leighjclarke

I spent my last evening in San Pedro de Atacama visiting the incredible Valle de la Luna at sunset, a huge dry valley that looked a little like the place where Luke Skywalker grew up. I then got back to my hostel, packed my things and took a night bus to Arica, on the Chilean border with Bolivia. I stayed in Arica for only a few hours, hanging out at the shabby bus terminal and eating some questionable soup with the local drivers, before taking a comfortable bus over the border to La Paz. This took me through the unbelievable scenery of the Bolivian altiplano, a huge high-altitude plateau between two mountain ranges. After about an hour driving through El Alto, the sprawling surrounding city, a huge valley was revealed with thousands of buildings clinging to ... read more

The last two and half weeks since my last entry have been fairly fast-paced and I’ve travelled a long way from El Chalten to Santiago, visiting Patagonia and Lake Districts in both Chile and Argentina. It’s been one of the most interesting and rewarding sections of the trip so far – combining stunning scenery, touristy highlights and some off-the-beaten-track locations. I arrived in El Chalten expecting a hiking Mecca and found it had closed for the winter. To describe it as a one-horse town would be to overstate its liveliness. The first day there was actually fairly grim – a futile five hour hike through rain, snow and ice with literally no views of the surrounding mountains. I arrived back at the hostel soaking wet and fairly miserable. Yet the next few days were to be ... read more

After visiting the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls myself and Will, a guy from Dublin I'd crossed paths with a few times in Brazil, left Josh and took a bus to Buenos Aires just in time for St. Patrick's day. On arrival we bumped into a few of the guys I'd stayed with in Rio so we all headed out to watch some Six Nations and drink some green beers. The whole world celebrates St Paddy's but Buenos Aires takes it especially seriously. Whole streets in the centre were full of Guinness drinking Argentinians in a party of almost Carnival like proportions. Nightlife in BA is pretty hardcore, no one seems to head out until about 3am and to head home until nearly lunchtime. Being Irish for a day had it's advantages as I quickly realised ... read more

The flight from San Jose to Rio de Janeiro with Taca was comfortable and included copious free alcohol and a very easy transfer in Peru (take note USA!) so I arrived on Wednesday 15th feeling relatively refreshed. Rob and I crashed out on the bus but luckily Amber was alert and we got off next to their hostel in Copacabana. I was reliably informed that mine was a few blocks away but it was actually a half hour walk in searing heat with all of my gear. I arrived and found out I couldn't check in yet so headed to the beach for a quick nap and some sunburn. After seeing barely any Brits in over a month travelling Central America I was suddenly in a room with ten others, a few of which lived in ... read more

First of all, an apology: no pictures in this post. I’m standing in my hostel in San Jose, Costa Rica after a very long day travelling. It takes quite a bit of time (and a USB port) to back pictures up and I have neither tonight! Today I intended – and failed - to make a difficult journey from San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua to Monteverde, Costa Rica, using no less than six local buses and crossing one (apparently difficult) border. It was also my first day travelling alone in about three weeks so a good chance to see if any of the Spanish had stuck. At 12pm, having cleared the Nicaragua/ Costa Rica border with ease and heading for my final connection I was in good spirits. Unfortunately I missed the bus from Tilaran ... read more