South America

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Day tour of the salt flats

Above:  That’s me, on the salt flats of Uyuni. We had a leisurely breakfast before our 1030 departure for our one-day tour of the salt flats, departing a few doors away. Sharing the vehicle were a very soft-spoken couple from Chicago and two French-speaking Swiss girls. We drove past the airport and beyond and pulled […]

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To the salt flats

We had organised a pickup at 0615 for the airport. The driver was about 5 mins late but rang the hotel to advise of this from five blocks away. I could feel the additional altitude by the time we arrived at the airport at El Alto.  Additionally it was also colder; La Paz nights hadn’t […]

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Exploring El Alto

The plan for the morning was to explore El Alto using the cable cars (gondola). After breakfast we walked to the nearby station for the Red line and went up two stations to El Alto. At 3 Bolivianos (about NZD0.60) per ride, it was a steal. Normally cable cars are tourist traps but here, it […]

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Exploring La Paz

We have two days in La Paz to take it really easy. After a leisurely start, we walked to San Francisco square. It didn’t take much for us to realise that Bolivia is not as developed as Peru. Footpaths are congested and squares are not manicured. This isn’t a criticism but merely a description. If […]

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Crossing into Bolivia

Above: Our bus follows us on a barge across Lake Titicaca while we cross on a boat. Our hosts kindly offered us an earlier breakfast at 0615; they have a maid so it wasn’t like they had to do it themselves. We taxied to the bus station arriving at 0700 for our 0730 departure. All […]

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Uros floating islands

We had an 0845 pickup Due to a misunderstanding, our breakfast wasn’t ready when we turned up. Anyway, it got prepared and we were ready when the taxi pickup arrived. Kim felt a bit breathless today even though we had been at relatively high altitude at Cusco for a while already. We took it easy […]

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World’s highest navigable lake

Today we head from Cusco to Puno by bus. We had breakfast before 0700 and taxied to the Cruz del Sur station just outside of the old city for our 0800 departure. Once boarded, they videoed everyone (a common practice here and also in Mexico). The journey took us to to Juliaca (5+ hour) where […]

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Day in the countryside on ATV

We had arranged for a tour each for today: Maras & Moray by ATV (quad bike) for Kim and the same sites by van for me. His pickup was 0800 and mine 0845. At breakfast around 0730, his pickup arrived. As he wasn’t ready, they offered to return in 10 mins and Kim would wait […]

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A restful day

We had a much needed lazy day, waking up without an alarm. After breakfast, we returned to bed just to read, write and look through photos. We finally left the room after 1100 to do a walking tour of the old city using our guidebook. As it turned out, we had already seen a large […]

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To the historic capital

Above:  From the rooftop of our accommodation. The balcony of the school is evident from the murals painted thereon. I felt a million dollars after a great night sleep; I’m normally a heavy sleeper but recent nights haven’t been like that perhaps due to altitude. In my moment of weakness yesterday, I had arranged for […]

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