South America

The day had started off just like any other. Warm sunshine streamed down into the courtyard of the old colonial building that was my hotel, as I opened my window shutters in the early morning and breathed in the fresh…

Around 6.20 this morning we arrived in our next town, Arequipa, after a 10-11 hour journey on the night bus – my first experience of one. The bus wasn’t too uncomfortable, except unlike on planes you can’t really get up…

Once in the minibus from our campsite after breakfast, we had a comfortable drive through the Sacred Valley where we stopped back in Ollayantaytambo for lunch. We then boarded the Perurail train which would take us on a one and…

At 7am a minibus came and collected us from our hostel for a rocky one and a half hour ride up windy little roads into the mountains to begin our trek. We were hiking the Lares trek as it was the…

My final morning in Cusco was spent walking around the markets in the sunshine, and I bought myself a wooly hat for the trek and a pair of ‘happy pants’, some funky multicoloured stripy baggy trousers. I also bought a nice…

To the sound of pouring rain on the roof I woke up on my first day in Cusco, the continent’s oldest continuously inhabited city and the hub of the South American travel network. Like other travellers, we had come here…

At 7.30am this morning we left our hotel in Puno and at the bus stop boarded a rather luxurious looking coach for the seven hour journey to Cusco. We had a group of allocated seats and as I was first…

The last couple of days have been absolutely amazing and ones I shall remember for the rest of my life. I woke up yesterday with another altitude headache, if you’ve never experienced it before it feels like there’s a lot of…