The bus ride from Arequipa to Nazca was a sand surfing ride across pure desert, snippets of coastline with sand dunes the size of mountains everywhere else. There were many run down shacks and half demolished structures, but this devastation was partly due to neglect over time and the recent earthquake that shook for five whole minutes and unfortunately made world news by taking many homes and lives especially around Pisco and Ica. We came here to see these famous Nazca lines and we finally flew over them in a tiny plane called an Aero condor light aircraft wearing our Halloween masks, as it was Halloween. Below us it was an incredible sight to see, such clear details had gone into the making of these lines, but where did they come from? These strange lines come ... read more

Our dubious La Paz travel agent informed us that my longed for destination to the incredible Salt Flats of Uyuni, was not only a twelve-hour night bus to the destination but usually this is a full on four-day tour, four days that we don’t have spare. I looked at the distance on the Bolivian map, the salt flats were more south east of this country, possibly within spitting distance of Chile, basically bloody miles away. We arranged a one-day mega tour sandwiched between two twelve-hour night buses. The bus was luxury on the inside with full reclining positions, one complementary hot dinner and drinks. The standard Bruce Willis video made a nice change from Rambo 1-3 Demolition Man, Rocky 1-4. Around midnight I was getting very snugly in my reclining seat, tucked beneath my complementary blanket ... read more

We travelled by tourist bus to Puno which is by the Bolivian Boarder and major portal of lake Titikaka. As the state of Cuzco is 3rd charka ‘The navel of the world’ this lake is known as 2nd charka ‘The womb of mankind’. The lake itself is 3810 meters above sea level which brought on more huffing lung activity for me. The lakes are a whopping vision of 8562 sq meters in circumference. We went to the legendary floating islands called Uros. The locals have used heaps of natural reeds to build these small islands, which are so fragile that one average sized lady from our tour fell through the floor and lost her shoe, yet most of the islands ladies are very buxom lasses. It is claimed that the people rarely leave the islands. They ... read more

We breezed through the border from mild but stormy Guatemala to sweaty El Salvadorian border of Central America, I questioned why the coach driver didn’t take all our bags off at Guatemalan customs and the customs officer didn’t stamp either passport upon exit, nor did they ask for any immigration tax. The bus started to drive away without us on board; we had to run after it through no man’s land shouting WAIT!!!! At the El Salvador border people got off the bus just to pee against the same bus including two people that had obviously come from Antigua with their legs in plaster using the aid of crotches, damn those streets. On board an immigration officer finally stormed through the aisles checking passports. She inquisitively looked at our passports for a long time. She pointed ... read more

I left Lake Atitlan with far less personal baggage and much more soul. But not really heaps of energy, it was like id just been released from hospital where the aftercare was just as important as the op. We decide to hike up another mountain. This was not just any old mountain but a very live hot flowing fully erupting lava volcano, the most famous and active in Guatemala PACAYA, (which is not to be confused with the vibrant hot purple looking Pitaya cactus fruits that are also known as the ‘fire breathing’ Dragon fruits grown around these parts and now available in Tescos UK) This wondrous hike is 8,371 ft of 'complex' volcano which means over the last 26000 years it changes its eruptive characteristics to suit itself when it blows nobody knows from lava ... read more