Imagine WWF wrestling – you know that really weird “fake” wrestling that you see from time to time on TV? Got that good and firm in your mind? Great! OK – now imagine WWF wrestling but done by indigenous Bolivian women (Cholitas) wearing traditional clothing. Yes – this is what I went to see the…
I’ve become a huge fan of “Free walking tours” in each of the major places that I visit. The idea is that the tour itself is free and you pay a “tip” at the end depending on how much you enjoyed the experience. So, given I didn’t really have any plans for Cusco, and I…
Huacachina is a small oasis surrounded by sand dunes and looks pretty amazing, until you realise it is only 5km outside the large city of Ica in southern Peru. If you’ve never seen reasonably large sand dunes and are travelling through Peru – this would definitely be worth a visit (though unfortunately the water in…
The other reason (apart from Kuelap) that Chachapoyas won out over the other towns with archaeological sites was that the Sarcophagi of Karajía really captured my imagination. I’d come across them on the Atlas Obscura website that Charlotte put me onto and I just had to visit another site with “big heads” given I’d done…
Chachapoyas is a long way from anywhere in Peru but, if one looks at it a certain way, it is on the way to Tarapoto where I was headed to do the Vegetarian Cooking and Yoga retreat. I decided to head here (as opposed to Cajamarca or Chiclayo which were my other options) because of some…
After hiking the Ecuadorian Inca Trail, I got the guides to drop me off in Alausí on the way back to Riobamba so I could take the most famous train in Ecuador – La Nariz del Diablo or “Devil’s Nose”. When they were constructing the railway from Quito (capital city) to Guayaquil (most important city)…
One of the things I had been ummming and ahhhing about doing since arriving in Quito was going up the teleférico and climbing Volcán Pichincha. What finally decided me was a) signing up to do the 3-day Ecuadorian Inca Trail hike (I figured some hiking preparation wouldn’t hurt) and b) an invitation from Charlotte. So off we headed…
What is the most obvious thing to do when you’ve spent 1 day at altitude in the last 18 months, haven’t been on a pushbike at all for about 9 years and have never mountain biked? Do a 3-day mountain bike tour of the Ecuadorian altiplano with the Biking Dutchman of course! I came across…
I spent a total of almost 6 days in La Habana but didn’t really get up to very much. These were my highlights. Doing nothing: I spent a lot of time sitting on the balcony of the Casa Particular where I was staying, watching the view and listening to Maroon 5 and The Cat…
The other day trip that I decided to do while in Trinidad, Cuba was the steam train out to the Valle de Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills), apparently alternatively known as “The Tourist Train”. Cuba was the world’s biggest producer of sugar in the late 18th and 19th century and this valley housed nearly…