“The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert of Peru. They have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The high, arid plateau stretches more than 80 kilometres (50 mi) between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana. Although some local geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, scholars believe the Nazca Lines were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE and 700 CE. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks or orcas, llamas, and lizards.” - Wikipedia After taking the night bus we arrived in Nazca well and truly tired! The bus driver seemed to think that he was driving a race car and was throwing the bus around the curves; it’s a miracle there was ... read more

Another big highlight of the South America part of or trip was seeing Machu Picchu and doing the Inca Trail! Its also one of the activities I was the most worried about in terms of fitness because it’s a three (and a half) day hike at very high altitude We left Cusco on the 24th of December and went to Ollantaytambo which is a little town close to the start of the trail. That night we all put our Santa hats on, sang Christmas carols, drank hot chocolate and ate some Peruvian Christmas cake! We then went to have a quick dinner before heading to bed. The next morning we woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. We then boarded the bus that would take us to the start of the trail. We queued ... read more

The world’s most dangerous road: “keep in mind, the gravel road is just that: it’s narrow (just over 3.2m wide) and has precipitous cliffs up to 600m.and there’s traffic. At time of research, eight people (higher figures sometimes quoted) have died doing the 64km trip (with a 3600m vertical drop)….” -Lonely Planet So the whole group decided to do the Death Road descent which is a 64km cycle downhill on one of the “deadliest roads in the world”! This has become a very popular thing for backpackers to do in La Paz. We wake up at bright and early and meet in the lobby at 6 20 am, make our way to the agency where they take us for a quick breakfast & then its gear fitting time! We put on the pants, fluorescent jackets and ... read more

Bolivia- Three day Desert Crossing One of the highlights of this trip was the three day desert crossing from Chile into Bolivia. First it was a bus that drove us to the boarder where we got our passport stamped. Because of going up into high altitude most of our pens exploded and there was ink everywhere; on the floor and all over our hands! After getting all that sorted we started getting our bags onto the roofs of the 4WDs (ours was a Lexus!), and then it was off to the adventure! We started driving across the desert, how the drivers know where they are going beats me but they know the desert like the back of their hands! We did a few stops along the way; to look at Vicunas or to see the beautiful ... read more

Buenos Aires: After a long flight from New Zealand with a stopover at Santiago, we arrived to Buenos Aires at midnight! We grabbed a taxi to our apartment, we arrived at the apartment and the guard was there. I thought I knew Spanish but I was not expecting to be pulled back in so suddenly especially after traveling for 24 odd hours!!!!! The guard started speaking to me very fast (Argentineans speak at the speed of light) and to be honest I hardly understood a word! Turned out we had miscalculated our arrival date and we were there a day earlier than expected!!!! Oups! We finally managed to arrange everything and went straight to bed! Our Apartment was amazing! Everything was brand new! In the first days we arranged our Spanish course and met up with ... read more