Al and Dee's Travel Blog

Salt Flats, Bolivia

Al — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:37:29 +0000

With sore bums and aching spines we jumped off the bus at Uyuni, gateway to the Salar de Uyuni – the world’s largest salt flat. Except we weren’t actually going there yet.

In a move designed to shake the crowds of tourists who visit the Salar daily, we were first to journey south to the dusty [...]

Potosí, Bolivia

Al — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:24:17 +0000

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 [...]

Huayna Potosi 6088m, Bolivia

Al — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:40:32 +0000

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 [...]

The World’s Most Dangerous Road, Bolivia

Al — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:53:44 +0000

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 [...]

Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

dee — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:58:25 +0000

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 [...]

Inka Trail, Peru

Al — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:26:45 +0000

It was about 5am when the drugs kicked in. “The problem is…”, he said pausing theatrically for breath, “…is you two are just too lovely!” The formalities out of the way, he danced off to hail a passing taxi on the Plaza de Armas clapping all the while to a tune only he could hear. [...]

Colca Canyon, Peru

Al — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:54:38 +0000

Colca Canyon

Our trip to the world’s second deepest canyon began at the rather unreasonable hour of 2am. Our tourist van raced through the night, negotiating the hairpin mountain bends with more optimisim than was strictly required. The words “blind corner” simply don’t feature in the Peruvian dictionary.

The reason for all the rush was [...]

Arequipa, Peru – Oct 09

Al — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:11:51 +0000

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. [...]

Nasca, Peru – Sep 09

Al — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:23:15 +0000

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 [...]

Islas Ballestas, Peru – Sep 09

Al — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:56:03 +0000

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 [...]