I almost wimped out of cycling the Death Road. Even before I got to La Paz, I was well aware of the 19 cyclist deaths since the road became a thrill-seeking tourist’s hot spot. Then I kept hearing stories about the accidents that seemed to occur on a daily basis. One girl was taken to hospital for a dislocated shoulder and another had to be winched … [Read more...]
Homestay on Amantani Island on Lake Titicaca
There’s plenty to see on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. While Puno itself doesn’t have the best reputation, it makes a great base for exploring both the floating reed islands of the Uros people and the permanent islands of Amantani and Taquile. It’s great fun visiting the reed islands and dressing up like the locals, but these have become … [Read more...]
Eating Guinea Pig for Tea
Would you eat your childhood pet? Lucky for me, I was only allowed a goldfish (which oddly enough I called ‘Blog’ before I’d even discovered the internet) and a hamster that met a sticky end when my dad drowned it in a bucket! I’d been whinging about eating guinea pig for weeks and our last night in Cusco was possibly the last chance I’d … [Read more...]
A Day in Machu Picchu
After 3 days of fun-packed adventure on the Jungle Trail, it was finally time to see Machu Picchu. It’s one of those places I’d dreamt of visiting my whole life, and one of the few places I was happy to get up at 3:30am for. Aguas Calientes is a strange place, because it comes to life so early in the morning. Its sole reason for existence is to … [Read more...]
Jungle Trail to Machu Picchu
There are many options for visiting Machu Picchu. The easiest and least satisfying is to get the train to Aguas Calientes and then the bus up to the ticket station in the morning. But there are plenty of treks, typically lasting 3 to 5 days, which make the journey more exciting and rewarding. The official Inca trail is a challenging but … [Read more...]
Hiking Colca Canyon: Lost in a Maze of Maize
Now we know which way we should have gone, my Aussie friend Christina and I are baffled as to how we got so lost on the Colca Canyon trek near Cabanaconde in southern Peru. We'd already dismissed the hot Peruvian hostel owner's advice to leave at 7 am in favour of a lie in. How hard could it be to descend into a canyon and back out again in one … [Read more...]
TEFL in a Graveyard: Chauchilla Cemetery
I'll start this post with a warning. It's going to get weird. I'll attempt to explain how I ended up teaching English as a foreign language in a graveyard - surrounded by mummies - while interspersing it with disturbing shots of mummified humans from the Nazca civilisation! I thought I'd struck a good deal when my hostel Inti Wasi put together a … [Read more...]
Flying Over Nazca in a Death Plane
Ok, perhaps that headline was a little melodramatic, but I heard a lot of stories about Nazca plane crashes before I decided to put my life in the hands of a local pilot. I’d also like to ‘thank’ many of my friends for putting the fear of God into me by quoting the vast percentage of aircraft that failed their security checks in the not-too-distant … [Read more...]
Sand Boarding in Huacachina
Our guide handed me a broken-off piece of candle and told me to wax my board - my sand board that is. If I'd realised how fast this would make me go, I'd don't think I'd have gone to the trouble! I stared down at the impossibly steep dune and wondered whether the traditional standing position, or the chicken's option - lying on the board - was … [Read more...]
Hiking the Santa Cruz Trek (Huaraz)
If you've read my post about the day trip to Pastoruri Glacier, you'll know that I was accosted by a tour agency representative as soon as I arrived, after 3 days of buses, into Huaraz. I was feeling the pressure to get through Peru a lot faster than I'd sauntered through Ecuador, and I booked both the glacier - for acclimatisation - and the Santa … [Read more...]
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