South America

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Day at Machu Picchu

Despite my tummy condition, I had an uninterrupted night sleep which gave me good confidence for the day at Machu Picchu. We left the hotel around 0515 amidst sound of explosions (they were fireworks we were told). It was a 20 min walk to the railway station where we waited briefly before boarding Peru Rail’s […]

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Getting to Sacred Valley

With an 0840 flight departure to Cusco, we left the hotel around 0600 by taxi summoned from the square. At the airport, we were third in the queue and we’d be far too early. Then the power went off and check-in was limited to two counters which had backup power. Then they started taking people […]

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Back down to a lower altitude for a night

We had a lazy morning cafe-crawling in Chivay after checking out from our accommodation at 1000. First a leisurely coffee while sorting photos and writing my travel journal. Then a walk around town before lunch. We returned to our hotel before 1300 to wait for our pickup which had been scheduled for 1330 to 1400. […]

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The soaring condors

We both woke around 0030 feeling like we’ve had a good night sleep. Unfortunately we only slept very lightly from then on until the alarm rang at 0545. We grabbed breakfast at 0600 and waited for the 0630 pickup. They didn’t turn up till 0645 and we were slightly concerned as being on a non-standard […]

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Into the Colca Canyon

Today begins our trip to Colca Canyon for 2 nights. We were picked up by a bubbly guide Myra at 0845; a very civilised time as day trippers and some overnighters depart at 0300. We called at a touristy shop near the airport to pickup some coca leaves for the altitude. As we already had […]

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Monastery with a twist

I got my act together to research the schedules for our trip to Colca Canyon. The schedule for the times we required were very limited and would definitely require us taking a bus to the station to secure seats ASAP. We would need to book the 4 legs (to Chivay then to Cruz de Condor […]

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Exploring Arequipa

Despite the late night sleep, we woke relatively early with the sun streaming in through the thin curtains. We had breakfast at the hostel before heading out around 1000 for a brief exploration, dropping off laundry and changing money. We spent a bit of time around Plaza de Armas before taking a tour of the […]

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Flying over the Nazca Lines

Above:  Whale at Nazca; upper central part of the photo.  Today we were booked to do a flight over the Nazca lines. Kim woke up feeling very lethargic. He also had stomach pains through the night too and soon enough he was having the runs. As we share all our meals, we expected that it […]

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Short easy day

We took a taxi from Huacachina to Ica where we caught the Soyuz bus to Nazca. The bus leaves every 20 minutes. The 2.5h ride felt quite long and cramped with about 60 long-distance seats crammed into the bus. It would have been more comfy with thin commuter/suburban seats as there would be space between […]

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Riding the gigantic dunes

We had set the alarm for 0715 to allow plenty of time to get to the bus station. It took an hour to get to near that area yesterday but today being Sunday should be easier. We took a taxi around 0810 and made it in time for the 0830 bus. We had booked for […]

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