The adventures of TJ and the Beej in South America

Hello all I thought I would write some final words to close the blog and draw the curtain on my travels. As I have told some of my friends, taking time off is the best thing I did for myself. At the risk of sounding zen, it has been an immensely rewarding experience. My travels have allowed me to rediscover myself and the values I hold dear, and it was a good test of my mettle. There were times I wanted to quit and go back home but I managed to find it in myself to press on. Undoubtedly, the hardest part was when I was travelling on my own. I take my hat off to people who do it for the long term. Whilst it is fun to meet new people, it is great to ... read more

After all our adventures in Manu, Salkantay and Puno, it was time to bid farewell to Cuzco and head to Arequipa, which was the second city in Peru after Lima (there is some dispute with Cuzco about that...). The sky was blue when we landed and we immediately fell in love with this colourful city. It is surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes. Apperently when one of the Inca chiefs saw the region for the first town, he said in Quechua Language: "Ari quepay", which means "Yes, stay". Arequipa is also known as the Ciudad Blanca (White City) as a lot of the buildings there are made from silar, a white volcanic rock. Allegedly, it has 300 days of sunshine a year, which was not hard for us to believe as the sky was always ... read more

We sadly bid farewell to Rupal when we came back from Titicaca. I forgot to mention that Rupal has a better sense of direction than me and that I was relying on her to get around Cuzco... Annu and I wanted to do the Inca trail, but it requires booking months ahead. So we did the alternative Inca trail, Salkantay, which is one of the hardest trek to get to Machu Picchu (we didn't really know this at that point in time!). Salkantay in Quechua means the "savage one", which we didn't know before we set off. In any case, after Titicaca, we thought that we would have one more day of rest before setting off on the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu. It was not meant to be. There were some strikes that were planned ... read more

OK, I went to Machu Picchu twice, once with Rupal and once with Annu. Rupal and Annu did not overlap very much, so we only managed to have one trip to Lake Titicaca together. The first visit was definitely chilled out as we took the taxi-train-bus option. The second, much more hardcore, as it involved camping and hiking. More on these adventures later. Ollantaytambo The train leaves from a town called Ollantaytambo. Somehow, it is much faster to go to Ollanta than taking the train from Cusco itself due to a combination of steep terrain and Perurail. Ollanta itself is a cute little town, much more than a thoroughfare to the Sacred Valley and the Inca trail. It has been built on top of original Inca foundations, and I believe is one of the best surviving ... read more

Hello hello hello. Long time no write. I have been in Peru, for longer than I thought I would be. Seven weeks if my maths serve me right. I was only supposed to be there for a month and then make my way to Ecuador. But it was not meant to be. Peru is a fabulous country and in seven weeks you barely scratch the surface. Nevertheless, we managed to fit quite a lot in the time we were there. We hiked to Machu Picchu, went to the Amazon Basin in Manu, hiked down the second deepest canyon in the world, went to the highest navigable lake in the world, chilled out by the beach and saw many pre-Inca and Inca ruins. This leg of the trip started when my friend Rupal met me in Lima, ... read more