Saying adios to South America – Salta and its surroudings

We arrived in Salta slightly sad that we had completed our last long-distance bus journey of our trip, the 46th in fact (James loves a list). Fortunately, we’d been accosted by a herd of goats whilst we waited at the border between Chile and Argentina, so that made it a bit special. We’d decided that …

Trying not to get robbed blind in San Pedro de Atacama

We’ve said it before: San Pedro de Atacama is bastard expensive. Even if you do things on a budget: self-guided, no tours, make your own food, etc. it’s impossible not to spend a good chunk of money. We even held off on doing laundry for 3 days because it was bound to be cheaper once …

Journeying across the Salt Flats

There is absolutely nothing to recommend Uyuni other than its proximity to the salt flats. Many people walk straight off the plane and on to their salt flats tour and the rest stay for one night before heading out again. We could easily appreciate why; it isn’t the prettiest of places. Nonetheless, we actually stayed …

Me Tarzan, you Sweaty – Madidi National Park

We were determined to shoehorn a visit to the Amazon into our plans somehow, it seemed crazy to come all the way to South America and not visit this most vivid, vibrant and bio-diverse of places. We had thought initially that it would take quite a lot of effort but it turned out that visiting …

Less than 24 hours in La Paz

Less than 24 hours in La Paz confirmed to us that you need to spend a little bit longer than 24 hours in La Paz. Our desire to stay longer probably also had something to do with our hotel; we were dropped in the lap of luxury just when we needed it. Our room was …

One lake, two countries – exploring Lake Titicaca

We were still suffering the after-effects of our hike when we boarded the bus for the long journey from Cusco to Puno. The journey itself was fine but we felt equal to very little when we arrived and our first evening in Puno was a lazy one, even by our standards. We managed to organise …

Glutons for punishment… and cake – Hiking Ausangate and Rainbow Mountain

Trekking around Ausangate and to Rainbow Mountain is by far the most difficult hike that we have undertaken. The five days of acclimatisation that we had in and around Cusco were pretty unpleasant and still didn’t spare us near constant headaches during our hike. The four days of hiking were made gruelling by the altitude, …

Having all of our expectations exceeded in Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

Note: We dedicated quite a bit of time trying to figure out the best way to visit the Sacred Valley in a cost effective and time effective manner. We ended up with a mixture of a tour, self-guided and a private transfer. It took a bit of organisation so for practical advice, scroll to the …

Feeling a bit light-headed around Cusco

We bumped and bounced through the clouds before dropping below them and getting our first view of Peru, and she is a looker. Cusco is at 3400m and altitude sickness hit us almost the instant we stepped out of the plane. We stood in the queue for immigration feeling light-headed, woozy, slightly nauseous and very …

Getting stuck into the vino in Mendoza

It took us 8 hours to get from Valparaíso to Mendoza by bus and compared to some of the nightmare journeys that we have taken, this one was a breeze, particularly with the aid of our third travelling companion, Netflix. The road crosses the Andes so it does get pretty wibbly, but that is more …