mothmanjim

The nightbus trip from Cordoba to Buenos Aires exceeded my expectations. Not only did the bus not break down this time but we were presented with possibly the biggest meat, cheese and cracker platters I've ever seen. No red meat for the rest of the year after Argentina I reckon now. When the bus arrived into Buenos Aires I thought it would be sensible to follow the majority who seemed to be getting off. Fortunately a friendly local called Luis told me I was getting off too early and should stay on the bus for the town centre. Turns out he works in museums and was involved in the Che Guevara museum I had visited so he provided some tips on places to see and museums to visit in Buenos Aires which was of great help. ... read more

Due to the lack of trains the transport options from La Serena to Santiago are either an 8/9 hour bus ride or a 1 hour flight. Given the price wasn't a huge amount more for the plane I decided to fly and grab an extra night in La Serena, however this proved a completely false economy after my trusty steed from the Calama to Copiapo leg (Sky Air) let me down. 4 hours of delays for a 1 hour flight is no fun in a regional airport without screens and a very dodgy intercom system. I think the staff on the desk thought I was OCD given the number of times I asked what was happening. I have the worst luck with transportation here. Arriving late into central Santiago all of my transport woes quickly dissipated ... read more

I'm seriously behind on my blogging due to a frantic few days of travelling in mostly remote areas with limited access to the tinterweb so I'll try and keep this post brief so that I can catchup. After returning to La Paz I flew into Uyuni the following morning to see the Salar de Uyuni Salt flats before heading South for Chile. The approach to the airport is well worth the cost of flying alone I think, the scenery here is amazing – a strange lunar desert mix of whites, reds, blues, greens and other colours. Its very surreal. The tour I booked involved a 1.5 day drive around the local area in a 4x4 before a very long and bumpy ride along dirt roads for the transfer to the Bolivia-Chile border. The Uyuni tour started ... read more

I'm currently in the World's highest capital city, La Paz, nestled in a bowl surrounded by snowcapped mountains at 3650 meters its a somewhat crazy place. Someone in Cuzco that I met described it as a city with no rules which I think in many ways is a fair description. The traffic here is insane, there seems to be some kind of outside celebration every 100 yards, the streets are constantly full of people and half the central streets seem to be markets selling all kinds of things. Generally the place just has a real buzz about it. My first full day here I tried to tick as many of the tourist boxes as I could. I started by visiting the museums on Calle Jaen (a famous old road here), before taking a look at the ... read more

I arrived in Arequipa at 6.30am via an Olturso night bus from Cusco and immediately started to feel ill with sickness and stomach pains. Unfortunately this put paid to doing too much here and certainly put the idea of treking up to Colca Canyon to see the Condors (large birds) on hold. In 36 hours all I really managed to achieve was briefly wander around town to take in some of the colonial architecture, visit the Santa Catalina Monastery and find a nice hotel room to hole up in for 24 hours of watching subtitled American TV, movies and sleeping. The Monastery was really impressive and is unsurprisingly referred to as a City within a City given its size and number of buildings. The bright red and blue walled complex features Squares, Streets, Orchards / Orange ... read more