Arequipa is filled with baroque buildings constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone. The city was far more beautiful than we expected… …
La Paz, chaos in capitals
Our first night came with a soundtrack that was now the norm in most South American capitals. Due to the government buildings being positioned 3 blocks away from our hostel, a protest moved right past our window. The supporters of Evo Morale’s opposing candidates gathered to object to the stalling of the vote count. …
The Colca Canyon trek
The Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru, located about 160 kilometres northwest of Arequipa. With a depth of 3,270 metres, it is the fourth deepest in the world. …
Mancora
We experienced everything Mancora has a reputation for in our first 24 hours there. A noisy, party beach town popular with gap year students – and a relaxing, beautiful beach side town with an array of water sports activities. …
The Galapagos
Arriving in a place you’ve seen so well covered and narrated by David Attenborough creates a strange feeling, everything is completely new and yet somewhat familiar at the same time. The result being you’re still not prepared for what you experience and it feels overwhelmingly surreal to actually be there …
Cuenca
Cuenca was our first stop in a city in several weeks if a small one at that (population 330,000). As it turned out it was the perfect size for us after coming from a series of towns, both in the Galapagos and the Andean highlands and allowed us to indulge in the few things we wanted in a city. …
Hiking the Quilotoa Loop
The Quilotoa loop is a self-guided hiking trail, high in the Andes in the Cotopaxi region of Ecuador. You can choose from many different route options depending on how many days you’d like to be on the trail. Our itinerary looked like this …
Mindo
Getting there Jorge our guide who drove us up to the mouth of the volcano outside Otavalo gave us some advice on stops in Ecuador. We had Mindo in our list of places but our intended next stop at the time was the city of Quito – largely due to geography reasons and it being …
Otavalo
Having only briefly researched Ecuador before arriving in the country, we didn’t quite know what to expect of Otavalo, our first stop. What we did know is there’s a famous market every Saturday. To try to get there in time we caught a 14 hour bus from Cali to Ipiales, the Columbian border town. We arrived closed to midnight and made our way quickly to a hotel called San Jose, 100 metres from the station. We didn’t fancy finding out how dangerous or safe the town was, but walking out of a bus station late at night never feels like a great idea. …
Two weeks in Medellín
Exhausted and bleary eyed, the taxi journey from Medellin airport to the city caught us off guard. We knew little of the geography of the city before we arrived. Medellin is located in an almost circular, deep valley. Once the taxi comes over the surrounding mountain you get an incredible view of the lights of the city and you descend a seemingly endless winding road. …
Salento
When you hear that a town is located in Colombia’s coffee region, you know it’s an essential stop on your route. It also boasts excellent hiking, stunning scenery and a lively town center on weekends. Getting there Salento is located at almost the midway point between Bogota and Medellin. We took a Friday afternoon bus …
Jardin
Having heard too many good things about Jardin, we used a public holiday in the middle of the week to travel there for a 24 hour trip. It was well worth the visit and probably the most beautiful town we visited in Colombia (with possibly the best coffee too). Jardin is located about 4 hours …
A weekend in Sao Paulo
A monster, São Paulo is home to 20 million fiercely proud paulistanos. We stayed in Villa Madellena and loved the neighborhood feel of the place. Low rise two story buildings in a hilly area with a high rise backdrop lend it a unique neighborhood feel and the limitless cafes, bars, boutique shops & restaurants would rival the offering of any city in the world. Add a sunny warm winter and it’s hard to beat. …
Discovering Paraty
A scenic bus journey hugged the coastline as we left Rio and headed south. Fully reclining seats helped prepare us for a welcome change of pace in our next stop, Paraty. A small colonial coastal town set in a bay surrounded by islands and mountainous Atlantic forest. It is also famed for the production of Brazil’s most popular spirit cachaca, the main ingredient in Caipirinhas. …
A guide to Rio de Janeiro
A guide to Rio de Janeiro, a mega city offering the best and worst of what South America has to offer, we were both nervous and excited touching down on a new continent. …