Now then, let me begin this entry with an admission. Jurassic Park ranks a lot higher in my list of favourite films of all time than it probably really should for a 23 year old male. So when the opportunity came to go to a real life Jurassic Park near Sucre, I jumped at it. Or rather I jumped on a bus to it. Which I kind of told you about last time. Anyway, arriving in Sucre, I naturally had slept like a baby on the bus, so was full of beans and wanted to jump straight on the "Dino Bus" to the footprints. However, also quite predictably, Beth hadn't slept so well, so wanted to have a bit of a kip first. That was fair enough, and gave me a chance to wander round Bolivia's ... read more

Hello again. Nice to see you. How are you doing? So, before I set off for my trip, I had a couple of goals. One of them was to become as close to fluent as possible in Spanish. Another was to climb a 6,000m mountain. The first one is coming along alright, and in the next few paragraphs you'll find out whether my attempt to achieve the other one was successful or not. Day 1 I'd always earmarked Huayna Potosi as the one I was going to make my attempt on, as standing at 6,088m, it has a reputation as being one of the easiest 6,000m + mountains to climb. And that's how it came to be that myself, Hans, a Belgian that would be attempting the mountain with me, and our guide Nelson left La ... read more

So on into Bolivia. Our bus from Cusco to the Peruvian border was very comfy (well I thought so anyway). But despite being told we had a direct bus all the way to Copacabana in Bolivia, we were unceremoniously dumped off at a roadside, with directions to get a minibus. This we did, and after the simple border formalities were completed, another minibus took us to Copacabana. So perhaps the bus company didn't do everything they said on the tin, but we got there successfully nonetheless. In Copacabana, we soon decided that we'd rather spend the night on the Isla del Sol, so after a quick lunch, we jumped on the next available boat across Lake Titicaca. Coincidentally, Laura and Jessie, 2 girls we'd met in Cusco, also turned up for the same boat, so we ... read more

How come everytime you want to do something incredible around these parts, you have to get up at silly o clock to do it? Already tired from a 4 day hike, having your alarm go off at 4am is a bit of an inconvenience to say the least. Nevertheless, our group successfully convened at our designated meeting spot at 4:30am to drop off bags and pick up our packed breakfasts. Except there was a slight problem, noone was there to open up and let us in. After much running around, we eventually left our bags elsewhere, and set off late towards Machu Picchu with empty stomachs. It was later decided that the cook, and possibly Pio, had probably been at the all night party below our hostel, hence the tardiness. The last thing you need when ... read more

First of all, before my mother goes off to phone the British Embassy, it wasn´t really a kidnap. It´s just an over the top headline to grab your attention and make you keep reading. And it worked didn´t it? Good. Let's continue. The night bus from Arequipa to Cusco was apparently really noisy and uncomfortable. I'm having to go on what Beth said to tell you that, as I slept throughout the entire journey. When I awoke at around 6am, we were just pulling into the old Inca capital city of Cusco. Our rooms weren´t quite ready upon our arrival at the hostel, so the morning was mainly spent watching films and playing pool. It turned out Mike and Ellie from Huaccachina were still here, so it was nice to catch up with them again. They ... read more