Al and Dee's Travel Blog

Sited below a mountain known as “the eater of men”, the mind achingly high town of Potosí is a destination not to be missed by any traveler in Bolivia.

Still, the decision on whether to go or not wasn’t easy at all. The conditions within the mines can be euphemistically described as “poor” – the average [...]

Al looked up at the snow capped peak and declared “Well its not going to climb itself, now is it ?!”.

Huayna Potosi stands at a daunting 6088 meters a.s.l.  (or 19973 ft) and we were just going to have to take a crack at it.

The idea came during a particularly festive evening on lake Titicaca [...]

El Camino de la Muerte is 69km long, drops 1.2 km from a staggering height of 4650m above sea level, kills around 300 people a year… and we were going to be riding it on downhill bikes.

The downhill ride is one of the most popular tours around La Paz as was evidenced by the bewildering [...]

It started in a cesspit and ended with an act of unsolicited kindness – our experience of Lake Titicaca was to sum up our impressions of Bolivia and its wonderful people.

Calling Puno on the Peruvian side of the lake a cesspit is perhaps a little strong, but seriously who in their right mind builds a [...]

Arequipa “La Ciudad Blanca” – The White City

One of the most amazing things about Peru is the diverse landscape. Hardly twenty minutes out of Nasca, the Pan American Highway rejoins the Pacific coastline and even the inevitable Jackie Chan re-runs couldn’t keep the eye from being drawn to the scenes out of the bus window. [...]

The enigmatic geoglyphs at Nasca

Click here to see the full photo album.

The Nasca lines are huge figures – geoglyphs – drawn out in the desert sands. We were told a succession of increasingly implausable stories about their origin, but they remain an enigma.

It has to be said from the outset that Nasca is an absolute [...]

The poor man’s Galapagos

After a quick bounce through Lima to pick up our massively overloaded bags from our friendly hostel owner friend Quique, we grabbed a quick eight hour bus to Paracas to visit the Islas Ballestas.

We had intended to stay in Pisco (capital of the region of Pisco, famous for making, you guessed it [...]

The colorful jungle town of Iquitos,Peru

Click here for the Amazon Iquitos Photo Album

Shifting gears from Lima to Iquitos certainly jarred us out of the sense of chilled complacency we’d managed to cultivate in Lima.

The town is a riot of color and noise, literally crawling with the three wheeled motor taxis that form [...]

Quique checking on the meat at the hostel BBQ

Quique and Duckee get up close and personal

Dee contemplates the many, many steps down to the ocean

Lima itself is a sprawling urban jungle of contrasts – run down in parts and opulent in others. There [...]

..and the travels of “Duckee Tutanquacken” the Egyptian Duckee

Taba Heights – Sinai Peninsula – Egypt

Due to a last minute, unscheduled trip back to South Africa for Dee, I decided to take myself off to Taba Height in Egypt (about 200km north of Sharm El Sheik) for some sun, sea, golf and diving.