Tag: south america

Raiders of Ojo del Albino

25 July 2023 / author

“Can I ask a question?” he said in Spanish (that much I knew, though my traveller’s Spanish is all but gone). “Is this the path to Ojo del Albino?”

I looked at Barcelona. Barcelona looked at me. We both shrugged at the guy we would come to know as France. There were no names on this mission, no background stories. Just three guys from three places, brought together by fate for one purpose – to find the Eye of the Albino.

To the Far East in Bolivia

6 October 2020 / author

Sept 2010: The Milton Farm. A tiny Quaker family in far eastern Bolivia. We’d just finished a hike and had stopped in to buy some fresh yoghurt. Our friendly guide, the young friend of Milton W’s five kids, told them about the yoga poses Yon had done on the hike.

Bolivia: Leaving the Altiplano

11 September 2020 / author

A complete transformation happens to Bolivia when you leave the well-visited altiplano and places like Uyuni and Sucre. The climate and culture are very different. And it’s not crawling with backpackers – in 2010 at least. To feel it, head east…

Bolivian Moonscapes and other strange places

26 February 2020 / author

We raced across the high desert in the morning sun. The salt flats were far behind but the scenery here was almost as bold and extreme: bright blue sky, dry desert, and high volcanos.

Apart from sand and rock and drug smugglers, there were plenty of llamas, vicunas and even flamingos…

Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats

11 September 2019 / author

The Uyuni Salt Flats – largest in the world – were probably Bolivia’s premier tourist attraction when we visited in 2010 (if not today too). And it’s easy to see why. More than 10,500 square kilometers in size, and around 3,600 meters above sea level, they extend south and west from Uyuni nearly as far as Chile. Unless you have the time, money and inclination to sponsor your own expedition, you’re more or less forced to take a tour. Finding the right one is a chore, but at the end of the day, like banana pancakes in Vietnam, it’s a case of “same-same but different”. The best thing to do is just plonk down your Bolivianos, jump in the jeep, and roll out.

Riding the rails from Oruro to Uyuni

25 April 2019 / author

The darkness fell over our bus and the high Bolivian plateau south of La Paz. We’d ground to a halt an hour ago, along with every other truck and bus for two kilometres ahead and four behind, their motionless headlights tracing a smooth arc through the blackness. Suddenly everyone leaped to the left side of the bus, as blinking red lights told us we were about to see what had held us up.

Parque Nacional Lauca in Chile

17 April 2019 / author

“Hola chicos!”

From Horiol’s very first friendly greeting as we opened the gate of his tiny hotel in equally tiny Putre, Chile, we knew we were in for a good time. This was a welcome omen, even more so once we discovered we’d been robbed in the Chilean frontier town of Arica. Boo! But it was our fault – a real beginner’s mistake. And it was just cash, and not too much, and Horiol’s big smile washed away the memory very quickly.

Arequipa and the Colca Canyon

8 April 2019 / author

Arequipa was once a very long drive over a bumpy road from Lima. By 2010, and presumably still today, you could ride a modern road on a comfortable overnight bus with reclining seats, a hot meal served by the cabin crew, movies to watch and breakfast with coffee the next morning. Some might sneer at this level of comfort but we’ve done enough really tough bus rides in our time that we were happy to kick back and enjoy the service.

High up from the dry and sandy desert coast, Arequipa is visually dramatic. Surrounded by conical volcanos and bathed in lovely sunlight streaming from a clear blue sky, it was a welcome change from grey and gritty Lima.

This was good, because we ended up staying a long time…

Adobe Pyramids, the Donkey’s Stomach Ache, and some Really Racy Ceramics

6 March 2019 / author

Religious parade in Chiclayo (photo: Yon)

Peru, 2010. Not as mysterious as it once was. We had the feeling we had missed the boat by about ten years. But every country is interesting in its own time. I would have loved to visit China in 1967, but it was also extremely interesting in 2007, and 2017. So too I hoped that Peru – discovered, modernising, and easy to travel around – would still inspire. We were making two trips. This first one was a quick run down the coast to get to Chile and into Bolivia, trying to avoid peak season. The second, in October 2010, would take us back north through the classic sites like Macchu Picchu and, we thought, the Nazca Lines. So for now, we were the 2 in 20 travellers who have visited Peru and not seen Macchu Picchu. But there was actually more to the country than just that…