hotel room in my bed http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-76531.html The ldquoWorld most dangerous roadrdquo or ldquoDeath Roadrdquo as it is lovingly called by some tour operators in La Paz is a 40 km stretch of dirt road on between La Cumbre and Coroico just outside of La Paz. The stats say that on average 20 vehicles go over the unprotected edges and around 100 people loose their lives on this stretch of road per year. The cliff drops in some places a co http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Yungas-Road/blog-76529.html Lake Titicaca is and here comes another superlative the highest commercially navigable lake in the world at over 3800m. It is also mentioned as one of the highlights of Peru in my guidebook. What they donrsquot mention that itrsquos also a freaking cold place and not that interesting. Did I mention that I disagree with my guidebook Ok itrsquos not such a bad place as it might have some a http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Lake-Titicaca/blog-76528.html Machu Picchu is likely the most famous archaeological site in South America if not the world. About 400.000 tourists visit the site per year at least yoursquore never alone. It was founded ca. 1440 and was inhabited until the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire. The name Machu Picchu is not the original Inca name for the site as this one was forgotten over the centuries. The name is derived fro http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Cusco/Machu-Picchu/blog-76526.html Cusco is the longest continuously inhabited city in South America. It was the capital of the Inca empire and the seat of the last free Inca before the Spanish disposed of him speak murdered. One of the literal translations of the word Cusco is Centre or navel of the world. The city was planned to be shaped like a puma and with a little imagination you can see that. It had four quarters each re http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-66122.html Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and was mentioned as one of the highlights in my travel guide. Well not Arequipa itself but the Colca Canyon which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Apart from being very deep it also contains a horde of Condors. The way to visit the canyon and to see the Condors is to do a 1 2 or 3 day tour or tr http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Arequipa/blog-66120.html Unless you were hiding behind a rock for the last 20 years you will have heard of the Nazca lines. For all those of you who were hiding behind a rock the Nazca lines are a set of gigantic geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. The figures are up to 300 meters long and include animals such as hummingbirds dogs spiders and monkeys geometrical figures such as trapezoids arrows and other like the astr http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/blog-61140.html Lima is as you will know the capital of Peru. It was once the seat of the Viceroy of Peru the most powerful man in South America. He was representative of the Spanish king in South America during the colonial era.My guide book didnrsquot give me much hope as it described the city as big and overcrowded but also mentioned that it has its nice sites.I started wandering around the streets without m http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Lima/blog-61137.html The main reason why I came to Trujillo was because I saw the Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon in Google Earth. And then there was the recommendation in my guidebook that its worth stopping and the fact that it nicely breaks a otherwise 16 hour bus ride neatly in two halves.Trujillo has a third important archaeological site called Chan Chan which is the largest PreColumbian city in South A http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/La-Libertad/Trujillo/blog-61135.html The Chachapoya culture and people were in the region for thousands of years before they were conquered like the rest of South America first by the Incas and then shortly after by the Spanish. It is thought that the Kulap fortress was inhabited for over 2000 possibly 3000 years. They were great warriors as they constantly had internal conflicts and were later used by the Incas as a kind of SAS http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Amazonas/Chachapoyas/blog-61132.html The day I left the Galapagos Island was completely dedicated to travel to Peru. It started with a two hour speedboat trip at 6am after that a bus ferry and bus combination to the airport then a flight then another bus to the bus terminal from which I took a bus to the border town between Ecuador and Peru. From there I took yet another bus towards a town in Peru. Unfortunately I didnrsquot re http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Peru/Amazonas/Chachapoyas/blog-61130.html There is just one word to describe the Galpagos Islands which is either AwesomeHasToBeSeenToBeBelievedKindOfPlace or simply wow. Hope you understand that I had to add a million pictures I could simply not decide which to let out.The history of the Islands is the reason why this place is so amazing. The Galapagos Islands are a group of volcanic islands which were created over a couple of million y http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Galapagos-Islands/blog-60118.html Its always a sad day when you have to leave a country you liked and it doesnrsquot get better when you are greeted by about 10 people on the bus station in Ecuador which want to sell a bus ticket for their bus to Quito. Havenrsquot been hassled in that way since I left India a few years ago. Not sure what they put in their food here but they should go easy on it. Anyway got a ticket in the end http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/Quito/blog-59675.html Popayn is sold as the white city and again as one of the most beautiful cities in Colombian I gave up counting how many most beautiful cities they have here. To cut a long story short I didnrsquot like it that much. It has a lot of old buildings which are mainly white and the usual thousand churches but Irsquove seen better in Columbia. Spent only one day here so there is not much more to s http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Popayan/blog-59673.html If you believe my guide book then San Agustin and Tierradentro are one of the most important archaeological sites in South America. Well they better be because the bus ride to San Agustin consisted of over 4 hours being shaken in a minibus as the road to the town is still not paved. Tierradentro is another 7 hours of which 2 are again on dirt road and on the way back there are about 2 more hours o http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/San-Agustin/blog-59668.html Salento lies within the Coffee region of Colombia which as the name suggests is the main area for growing the famous Colombian coffee. Despite the fact that Colombia produces some of the finest Coffees in the world the coffee here is not that great as the really good stuff is exported and too expensive for the locals. Salento is another very tranquil place to hang out without too many major attrac http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Salento/blog-59667.html Medellin was once considered one of the most dangerous city in the world for its size and had a highly disproportional murder rate. It was the home of the Medellin drug cartel which was lead by Pablo Escobar. The drug Cartel and Pablo virtually took over the city in the late 1980's and early 1990's. He was quite popular with the locals as he built hospitals and public housing for the poor and onc http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-59664.html Cartagena was once the most important sea port of the Spanish colonies in South America basically the whole continent and more. Many of the gold ships of the Spanish fleet left from here towards Spain laden with the gold of the Incas and Aztecs. This obviously attracted many pirates and buccaneers of the time which led to Cartagena being plundered quite a few times. The Spanish didnrsquot lik http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-57173.html