Arriving in Santiago filled us with more happiness than we had ever expected upon reaching this destination on our itinerary. This was of course because we had swerved a 30 hour bus journey and instead arrived in less than two hours by plane from Arica. Absolutely thrilled with our decision we hopped in the airport…
Arica – First stop Chile
Chile was somewhat of an unknown to us. Not knowing many people who have ventured to this part of the world, coupled with the fact that it is often overshadowed by its neighbouring nations (except for the obvious region of Patagonia) meant that we were both intrigued and also slightly sceptical about what to except….
Huacachina – Desert Oasis & Sand Skiing
Huacachina is a desert oasis on the west coast of Peru and raved about by backpackers, so we were intrigued to see what the hype was all about. We got a bus to the city of Ica and then hopped in a taxi which surprisingly arrived in Huacachina just 10 minutes later. It is not…
Mancora
6am in Mancora makes the place seem like a ghost town. The only people visible were a small number of tuk tuk drivers waiting to whisk us and our fellow travellers arriving on the overnight bus away to nearby hostels and hotels. After some debating we jumped in the back of one and were driven…
Guayaquil & our Peruvian entrance
How to get from Qutio to Peru was the biggest challenge we had faced so far on our journey. We had to be in Chile for our flight to Brazil (for the carnival) by January 27th and it was already January 11th. Flights between the two countries are remarkable expensive – the cheapest we found…
Lake Quilotoa
It had been a while since we saw 6am, but surprisingly we were back into the swing of things very quickly. Up, dressed, fed and watered in perfect timing as we arrived downstairs ready for the day we were greeted by our tour guide; Omar. Approximately 15 tourists were aboard the minibus we were ushered…
Baños – The town, not the toilet
Firstly getting to Banos is pretty easy, a popular touristic location there are plenty of buses. In Ecuador buses are very cheap, although the standard is very basic so don’t expect too much. Somewhere between 3 and 4 hours we arrived in Banos and headed to Plantas y Blancas hostel. It was one of the…
Next stop Ecuador…Quito!
Ecuador was under enormous pressure to be incredible, as it took us 3 days and a combination of what felt like endless and useless buses, dodgy hotel rooms and a lack of nutritional food – lunching on Oreos for three days straight is not fun. When we finally arrived at the border we were thrilled…
Colombia’s Last Stand
After three weeks in Colombia it was time for us to make our way to Ecuador and begin our journey south. Standing in our way was a number of long bus journeys, we were not looking forward to the prospect of doing these back to back so we opted for two small stops along the…
NYE in Bogota…quieter than planned!
One of our favourite cities, which was surprisingly calm on NYE…
Secluded Salento – Colombia’s Coffee Region
Leaving Medellin on December 27th with the plan to spend New Years Eve in Bogota we were faced with the decision of where to stop in between Colombia’s two major cities. Having previously had to decide between two places to spend a few days before our time in Medellin we were anxious to make the…
theunchartedworld 