Tim Version: * Saw Cusco in both its drab and colourful forms, with its awesome Plaza de Armas and surrounding shops n stuff. * Saw Ollyantambo and the sacred valley. * Experienced Ayahuasca, one hell of a trip! The ahhh too much to have a one liner here version: Cusco as you enter the town by bus is the same as any other here with sprawling square concrete unfinished houses with the odd splash of colour and a lot of dusty brown dirt everywhere. From the bus terminal though its a quick taxi ride to the central Plaza de Armas and [View Full Entry]

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This shouldn't have had to have been an entry but unfortunately it has become one. Trying to travel from Arequipa to Cusco should have been a simple overnight bus but as it turned out the country had something else in store for us! The arguments between the idiginous people in the jungles of Peru had escalated unbeknown to me and now much of the country was setting up road blocks in support of the native people. All routes into Cusco were apparently being targeted and unfortunately ours was one of them. The first part of the bus ride was easy enough [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Saw the Colca Canyon, its surrounding snow capped mountains and river way down below, and relaxed in the tranquil little town of Cabanaconde. * Experienced altitude sickness but also got to see during the bus ride some of the most incredible altiplano scenerey that you could wish for. The altitude affected version feeling like an old fat man just trying to walk around the hostel huffing and puffing: The Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world! Well, actually, the second deepest... the other one is, as the lonely planet informs me so is hopefully right, near about [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Hiked up, admired the views from, and then rode and crashed my way down Cerro Blanco on my trusty sandboard. * Saw the Nazca Lines and heard their mysterious creation theories in a bumping hard-turning little Cesna. The "My god, that was the biggest freakin sandboard run ever!" version: Nazca, deserty and dry and home of the famous Nazca Lines. To me more importantly it is home of Cerro Blanco, apparently the highest sand dune in the world, something that I just had to ride a board down the side of at great speed =) Arriving in Nasca [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Got some serious sandboarding done and man it's awesome!! * Had some good conversations with some locals and enjoyed the "end of the line"'ness of the place. The sandboarding down a big-ass sand dune version with nothing but other dunes to board down in view: Huacachina has a reputation as a party place and dependng on where you stay it certainly lives up to that reputation. That however wasn't at all why I was here - I was here for the dunes and to hit them up with sandboard in hand to try and find the steepest fastest [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Saw a hell of a lot of birds, penguins, sea lions and other wildlife. * Also saw just what an earthquake can do to a town with basically build buildings, its incredible. The version dodging the dropping bird poop: Islas Ballestas, with the tag of "The poor man's Galapogos" is a place I wasn't sure if I wanted to see or not but I was really feeling the need to see the ocean and some wildlife so that pointed to me being insane not to do it, and I'm glad I went. Leaving from Lima very very early [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Checked out the centre of Lima a little more carefully this time. * Not a place for me really, just another capital. The not-robbed-this-time version: Lima! I keep passing through it but never stopping, but this time I'm here to travel. Arriving this time it was unfortunately around midnight so I organised with a Hostel to pick me up, and for the first time ever I was greeted by one of those guys at the airport carrying a sign with ny name on it! Kinda cool in one way, nice and official feeling, but in another a real [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Enjoyed Merida for its laid back atmosphere with a slight political student lifestyle edge to it. * Visited thermal hot springs, saw some incredible graffiti, learned more Spanish... and I think I experienced altitude sickness! The version that is sitting back drinking a Solera Verde in a colder mountain climate, trying desperately to understand Spanish conjugations again: Merida is a town up in the Andes region, fairly close to the border with Colombia. To me is sounded like a good place to escape the pollution and humidity of the rest of Venezuela. Home of the world [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Tried to leave Ciudad Bolivar quickly, looks like a bit of a hole, but plan didn't work. Stayed the night and found it actually has a very small nice section! * Got to see the Orinoco river, not so beautiful here but still I've seen it, then had a mission of a time getting a bus to Merida. The "ahhh so thats the Orinoco River! OK seen that..." version: Well I had a lot more time than I thought, and I planned on hiking and walking lots in Merida which was to be my next destination, but really [View Full Entry]

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Tim Version: * Flew in a small plane to Canaima, boated (both by motor and by lots of pushing power) up to Angel Falls, and got to see its unclouded face and marvel and just how damn big the drop is! * Saw a bunch of other local smaller waterfalls, smashed by little toe, saw another snake and loved it all. The dropping, dropping, dropping... where the hell is the bottom? version: With a contact given by one of the girls I climbed Roraima with, I found a good tour operator at a good price that I could join to go [View Full Entry]

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