Eating Cartagena

The journey to Cartagena from Iquitos was a long and tiring one, so when we woke in our cramped but beautiful hotel room we were very excited to be in Colombia. Cartagena is a major port on Colombia’s Caribbean Coast and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has a beautiful, Spanish colonial walled town and an impressive fortress that was built to defend the city against pirates. We stayed in Getsamani, a small neighbourhood outside of the old walls where back in the pirate day the African slaves used to live, more recently its where prostitutes made their living and today it’s very backpacker friendly!

Border Mission: Peru to Colombia

Iquitos was a very different city once we returned from our trip into the Amazon. It was early afternoon and everybody was in town, the streets were literally buzzing with rickshaws, it was so noisy and almost impossible to cross the road as there was so much traffic. Such a contrast to the serenity we’d just experienced in the jungle! 

Learning To Sandboard

When we first heard about the huge sand dunes in Huacachina we were a little skeptical about them. In Vietnam, we’d visited the pretty but underwhelming dunes at Mui Ne the year before. Fellow backpackers and bloggers assured us that sandboarding in Peru was something we had to try. All buses from Cusco to Lima go via Ica so there was lots of choice on buses, as it was 14 hours overnight we decided to treat ourselves to the 'Cama Total' seats downstairs. 

We Made It To Machu Picchu!

Cusco is the gateway to the incredible mountain top Inca village of Machu Picchu and it would have been a major fail for us if we didn’t at least try and visit. The scenic, adventurous route was no longer an option (see why here) so, we decided to see if a local travel agent could help get us there another way. 

"We made it!"

Cusco - The Centre of the Inca Empire

In total we spent just over two weeks in Bolivia and after a sunny couple of days on Lake Titicaca it was time to board a night bus bound for Cusco in Peru. Copacabana is less than 15 minutes drive from Bolivia’s border with Peru and for the first time in South America we had a supervised border crossing by the hostess on our bus, this meant we were herded like sheep from one immigration office to the next. The Peruvian immigration office looked in need of some renovation but we were very excited to be in Peru. So many travellers had raved to us about Peru and we couldn't wait to explore.

"Welcome to Peru!"

The Other Copacabana

Our final stop in Bolivia was Copacabana, where unlike it’s famous Brazilian namesake this Copacabana sits on the banks of Lake Titicaca, one of the world’s highest lakes at 3,812m ASL. This lakeside town is only a four hour drive north of La Paz and less than 30 minutes from the Bolivia and Peru border making it a popular traveller spot. Our bus ride to Copacabana started in the rather rough Cementario neighbourhood of La Paz with an unpleasant breakfast of bread filled with cheesy, lumpy milk. Note to Sticky: Just because the locals are eating it doesn’t mean you will like it too! 

A Long Weekend In La Paz

La Paz couldn’t be more different in appearances to Sucre, its all chunky grey buildings, noisy traffic and busy people packed tightly into the base and steep sides of its crater like setting. The city is edged with beautiful mountains and sits at an average height of 3,600m ASL making it the highest capital city in the world. Travellers have mixed opinions on La Paz but like any capital its dirty, noisy and smelly so its a love it or hate it kind of place. We approached it with an open mind and were looking forward to somewhere with bustle and hustle.

Happily Stranded In Sucre

We spent just one night In Uyuni recovering from our Salt Flats tour before making the bus journey to Sucre via Potosi. There had been daily protests and road blockades over the past week so we were relieved that we could actually travel. First we took a bus for about four hours to the silver mining town of Potosi which is also the highest town in the world at 4,440m ASL. We would have loved to have stayed and visited the mines here which are notoriously dangerous places to work but as the miners were mid-strike we decided to pass straight through to Sucre in a shared taxi for just 40 BOB (£4) per person.

Touring The Worlds Biggest Salt Flats

We began our adventure to the Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia’s huge salt flat desert in a quaint little town called Tupiza just an hour north of the countries border with Argentina. Walking the streets of Tupiza we felt like we’d been transported back in time to another era, almost all the women were wearing traditional Bolivian dress and they looked fantastic. From head to toe they each wore a small black bowler hat, their long hair braided in two pigtails, a knitted cardigan over a waist length lace blouse, a huge calf length A-line skirt with hoops for essential hip enhancement (to impress the men!), woolly orange tights and open toe sandals. This is the Aymara women’s signature style and they never stray from it.

Photo Credit: Luchalibrabol.com

Horseriding With Gauchos In Salta

Our next destination after wonderful Cafayate was Salta which was a meagre four hour journey north by bus through the Quebrada De Las Conchas (aka. those rocks again). The main reason for heading to Salta was to go whitewater rafting on the Rio Juramento, we’d loved our rafting experience in Bali so much and were very keen to try it again. We even emailed the only agency in town to check it was available and of course they said "yes, no problem" but when we went to the office there was of course 'a problem’ and we couldn’t go.

Exploring Cafayate A Wine Lover’s Paradise

Cafayate is a tiny town famous for producing Torrentes wine and its quite tricky to reach when you’re heading north so not many travellers venture here which made it even more appealing to us. From Mendoza we took an overnight bus of 15 hours to Tucaman and this bus was by far the worst we’d travelled on so far, inside it was very dated and scruffy with no service but it did stop a lot so we were able to grab some food and use a cleaner bathroom along the way. 

Fine Wine & Fabulous Food In Mendoza

We headed to Mendoza full of excitement as its Argentina’s wine capital producing 80% of the countries wine every year. We’d already enjoyed some fantastic Argentinian wines over the past ten days and were eager to learn more about them plus, of course taste them. Steve had organised a very special date with a premium bodega through his previous employer too! Good times guaranteed. Unfortunately our 24 hour bus ride from Puerto Madryn was not a great one due to only Spanish films and no wine but, we did play bingo in Spanish! We didn’t win though and were full of envy when the bingo champ collected his bottle of wine!

The Penguins Of Punto Tombo

We’d read about and heard a rumour that there was a one million strong penguin colony on the central Patagonian coast, and our research showed that they were in town (shore) until the end of March - just like us! We were feeling lucky so caught another long distance night bus to the colder climes of Southern Argentina and the seaside town of Puerto Madryn. For this journey we traveled with Andesmar in the same class as before and though it was alright we’d definitely been spoiled by Rio Uruguay. It was raining very heavily in Buenos Aires so our bus was delayed by a few hours which meant our dinner was served at 1.30am, by this point we thought we weren’t getting anyway so were just glad to get fed.

Big Eats And Cultural Delights In Buenos Aires

Our journey to Buenos Aires involved our first overnight bus journey and although we’d heard that the buses in Argentina were great we were a still a little apprehensive. There was only one bus company for our route but we opted to travel Cama class which meant an almost flat bed and all meals included, we paid 800 ARS (£62)each. Bus travel in Argentina is expensive but to be fair though we were travelling 1,350 kilometres! Once onboard our minds were put at ease, we had huge comfortable seats and within ten minutes we were eating cake and dulce de leche toffees. They even had a couple of films to entertain us so it was just like being on a long haul flight, we slept well and awoke at the massive three storey bus station in Buenos Aires.

Day Tripping At Iguazu Falls

Situated right on the border between Argentina and Brazil Iguazu Falls are a popular stop on the traveller trail in South America. After our crazy week of late nights in Rio De Janeiro for carnival we were definitely in need of a couple of relaxed days in the countryside. We landed in Foz De Iguazu fresh from two short and very comfortable flights on Brazil’s budget airline Azul complete with free snacks and soft drinks - easyjet take note! Our next mission was to cross the border into Argentina and get to the town of Puerto Iguazu where our hostel Residencia Noelia awaited us.

Rio Fabulous Carnival

As luck would have it our arrival in South America was also when carnival explodes nationwide across Brazil so it was a no-brainer for us to make Rio De Janeiro our first stop. We had seven crazy days in one of the most famous party cities in the world. Cariocas (Rio locals) love to party and during carnival the entire city comes alive to host the world biggest street party. Rio Carneval is not just about the Sambodrome where the cities best samba schools parade, every Rio neighbourhood hosts a bloco (or five) over the four day carnival weekend too.