We were lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks in Bolivia on our travels and were surprised by just how much we enjoyed it. Like many of the destinations we visit we hadn’t done a huge amount of research in advance, and had heard mixed reviews from other travellers on our journey through South America. There are loads of awesome reasons to visit Bolivia and it’s a beautiful, amazing and fascinating country to explore.
Much to our surprise, Bolivia turned out to be one of our favourite countries. We didn’t know a lot about it before our visit except for understanding that it’s a very poor country, has some social and infrastructural challenges and tends to be a bit like marmite with travellers. As we’d journeyed through South America some people regaled us with stories of terrible food poisoning, scary experiences of theft and plenty of difficulties in travelling around Bolivia.
We absolutely loved the Galapagos. Even now, many months and adventures later, we love looking back on our photos of the Galapagos Islands and remembering what an incredible time we had. Whilst it’s pretty expensive as backpacking destinations go, and not exactly the easiest place to reach, I’d recommend it to any travellers who love nature and wildlife.
We only had 24 hours in San Pedro De Atacama, as the tiny desert town was just a short stop off on our way from Salta, Argentina to the Bolivian salt flats. Turns out that it was one of the busiest – and best – days of our trip and that San Pedro is absolutely packed with amazing things to do. We’ve been meaning to write about it for ages but have only just got round to it, so here goes!
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, General, Italy, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Taiwan, Top Lists
10 Of The Best Gardens In The World
Bit of a random one as no one I know could accuse me of being green fingered, but turns out we’ve spent time visiting some awesome gardens on our travels and we wanted to share them with you. When we bought our house, one of the top items on the list of ‘must haves’ was a garden.
Advice & Tips, South America, Travel Planning
Visiting the Amazon Rainforest: What to Pack & How to Prepare
One of our most interesting travel destinations of 2016 was our time spent in the Amazon Rainforest. We decided to take a trip to the Peruvian Amazon during our 3 weeks exploring the country
If you love birds, sea lions or even penguins – you’ll love the Ballestas Islands – the poor mans Galapagos. They’re home to some of the largest colonies of wild sea birds in South America and are located just off the coast of Paracas. If you don’t like birds, don’t go – it’s that simple.
The following is a typed-up version of some very quick diary notes I took while travelling the Galapagos Islands. For a more sensible representation of what the Galapagos Islands are like please see Sarah’s post – The Ultimate Guide to Backpacking in the Galapagos.
We were lucky enough to spend 1o days exploring the Galapagos Islands in October this year, and whilst its not typically renowned as a cheap travel destination, as we found out – it’s definitely possible to enjoy the islands on a backpacker budget.
Our journey through South America was pretty amazing. We moved quickly compared to many travellers as we knew there was a lot to fit in within our South America Itinerary, but the pace was by no means uncomfortable and we enjoyed every second!
Most people are only fortunate enough to visit Machu Picchu once in their lifetime and as such, it’s really important that you spend your time wisely and visit as much as you physically can.
This post started out as a recollection of the main events from our disastrous tour of the Amazon jungle in Puerto Maldonado, Peru. It then warped into a creative writing piece written in the third person that was supposed to make it easier for me to write about these traumatic events.
Adventures, Peru, Places, South America
Our Nazca Lines Flight: An Incredible Journey over the Desert
To say I was uncertain about taking a flight over the famous Nazca Lines in Peru was an understatement. These planes are renowned for being somewhat unreliable, with several cases of engines stopping working and aeroplanes falling from the sky.
I’ll preface this post by saying that we’ve been fairly lazy in Cuzco, and certainly haven’t taken full advantage of what the city has to offer, but after spending just over a week here between tours and day trips, we reckon there’s still lots we can recommend.
There are a few ways to get to Machu Picchu, one of the most scenic and iconic is the Salkantay trail. The Salkantay trail is typically tackled by putting your body through 5 days of tough hiking at altitudes ranging from a lowly 1500m up to a nose-bloodying 4600m.
As part of our G Adventures tour, we were lucky enough to spend time in 3 fab cities in Bolivia – Potosi, Sucre and La Paz. All very different but all worth a visit for various reasons. Just a short post today, as v tired and prepping for another night bus – this time across Peru from Cusco to Nasca, but here are our final Bolivia highlights:
Salar de Uyuni (or the Salt Flats as we like to call them) are world famous for being very flat and very salty. During our 3 days in this area we were extremely fortunate to see rare animals, join in with a llama-burning ceremony and play football with local Bolivian children who made us look as if our lungs had been forcibly removed prior to kick-off.
We weren’t entirely sure what to expect when joining our G Adventures tour from Buenos Aires through to La Paz. After all, we’d spent 7/8 weeks happily travelling alone, being social when the mood took us and taking time to relax and do not very much when we felt like it. We only had a day to get to know everyone in Buenos Aires before we set off on the first leg of our journey – from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama.