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Quito, Galápagos & Cuyabeno

Quito, Ecuador

We arrived in Quito in the early afternoon and had about two and a half days of time before we were going to head to the Galápagos. We spent the afternoon mostly lazily wandering around a park, the artisanal market and getting some hot chocolate. We knew that Ecuador produces some of the highest quality chocolate, and we were determined to find some of it whilst here. 

The following morning we joined a small walking tour around Quito, which was both educational and fun. We walked through the central market with its stalls filled with fruit, herbs and spices, and various daily life items. We learned about the Ecuadorian solstice celebrations and some of its history. We tasted some delicious chocolate and tried Pajaro Azul (little blue candies filled with some pretty strong liquor). Finally the tour finished by walking through the historical centre. We followed it up by visiting the famous Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus, also known as the golden church. As the name suggests, it was completely covered in gold, and displayed some very impressive craftsmanship. We finished the day by doing a tasting tour at Pacari, a high quality chocolate shop, where we stocked up on some incredibly addictive chocolate.

The next day we decided to take the TelefériQo, a gondola running from Quito city up to a side of the Pichincha volcano. We got slightly unlucky with the weather and unfortunately the view was mostly fog, but we still walked around a little. We decided not to do the entire hike to Rucu Pichincha, as it looked like it might start raining at any point, and that was the right decision. 

Instead, we took a taxi to Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Word) and visited the Intinan Equator Museum and also the monument dedicated to the Equator. Hilariously, both of these sites feature a line which is meant to represent the Equator and divide the north from south, despite the fact that neither one of them is located exactly at the Equator. The scientific experiments at the museum were questionable (or outright untrue) and Ciudad Mitad del Mundo felt extremely touristy and strangely artificial, but we still found the museum entertaining and enjoyed seeing the monument.

After enjoying Quito for a few days we headed back to the airport to fly to the Galápagos. I could barely contain my excitement – Galapágos is one of the places I saw in documentaries, but I never thought I’d be able to visit. And it was becoming real now! 

Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador

We landed at Seymour Airport in the early afternoon. As we stepped off the plane and walked towards the arrivals hall, we immediately spotted a fairly large yellow-ish marine iguana next to us, and I squeaked in glee. Galapágos was going to be amazing! I absolutely love animals, and Galapágos was heaving with them!

Getting from the airport to Puerto Ayora (the main town on Santa Cruz, and also the place where we were going to stay for a night) took a while, and I mostly amused myself by watching the various road signs, which nearly exclusively related to iguanas and tortoises crossings instead of speed limits and intersections. 

The temperature in the Galápagos was a lot more agreeable than anywhere else we’ve been so far, and for most of the time fluctuated between 18-25 degrees. Most days had some clouds either in the mornings or evenings, but it would usually be sunny during middays and early afternoons. It was often breezy, so despite the humidity, it almost never felt horrible and sticky. There were occasionally very sudden, brief, intense showers. The first of them happened as we walked into our hostel, and it was over by the time we finished checking in and wanted to go get some food. 

We didn’t plan to do too much on our first day, we figured we’d just go for a walk along the coast. We were slightly surprised to learn there wasn’t much of a coastside promenade, which was a little disappointing. However, the boat pier made up for it, and we visited it multiple times this day. Why? Well, it was full of sea lions and birds, mostly pelicans. Most of the sea lions were lazily basking in the sun and sleeping. A few of the awake ones were shuffling alongside the boat platform, making the funniest of noises, and jumping in and out of water. They were very cute, and also very smelly. We didn’t know it yet, but sea lions were an unavoidable part of the Galapágos, and we would spend loads of time watching these creatures that were hilariously clumsy on land, and surprisingly fast, agile, graceful and playful in the sea.

Whilst we were observing the sea lions, I caught a glimpse of a dark shadow in the water. At first I thought it was a fish, or maybe another small sea lion, but I quickly came to realize it was actually a shark! A small baby black tip reef shark just swam past us! I couldn’t believe our luck, seeing a shark on our first day, right off the pier. Imagine my utter surprise, when later that evening on the same pier I saw tens of them. They were all small, kept to one specific part of the pier, and swam around as if it was the most normal, everyday thing. And it turned out that that’s exactly what it was. I loved the pier and went to visit it every evening whilst we were at Santa Cruz. We walked around the town and saw loads more sea lions, birds, small marine iguanas, lava lizards and crabs. As the cherry on top, more unusually than baby back tips, I also spotted a lone ray swimming next to the pier on the first night. I was truly in heaven here.

On day two our main objective was moving onto the next island, San Cristóbal. We were planning to return to and spend more time on Santa Cruz towards the end of our trip. The ferry was at 2pm, and since we needed to check out at 10am, we had a few hours to kill. We wandered to the Charles Darwin Research Station, and afterwards went to see the giant tortoises that are kept in a centre right next to it. It was the first of our multiple encounters with the most famous inhabitant of Galapágos (the one the islands get their name from), and we both loved it. We spent a good chunk of time watching these gentle giants slowly walk around, eat, drink and sometimes curiously look at us. They were incredible, and every time one of them extended their neck and looked directly in my eyes, I couldn’t stop thinking they looked an awful lot like E.T. I didn’t want to leave, it was almost like I was scared I might not see them again. But the ferry time drew closer, and finally I did find myself back at the pier, watching the sea lions again.

San Cristóbal, Galápagos, Ecuador

The ferry ride was rough. I was mostly annoyed by constantly being thrown around like a rag doll, but Nathan’s motion sickness made for a much worse experience. I could tell that he’s spending all of his energy on trying not to be sick, and I honestly felt a bit worried about him. We were both happy when the two hours were over without any incidents.

San Cristóbal was a lot more like what we expected, with a nice long walk along the coast. There were also multiple large areas fenced off for sea lions, which got especially full of them at night. The areas smelled a lot like sea lions (kind of like a wet dog) but they also provided nearly infinite entertainment. It was fascinating to watch them, and the symphony of barking, groaning, growling, honking and roaring was genuinely hilarious to listen to.

We decided to spend our first full day at San Cristóbal by walking around to various beaches and snorkeling. The beaches were very beautiful, and we spent some time just feeling the sand between our toes, and watching the waves. We finally visited Muelle Tijeretas, a famous snorkeling spot. This was the first time Nathan and I snorkeled together and we both found it challenging for different reasons – whilst Nathan doesn’t really love water and anything connected to it, I thought it was very cold and by the end of it came out shaking. We both enjoyed the experience though, Nathan actually seemed quite relaxed, and I managed to warm up in the sun afterwards, so it all worked out! We saw a few colorful fish and I was genuinely surprised by the numerous parrot fish swimming around. There were a few playful sea lions, and even a marine iguana swimming in the distance.

Feeling freezing cold became a theme every time I was in the water – snorkeling or diving, wetsuit(s) or not. I just loved marine life more than I hated the cold. And I really, really hate the cold. It was still worth it. 

The following day was my first big diving day. Kicker Rock! Everyone I spoke to absolutely raved about it, so I was very excited, despite the somewhat horrifying price tag. I layered up multiple wetsuits, and put on loads of weight to compensate. However, once we got into the water, none of it mattered. We did a mini test dive just before Kicker Rock, and within one minute I already spotted a stingray and concluded that that’s what I care about and want to focus on.

The marine life at Kicker Rock was incredible. Whilst I didn’t think this was the most colorful dive with pretty little fishes and corals everywhere, there were a few larger schools of fish around. But the beauty here was the larger marine life. We saw countless turtles swimming about. There were beautiful manta rays, being as graceful and nonchalant as always. We spotted a few white and black tip sharks in the distance. And most importantly – oh, so many hammerheads! Finally! These creatures have eluded me at every opportunity until now, and I’ve been hoping to dive with them for so many years now. I could hardly believe it’s finally happening. I was so mesmerized I even forgot I was cold for a while. They were just so magnificent, and seeing them in person was every bit as magical as I always imagined it would be.

Nathan and I visited Kicker Rock again a day later as part of a 360 tour. 360 was a boat tour around the whole of San Cristóbal. It started by snorkeling in a small lagoon called Rosa Blanca. The water there was somewhat murky, but we still saw quite a few turtles and even a few white tip reef sharks. 

When we reached Punta Pitt, we stayed in the boat and watched the birds. Their numbers were incredible, from a distance they almost seemed like thousands and thousands of bats. There were many species, most interestingly the blue and red footed boobies. Unfortunately, it was quite far and it was really hard to see them well. Not to mention that the stationary boat bobbing up and down basically made Nathan feel like he was going to be sick, so he couldn’t wait for us to get moving again. When we did we sailed to Bahía Sardina.

On our way to the beach we saw dolphins. And I don’t mean we saw two or three briefly – I mean an absolutely giant pod, easily 200+ strong, swimming alongside our boat, and jumping all around. We all really wanted to get in the water, but unfortunately there are strict rules about where this is and isn’t allowed in the Galápagos. Instead our captain circled around, making waves, which the dolphins absolutely loved and kept playing with. Prior to this I’ve only ever seen dolphins once or twice in my life, and it was always a very brief, far away encounter – I didn’t even know the pods could get this big. Both Nathan and I absolutely adored them, and we agreed this was a truly unique experience.

As we arrived at the beach, there were multiple very large black tip reef sharks swimming around our boat, but unfortunately they didn’t linger once they realized we’re there to stay. I have to admit I found myself ever so slightly scared when thinking of jumping in to snorkel with them, as irrational as it is given I have no issue diving with them. I find diving a lot less intimidating, perhaps because I have complete freedom of movement when doing so and it feels like we’re both on the same “level”.

We had a tasty lunch on the boat, and then a chance to spend some time in whatever way we wanted near the beach. A few people took a nap on the boat and a few went snorkeling. Nathan jumped at the opportunity to stand on solid ground again, and took a walk along the beach. I split my time between snorkeling and walking with him. The sun was out, and it was a lovely day for both. There were loads of turtles and fish swimming around.

The ultimate stop was Kicker Rock. On our way there, we passed Cerro Brujo (Witch’s Hill) and saw its interesting rock formations and many birds again. Once we got to Kicker Rock, it became quite obvious that this was not a calm water day, and it was going to be a challenging snorkel. That was bad news for someone like Nathan, and therefore by extension that worried me too. The apprehension on his face was more than obvious, but reluctantly he did jump in!

From this point on, our account of the experience diverges wildly. If you ask me, this was the most amazing place to snorkel ever. I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a hammerhead along with one of our guides. We saw an insane amount of turtles (even more than I saw diving), at some point I could count more than 10 of them next to me at the same time. And for a few beautiful minutes a school of eagle rays swam right under and next to us. I couldn’t believe we could see them so close whilst snorkeling! Incredible! I wished I could dive in instead and follow them into the deep, but it was still a magical moment.

Nathan’s description of snorkeling at Kicker Rock was “this was like my worst nightmare and I expected to be blown away and stranded in the open sea”. He did later admit the turtles were amazing, but unfortunately it turned out he was too busy surviving to see the eagle rays. I felt a little sad that this wasn’t a moment we shared, and knowing that whilst water (and marine life) will remain my passion, an experience like this will continue being a cause of primal fear for him.

After the 360 tour, I’ve decided to join a tour to Española island the day after. Nathan gave this one a pass, as it included a very long boat ride which he just about had enough of, and was happy to just spend his day going for a run and then relaxing after.

It took slightly over two hours to get to Española. Once we arrived, we took a walk around the island. We watched various birds from up close. I especially loved the waved albatrosses and the blue footed boobies everywhere around us. We spotted a Galapágos hawk in the distance too.

Española wasn’t just famous for birds, it also has a very large population of very uniquely colored iguanas. Unlike most iguanas that are simply soot black, the iguanas here have a reddish pattern, and they turn bright green, blue and red around Christmas, which is why they are often called Christmas iguanas. There were many of them, big and small, basking on the lava rocks. It looked like they all came for a big meeting to discuss something mighty important. And the lava lizards on this island were something to behold too, they ran around in abundance and were some of the largest ones among all.

In the afternoon, half of the tour went snorkeling and the other one diving – I was obviously in the second group, as I’ll take any chance I can get to dive. It was nice, but not nearly as exciting as Kicker Rock. We saw lots of fishes, turtles, ventured into a short cave (which made me feel slightly claustrophobic, I don’t really like diving in caves, wrecks and other crevices). We spent a lot of time playing with the curious sea lions since many of them swam around us the entire time. I wrapped myself into a big towel afterwards, and dozed off as we went back to San Cristóbal.

After all the tours and activities in the previous days, we decided to have a lazy morning and spend the afternoon taking a slow walk to La Lobería beach, sitting there, enjoying the nice weather and watching birds and sea lions. The evening was also lazy, and we walked to Playa Punta Carola to watch the sunset. We finished the day by enjoying some poke and cocktails at dinner.

For our final day at San Cristóbal, we hired a taxi to take us on a highlands tour, a common itinerary which includes visiting the only sweetwater lake El Junco, the tortoise reserve La Galapaguera, and finally a beautiful beach Puerto Chino with its crystalline blue water and white sands. We timed it such that we would arrive at La Galapaguera during feeding time, and therefore could enjoy watching the tortoises go crazy (as much as a tortoise does) for all the elephant’s ear leaves around them. Unlike on Santa Cruz where the tortoises are kept away from people by waist height stone walls, in La Galapaguera the tortoises roamed free and could wander onto the visitor trail. Many of them did so – in fact a small group of them kind of charged at us, probably assuming we have more leaves (which we didn’t). La Galapaguera was a lovely way to see these beautiful animals again.

Once our highlands tour finished, we took the ferry back to Santa Cruz. I decided to buy Nathan some motion sickness medication and convinced him to take them, which made the journey a little more pleasant. I’ve even caught him sleeping for a while, something I’ve never seen happen in a moving vehicle before. The flipside was that it made him feel very drowsy for the rest of the afternoon, so we took it easy and watched some TV, had a nice dinner and went to bed early that evening. 

Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador

We planned to spend the rest of our remaining time on Santa Cruz, as the ferries have been a very exhausting experience. We chose another day at the beach, this time at Tortuga Bay. This turned out to be our favorite beach in all of Galapágos – the long-ish walk to it was really nice and led through a forest, and then another beautiful beach. Once we arrived, we realized that there was actually some shade thanks to the mangrove trees, a welcome change from every other beach. At this point, despite our best efforts with the sunscreen, we were both sporting various sunburnt areas (mainly from snorkeling), and therefore really appreciated the shade.

We rented a kayak and paddled around the bay. We briefly spotted a small shark, and at one point a large turtle swam right under us. Truthfully, I was hoping for slightly more wildlife encounters, but regardless it was still a very relaxing and peaceful activity. 

I also realized that the water in the bay was actually significantly warmer than anywhere else. I decided to take this unusual opportunity and get in. I was finally able to enjoy a nice, long swim without feeling freezing cold, and that made me very happy. I love swimming! 

I was planning to do some more diving, and dedicated the next day to this. I went to Gordon Rocks. Similar to Kicker Rock, this was an incredible spot. The conditions were slightly harsher, there was much more of a drift and the dive was a lot deeper. However, we saw turtles, a few white tips and hammerheads on our first dive already.

Once we surfaced and waited between our dives, we also got somewhat lucky and noticed a giant fin next to our boat. At first we thought it was a shark, but quickly we came to realize it was the wrong shape. Instead, it was a massive sunfish! Yet again this was a moment when everyone wanted to jump right in, but we were told not to. Such a rare opportunity, just passing us by! We watched the fin get further and further away from the boat, with a bitter feeling of longing, and hoping we would see it again on the next dive. We didn’t. Such is life. 

Our second dive was even better than the first one, and we saw large schools of hammerheads and golden rays – at some point both at the same time. I couldn’t decide which way to look, it was overwhelming in the most positive way possible. It’s easy to say I left Gordon Rocks feeling very happy that day.

With our remaining time on Santa Cruz we hoped to book one more tour (they were fun and interesting, but oh so expensive). There was still one more Galapágos inhabitant I wanted to meet, the Galápagos Penguin. Because of this, we considered Bartolomé and Isabela. Bartolomé sounded fun, but was prohibitively expensive, and chances of seeing penguins were actually higher on Isabela. But Nathan was quite reluctant about the choice of Isabela, the ferry journey was notoriously one of the roughest. We also realized that a day tour to Isabela would cost us more than simply going there, staying for the two nights, and doing all the activities there ourselves. After some thinking (and possibly some puppy eyes from me too) he agreed to changing our plans and staying on Isabela instead. 

Isabela, Galápagos, Ecuador

We took an early ferry to Isabela, with Nathan being very thankful for the motion sickness medication. We thought we’d have a fairly lazy day, but we actually managed to pack in loads!

We visited the flamingo lagoon first. Whilst there were only a few flamingos, they were quite close to us, and it was really fun to watch them dig their curved beaks into the bottom of the lagoon, and look for little crustaceans.

Once we felt we spent a sufficient amount of time with the flamingos we rented bicycles. We cycled to El Muro de las Lágrimas (Wall of Tears), the stark reminder of Galapágos’s dark past as a penal colony. The cycling path led alongside a long beach, many mangroves, and a forest. There were loads of huge marine iguanas on the path.

The main highlight, however, was Camino de las Tortugas – yet another area where giant tortoises roamed completely free. At first I was worried we wouldn’t see any, but that was a very irrational fear. There were loads of them, some directly next to the path, some a little walk away. By the end we didn’t even take pictures anymore, we just enjoyed slowly cycling past, observing them observing us.

The next day we had a bit of free time in the morning. We went snorkeling at Concha de Perla, a small protected lagoon near where we lived. Even Nathan found this quite relaxing. Later we strolled to the flamingo lagoon again since it was really close and we wondered if there may be more flamingos today – there weren’t. We followed it up by going to a little viewpoint at the beach. We didn’t think it was going to be spectacular in any way, but we were slightly killing time until our tour to Tintoreras island. To our surprise, this was the perfect spot to watch blue footed boobies. There were loads of them just below us, and more and more kept flying in. Since Nathan skipped the Española tour, this was the first time he’s seen them up close, which made him very happy.

The tour to Tintoreras started with some snorkeling. As usual we saw many turtles, a few white tip sharks, a very playful sea lion, and even a stingray. After our snorkel we took a walk on the island. The highlight was seeing seven or eight white tip sharks sleeping in a little cove we walked past. The island was full of marine iguanas and crabs too. However, the truly best part of the tour was in the end. We sailed by loads of blue footed boobies, followed by a small colony of penguins. We spent some time watching these cute birds from our boat. The Galapágos Penguins are the second smallest species of penguin on Earth, so I felt very fortunate to only be a few meters away from them. Taking pictures on a bobbing boat was still a challenge though.

Our ultimate day on the Galápagos was quite scattered – we had to take a ferry back from Isabela to Santa Cruz, then had a few hours to kill. After some food, we even did a bit of souvenir shopping. We then walked back to the tortoise centre one last time to say goodbye. Finally, we took a taxi, a boat and a bus back to the airport. 

Leaving Galápagos was bittersweet. It’s been the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to, why were we leaving? When people discovered Galapágos they called it Enchanted Islands and I wholeheartedly agree. But I also felt strangely content. We have seen and done so much here. I felt we made the most of our time in this magical place. And I would love to return one day. 

Quito, Ecuador

Our time back in Quito was brief and lazy. When we arrived we had dinner in the most incredible vegan restaurant near our hostel. After a long sleep, we went to get our clothes washed (which always brings a surprising amount of joy when traveling) and visited the Museum of the City. And then we patiently waited for a night bus to Cuyabeno, conveniently leaving from our hostel. 

The night bus ride was long and bumpy. We both got moderate amounts of interrupted sleep. We arrived at a bridge from which we were going to be picked up by a boat. We used the brief bit of time before our guide arrived to brush our teeth and change our clothes. And then we met our guide for the next few days, Victor. 

Cuyabeno, Ecuador

Victor gave us a brief introduction to Cuyabeno, a rainforest reserve in Ecuadorian’s Amazon. He then ushered us into a long but narrow motor boat. He strongly advised us not to wear sneakers, but opt for flip-flops or sandals. We were given a large, sturdy, rubber poncho and told that it would be our best friend for the next few days, and we were not to leave the lodge without it. And Victor knew what he was talking about.

The boat ride to the eco lodge we were staying at took about two hours. It started really well, Victor pointed out a few birds to us, and looked out for wildlife around us. It was astounding how he was able to spot the smallest monkeys from very far away, I could barely even see them. The ride was refreshing after the long bus, and exciting too. 

About half an hour in, the rain started. We all put on our big ponchos. The more time passed, the less wildlife we saw, and the more we all tried to curl up into a big ball. It turns out the rainforest is a well deserved name. It became really clear why sneakers were the wrong footwear – our feet were not only completely soaked, but actually submerged in a layer of water, and our boat driver occasionally had to throw the water out with a small bucket.

Once we arrived at the Dolphin Lodge, we had an incredible lunch. Ecuador loves soup as a starter for lunch, and I just can’t agree with this approach to lunch more. In this instance we had the most unusual popcorn soup. It was delicious. The food at our lodge was consistently amazing throughout the rest of our trip.

The lodge definitely felt like a jungle lodge. There was no phone signal and a “no WiFi” sign next to the kitchen. We were officially offline. There were also no power sockets in our rooms, just a single charging station by the kitchen which you could use during the day. The power and lights went out at ten every evening, and most people would just go to sleep. Our phones have quickly turned into a simple camera. And occasionally a flashlight. It was refreshing to actually have conversations with people where they paid attention and didn’t get distracted. We spent our free time talking and playing board games. And I loved it.

After lunch we had a bit of time to wind down. I went to the deck by the river, lied in a hammock, and hoped I’d see some of the pink river dolphins the lodge is named after. They either didn’t come, or I missed them when I dozed off whilst watching little butterflies land on my toes. Either way, I felt very relaxed. 

We were told that the space behind the lodge’s kitchen was apparently a home to a medium sized caiman. We went to have a look, but couldn’t see anything. And just as we were about to walk away, I noticed it swimming towards us from behind a tree! It was about 1.5m long. It came very close to the boardwalk which we stood on (sufficiently far suspended). I couldn’t believe that it just lives there, right by us. It seemed very dinosaur-like, and had very sinister looking eyes. It moved slowly, as if conserving its energy.

In the evening we took the boat to Laguna Grande. On our way we passed by some distant wooly monkeys. They have a relatively small frame but are very hairy, giving a much larger impression, with a very fluffy tail. Right next to the laguna’s edge we spotted a few river dolphins for the first time. The river was dark and murky, it gets its color from the many tree leaves. The river dolphins don’t jump, they just come up to breathe. The opportunity to see them is therefore brief, and often not very clear. It was still a very exciting experience though. 

Laguna Grande was an opportunity to go for a swim. The water here was reasonably warm, and had the same dark color as the river. We were promised there were no piranhas or caimans here. A few of us jumped in for a brief swim. I was happy I did as this turned out to be the warmest day we’d have. We were meant to watch the sunset, but instead the rain started again. We all knew the drill and put on our ponchos. On the way back Victor used his flashlight to spot nocturnal animals. We only saw one, a small but cute boa in one of the trees.

We had dinner, played a few games, and all headed to bed before ten. The lights actually went out slightly earlier, which caused a small panic because we weren’t quite ready and didn’t know where anything was – but we managed to find one of our phones for a flashlight. The next few days, we were better prepared. We fell asleep to the sounds of the rain, just like most nights in here. 

The mornings started early at the lodge, with breakfast at half past seven. Once fed, we were all given a big pair of rubber boots. Our group of five and Victor then rowed a canoe alongside the bank of the river. As usual it started raining again about halfway through. Once we reached our destination, we were going to walk back through the jungle. We quickly found out that if you lose sight of the group, it’s nearly impossible to find them again if they don’t call out to you. The jungle is dense!

The big rubber boots provided a lot of comfort as we were wading through all the mud and water. Or at least at the beginning they did. Unfortunately, what we didn’t know was that there would definitely come a time where the water would go above our knees. This happened at a slightly different time for everyone, but no one was spared. Nathan was already not a huge fan of the constant rain, but having boots full of water definitely made him even less happy. At first I felt the same way, but over time I decided to just embrace this. It wasn’t really cold, so it didn’t matter that we were all soaked. In fact I felt like I rediscovered the child in me, and it kind of made me laugh, and enjoy the rain and mud again.

In the afternoon we spent some time making chocolate together. In my life I went to various chocolate making workshops, but this was the first time I actually saw and participated in the full process, from roasting the beans, taking them out of the shell, grinding them, and heating them up into a paste. It smelled delicious. We ate the warm chocolate with bananas, and kept a bit of the cocoa powder for a cup of hot chocolate later.

In the evening we went back to Laguna Grande to watch the sunset. Nathan and I had a running joke about this already, and indeed there was no sunset to watch. Once it was dark, we went for a short night time walk through the jungle. We saw various spiders and a few small frogs. We all really liked watching leafcutter ants. But perhaps surprisingly the most interesting thing ended up being a cordyceps we saw growing inside a bug. Nathan and I have been obsessed with Last of Us (both game and series) for a while now, and we both thought this was just the coolest and creepiest thing at the same time.

 

The next day we were going to visit a small local Siona community living close to the lodge. Whilst we were waiting for our boat, we watched a snake trying to devour a frog right on the pier.

The boat ride to the community wasn’t too rainy. We walked around the village a little, and saw a few of the buildings and also animals – a very playful puppy, lots of small baby chickens, a few parrots and most importantly Pepa. Pepa was a capybara! It was very friendly, and extremely interested in grass. It looked like a ginormous guinea pig, and was very sweet.

We spent a bit of time with the local shaman. He shared a drink with us – alcohol made of tree bark, which tasted somewhat similar to whiskey. We also smelled something similar to perfume – I have to admit I forgot what healing properties this had already. He also showed us the drink used for ayahuasca rituals, and spoke to us about them. However, the best was yet to come. He asked if anyone in the group had any ailments – the shaman was going to help by using one of the local plants. We were warned it would temporarily cause a rash. To my surprise, after a moment of silence, Nathan volunteered his shoulder/neck pain. He was told to take off his shirt. I can only describe what followed as the shaman smacking his back and neck with a tropical nettle. The result was certainly a rash – his whole back was covered in it! This was obviously quite hilarious from my perspective. We all had a chance to try this nettle on our hand afterwards, and honestly it was kind of painful. I still wonder if Nathan would have volunteered had he tried it first. I instead chose to participate in a cleansing ritual, a much more pleasant and meditative few minutes.

Once we left the shaman, we were entrusted to one of the girls from the community. She was going to show us how to make casaba, a type of yuca flatbread. We watched her harvest the yuca. I never realized it was basically a small tree, with a giant potato-like root. She then planted a few branches back, and told us it would grow back in a few months. With her help, we peeled the yuca, cleaned it, grated it, dried it, and finally made the flatbread, which we had for lunch. It was quite a satisfying process. In the meanwhile, Victor used some achiote red paint to paint our faces with the tribal symbols. I was a bit worried the rain would make the paint run everywhere later, but luckily the weather stayed mostly good when we were outside for the rest of the day. On our way back, we saw a sloth in one of the far away canopies.

In the evening we went to Laguna Grande again. And again there was no sunset. However, on our way back we did see a cute baby caiman quite close to us, and its mama and siblings were a bit further in the mangroves too. We couldn’t see them well, but their eyes eerily reflected red at us, and we knew they were watching us too. In addition, we also saw another small boa wrapped around the tree. How Victor spotted these tiny snakes was really beyond me.

For the most part, it felt like we didn’t get very lucky with the weather until this point. It was nearly always raining, and it even got colder and colder (which unlike the rain was not common). The constant rain made it very hard to spot any animals as they were mostly hiding too. However, our last day definitely improved. 

We went for an early bird watching session before breakfast. Our boat driver spotted a tiny, beautiful, orange boa. We got really lucky with the river dolphins too, and saw about three or four of them very close as they kept swimming around our boat. Everyone went quiet, and watched them come up for air with awe, it was almost like a religious experience. Victor also pointed a woodpecker, macaw and a sloth in the distance (as in binoculars needed kind of distance).

Most people from our group left after the bird watching session, but Nathan and I still had one more night here. And I was glad we did, the weather finally turned a little bit better! We spent the day canoeing to Laguna Canangueno with a new guide. This sounded great when we were booking the trip, we both like activities like this, it’s very peaceful and relaxing. I was a bit worried the rain would make it miserable, but luckily it barely rained at all. 

On our way we saw a group of cute little squirrel monkeys in a tree right next to us and above us. They were very close – in fact when one of them started peeing, it didn’t miss us by too much 😀 And just when we were about to go, we also saw a group of wooly monkeys a bit further away too. Later on we also spotted some howler monkeys. Up until now, we could only hear them, so this was a welcome encounter. I was very happy we were finally seeing some wildlife, especially the squirrel monkey.

After a few hours the canoeing definitely got quite tiring. The paddles we were given were big, wooden things. And they were heavy. And after spending multiple hours sitting on the tiny, wooden seats, we could both feel our backs too. The last stretch to getting home was a struggle, and I think it’s fair to say that our guide was an absolute powerhouse and did most of the work at this point. We were both thankful for that, and quietly complained to each other about our pains. 

In the evening, I joined a different group at Laguna Grande again. Nathan took a different approach and went for a nap instead. Yet again there was no sunset, but we saw another caiman before returning back, so I was satisfied with my choice. 

On our final morning, the weather looked good again. I was a little sad we were leaving now – it felt like this was going to be another good day, and there was still so much to see. Nathan, however, was more than ready. Neither one of us was going to miss the rain and general humidity. The other thing we could both agree on was that we visited Cuyabeno and Galapágos in the wrong order – coming from a nice, warm place where we were basically tripping over animals to somewhere cold, rainy where you needed binoculars to see anything in the distant canopies was just a bit too jarring.

We took a boat back to the bridge. Along the way there were a few monkeys in the distance, and even a beautiful anaconda on a tree branch. At least the boat ride was fun.

Now the bad part – unfortunately a few days prior, there was a pretty serious landslide somewhere between Cuyabeno and Quito. It completely destroyed the road we were meant to be taking back, so our twelve hour bus journey was rerouted and turned into sixteen. Both Nathan and I absolutely hated the idea of this journey. The silver lining was that the new route was going through Baños de Agua Santa, a town we were thinking about visiting later anyway. In fact, the route to Baños took about as long as the route to Quito would have. This made for an easy decision, and we decided to get off the bus early, and spend a few days in Baños instead. 

Peru

Cusco, Peru

My first real stop after leaving Bolivia and arriving in Peru was Cusco which I mostly saw as the base for visiting Machu Picchu. And I was going to do just that, and more than once. My friend Maťo and I booked the five night Salkantay trek together a few months ago, and we were meeting up here. And once our trek was done, I was also meeting Nathan in Cusco.

As I mentioned in my last post, my journey from Copacabana involved multiple long bus rides. Whilst the night bus I took was genuinely excellent, I still got very little to no sleep, which I ended up compensating for by falling asleep on the reception sofa in the very early morning. By the time Maťo arrived at the hotel a few hours later, I was curled up in a ball, wrapped in both a blanket and my puffy jacket, and basically unresponsive. I didn’t even wake up. Once we were able to go to our room, we both just crashed for multiple hours. We only properly said hi and started chatting later that day.

We planned to take two days in Cusco to acclimatise to the altitude – Cusco itself is at 3400m and the trek we were about to do peaked at slightly above 4600m above sea level. Two days gave us enough time to wander around the city, try a few nice restaurants and visit the Cusco market.

Oh, and I coincidentally bumped into Tian (my Uyuni friend) again in the vegan restaurant in the Cusco market! The backpacking world can be so big and so small at the same time.

Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu, Peru

When it finally came to leaving Cusco and starting the trek we were both buzzing. The beginning included a drive on progressively worse and worse roads, and Maťo’s slightly terrified reactions made me realize how much I got used to narrow dirt roads on the edge of cliffs in the last few weeks (thanks Bolivia). We didn’t actually get to hike that day (apart from a short walk to our accomodation needed due to a recent landslide… of which we’d see so, so many during the next few days).

We stayed in glass cabañas, which was a fancy way of saying a cold shack with a glass roof, where you still need a sleeping bag. However, we had a beautiful view of a snowy mountain, and the area was full of daisies, so I really couldn’t complain. We were also pleasantly surprised by a very nice dinner and later on breakfast. This turned out to be an ongoing theme, and the food on this trek was excellent the whole time.

After our first night, the day of hiking started bright and early. The first day was meant to be the longest, as it included hiking to Humantay Lake, and then through the Salkantay pass, adding up to about 22 km. It was also the hardest, because the Salkantay pass is the highest part at the altitude of 4600 meters.

I’ve never seriously hiked at altitude before, and I have to say it’s a lot harder than at sea level. The air was quite thin, and I constantly felt out of breath. Slow and steady was the only way to go. However, Humantay Lake was beautiful! Seeing it instantly reminded me why I’m doing this, and made me feel it’s absolutely worth it. We’ve also had some beautiful views of the Salkantay mountain and its surroundings along the way.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the grueling ascent to the Salkantay pass, the weather turned for the worse. It felt like we’re in the clouds, with not much to see around us apart from the sign that informed us we have made it. Feeling both proud and tired, we still had three hours of descent in front of us before getting to our camp. Surprisingly, these last hours of descent were possibly the hardest part of the trek. The motivation was somewhat gone now that we’ve reached the pass, and there was not much to look at either apart from the thick fog surrounding us. I think we all just wanted to have dinner and go to sleep.

The next day mostly consisted of descent. We covered about 18 km, and by the end of the day I was glad I let my friend talk me into renting hiking poles, as I was really feeling my knees (I feel like I shouldn’t be saying these words in my thirties…) and could tell it would have been a lot worse without them. The scenery has changed dramatically from mostly rocks and bits of grass to more of a forest and jungle, and lush vegetation in the valley. This was a very welcome change and made the hiking a lot more interesting. We spent the night at a hobbit house (still in sleeping bags), but the greatest pleasure was having the first hot shower since we began!

Day three was a mix of ascent and descent. We walked breezy 12 km, had an incredibly tasty lunch and a coffee tour at a local farm including harvesting, processing, roasting, grinding and finally drinking it, and tasting a few coffee flavored liqueurs.

Towards the late afternoon we arrived at a beautiful, sunny meadow, next to a group of llamas, and most importantly we saw our first sight of Machu Picchu in the far distance from here. It was also the first time we had a phone signal since the start of the trek, and there was something very charming about everyone sitting or lying in the grass and calling their friends and family to say everything was going well. We spent another night in a tent, with a campsite view of Machu Picchu.

Day four was the last hiking day! The walk was about 15 km, and brought us to the town of Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Pueblo). A large part of it was walking alongside the railway and wasn’t particularly scenic, but the prospect of arriving at a real hotel, sleeping in a real bed (without a sleeping bag for the first time!) and having yet another hot shower was extremely appealing. Also, clean laundry. Maťo was very proactive and went to a laundromat, which meant clean clothes for both of us the next day. It’s hard to explain just how satisfying that was.

The ultimate day of our trekking adventure consisted of finally seeing Machu Picchu. We had Circuit 3 tickets for 6am, which meant being in the first group entering. And boy, was it worth it!

Seeing the Huayna Picchu mountain covered in clouds slowly reveal itself, whilst the entire place was completely empty was magical! I wouldn’t describe myself as a spiritual person, however it did feel very special to be able to experience this historical monument in such a beautiful, unspoiled way. I often feel a bit of nervousness about whether something I’ve been looking forward to is really going to be worth it, but I can easily say Machu Picchu was. The sacred Inca town was very impressive, and so was its location and incredible surroundings.

After all this, we got a train back to Cusco, and Maťo and I said our goodbyes again over a cheap dinner. We both loved the entire journey, and it filled me with pride and joy that we both managed to experience something on our respective bucket lists together.

Cusco, Peru

Once I was back to Cusco, I had exactly one day before I was meant to meet up with Nathan. I decided not to waste it, and booked an extremely early morning hike to Rainbow Mountain (which I knew we wouldn’t be able to do together due to lack of time and altitude acclimatization). I was very excited about it despite my tiredness and exhaustion.

I woke up at 3:30 am and patiently waited for a van to pick me up… and it never came. I was gutted! It turned out they simply forgot about me. Given my determination to make the best out of this day, I’ve managed to get in touch with the tour office and get them to book me onto a Sacred Valley tour which was leaving later that morning instead. It included multiple stops, most notably Maras salt mines, Moray with its circular Inca terraces resembling amphitheaters, and the ruins in Pisac and Ollantaytambo. This was certainly a very fast paced whistle stop tour, you could spend a lot more time at each of these places, but I thought it was still worth it.

The next day I finally met up with Nathan again. He arrived pretty tired with an epic jet lag, so we planned to spend the next few days just taking it easy. However, he was also mildly ill, which got progressively worse over time. All this proved to be a pretty awful combo, making for a really rough start of his journey.

After a few days, we hesitantly took a train to Aguas Calientes (this was already pre-booked), because we were planning to visit Machu Picchu together. I couldn’t let him come to Cusco and not see it!

Aguas Clalientes, Peru

Once we arrived at Aguas Calientes it became clear that Nathan was definitely not better enough yet, so we decided to take a few more days to just do nothing. And this time I really mean nothing – Aguas Calientes really isn’t a place where you can do anything else, apart from visiting Machu Picchu. As Nathan got somewhat better, I caught at least part of his illness, which really made me feel both horrible and even more sorry about how he’s been feeling.

Several more days passed, and we finally decided to start queueing for the Machu Picchu tickets (we failed to buy them sufficiently ahead of time online – luckily so because we wouldn’t have been able to go earlier anyway). This involved getting there at four in the morning and standing on the pavement for over three hours, just to be able to queue again later in the afternoon… it’s an insane system, and I can only describe it as a frustrating and anxiety inducing experience.

Luckily, after all that we did actually get the tickets we wanted, i.e. Circuit 2. This included a different and arguably more complete route than the one I’ve already done, most notably the Upper Terraces which I haven’t seen before.

Visiting Machu Picchu for the second time was still incredible, and it was exciting to see different areas of it. I convinced Nathan that the 6 am slot was worth it, so we were able to enjoy some amazing views together, and take some nice pictures without the hoards of people. And most importantly we timed it well, and we both felt well enough (albeit a bit tired) to actually be able to enjoy it together.

Later that day we also visited a butterfly museum, a small but educational place with various conservation efforts in place.

Frankly, by the end of our visit to Aguas Calientes we both couldn’t wait to get out of there. We stayed way longer here than we ever intended.

We took a train and a bus back to Cusco, and then a subsequent flight to Arequipa the next day.

Arequipa, Peru

Our next stop, Arequipa, was thankfully very different! The centre felt a lot more laid back, but full of good coffee places and restaurants. We spent a day just relaxing and enjoying some excellent gelato.

On day two we went wild water rafting in the Rio Chilli for two hours. I obviously loved this. Given Nathan is not super keen on water, I was very proud of him for doing this, and happy he didn’t hate it, and even (mostly) enjoyed it.

Colca Canyon, Peru

After spending two days in Arequipa, we decided to visit the famous Colca Canyon. We signed up for a fairly relaxed two day tour, which ended up being really great.

At the start we visited something called the stone forest – imagine the strangest rock formations. We also went through a national park with loads and loads of llamas, but even more importantly loads of vicuñas. This was the first time I managed to see them up close, which I was very excited about. They look super cute, and I could easily watch them for hours (although unfortunately we didn’t do that).

We spent the evening soaking ourselves in natural hot pools before dinner, which was just the perfect way to end the day before heading to a nice hotel.

Day two included an early wake up (most things here do… Nathan is somewhat begrudgingly learning that). Colca Valley is mostly famous for being a good place to watch the majestic Andean Condors, some of the largest birds in the world. It turns out that the reason this is a good place to spot them is because during the early morning hours they fly from the bottom of the valley to the top due to certain thermal conditions.

Watching the valley at first felt like we were there to just stare at a bunch of rocks. This wasn’t too upsetting, because the scenery itself was quite impressive too. However, after some time, someone finally whispered “look over there!” with excitement, but also restraint so as not to spook the birds. And indeed, we spotted a brief silhouette of a very large creature below us. I felt tense all of a sudden, it was almost like trying to spot some kind of monster in a horror movie, but instead of terror I was filled with exhilaration. Over time we managed to see quite a few of them flying nearby. Their wingspan reaches over three meters, and they looked very imposing. They rarely flap their wings, and instead mostly effortlessly glide through the air, looking almost as if they didn’t even belong to this world. As we were watching this incredible spectacle, one of them landed not too far from us. Later on another one flew very closely directly above us, a rare and very impressive sight. We left the tour feeling very lucky that day.

Arequipa, Peru

After returning to Arequipa, we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery. Without doing much research, I expected a small-ish museum, but was instead pleasantly surprised by something akin to an entire village, or even a small town. The streets were very picturesque, and I wish we could spend more time wandering around the place before closing time.

For our final day in Arequipa, we decided to split up – whilst Nathan did a cooking class, I went for a more adventurous activity and decided to finally try out proper outdoor rock climbing for the first time. I’ve been climbing and bouldering on and off for a long time, but never quite made it outdoors, so this was very exciting. I ended up in a small group of three girls climbing three routes (5A, 5B and 5C on the French scale), and even learning some lead climbing basics. The entire day was super fun, and it definitely made me think I want to do this a lot more in the future.

From Arequipa, we made our way up north – Huaraz.

Huaraz, Peru

We flew here, thinking this would be the easier and more restful route than the alternative of many hours of multiple buses. However, due to Lima airport (our layover) being a total mess at night, we arrived at Huaraz with only 4 hours of sleep. The first day was therefore mostly spent sleeping and having a fancy dinner.

Huaraz is located between the mountain ranges Cordillera Blanca, Negra and Huayhuash. It’s famous for its incredible hiking, and I can say with certainty this is in no way exaggerated. The mountains contain a myriad of lakes, many of which look absolutely photoshopped, except they’re definitely real and stunningly beautiful. The trails are surrounded by wildflowers. The snowy peaks and glaciers add the final cherry on top.

We acclimatized by visiting Laguna Wilcacocha on the second day. I hiked Laguna Churup on day three whilst Nathan took a day off. This was a very fun hike, as it included some ropes and scrambling. We took a tour to Laguna Parón the day after – whilst this didn’t include much hiking, Parón looks simply magical when the rays of sunshine touch the water, and it was absolutely worth the long car ride there. The grand finale was the hike we did together to Laguna 69, reaching an altitude of over 4600 meters above sea level – roughly the same as I did at the Salkantay pass! It was hard for all the same reasons as Salkantay, i.e. mostly lack of oxygen. We did manage to beat the crowds there, and that made it all worth it.

Leaving Huaraz was hard, there were so many more excellent, breathtaking hikes to do! One could easily spend three or four weeks here, and many people do. One of my fellow travelers described it as “better than Patagonia” and whilst I can’t make this comparison myself, I can definitely attest to it being incredible, and I hope to come back one day.

We’ve decided to spend our last few days in Peru in Paracas followed by Lima.

Paracas, Peru

There were two main draws to Paracas for me. Firstly, Islas Ballestas, often described as “poor man’s Galápagos”. We visited Ballestras on a two hour boat tour. We were greeted by an unbelievable number and variety of birds here, such as Peruvian Pelicans. The highlights however included seeing the Humboldt Penguins and Sea Lions. An unexpected positive was the existence of Candelabro de Paracas, which looks very similar to the famous Nazca lines. We’ve decided to skip going to Nazca due to insufficient time, but now I have less FOMO.

In addition to Islas Ballestas, the second draw was that Paracas is one of the places recommended for diving in Peru. I really wanted to get in some practice dives before visiting the true Galápagos. Unfortunately, I was the only person interested during these specific dates, and the price for a private tour to Islas Blancas was somewhat extortionate, which greatly diminished my chances of seeing more Sea Lions or Penguins.

I ended up doing a single dive in a national reserve in La Mina. This was a very shallow dive, the visibility was low and the marine life there was by no means impressive. I was also anxious about this dive because the water here is colder than anywhere else I’ve been diving before (and I felt too cold in the Red Sea before). Whilst a 7mm wetsuit layered over a 3mm wetsuit combined with hood, boots and gloves all made me feel like a Michelin man, they definitely kept me warm enough, so that was a relief. Overall, I did get to practice and built up a bit more confidence again after realizing I haven’t done this for about four years (i.e. too damn long!), so I’d class this as a success.

Finally, Nathan and I also rented a scooter for half a day and spent it driving around the Paracas National Reserve. This was a fun way to explore and see the scenery, beaches and wildlife.

Paracas is pretty small, and it definitely feels like even two days in here is slightly too much time. It also feels a bit bizarre to be here off season, and seeing all the empty sea side hotels and restaurants.

Luckily, all of this meant I had a bit of spare time, and could catch up on writing this blog. The next morning we took a bus back to Lima.

Lima, Peru

With only one full day of time here, we spent most of it walking around the coast of Miraflores and Barranco, two of the more upscale and tourist friendly neighborhoods. A pleasant surprise was visiting Park Kennedy, which was full of cats.

Our main focus in Lima was dining at Central, named the best restaurant in the world in 2023. This was truly an incredible experience, with many regional tastes and flavors, and I’m very grateful we had a chance to eat here and enjoy the true culinary marvels of Peru.

Lima was our last stop in Peru, and we headed to Quito after.

Atacama & Bolivia

San Pedro de Atacama & Atacama Desert, Chile

I got to San Pedro by flying from Santiago to Calama. Whilst waiting for my transfer between Calama and San Pedro, I’ve made friends with Tian. We quickly realized that our itineraries align perfectly for the following five or six days, and we spent them together.

Atacama is the world’s driest non-polar desert. And it turns out there’s loads to do in it! San Pedro is not much of a town in itself. The main street, Caracoles, is full of tour operators, money exchanges and other various tourist related businesses. It’s so dry around there that I tasted the dust every time a car passed me by.

When I planned to spend 2 days in San Pedro and see the main highlights around there, I failed to account for altitude in San Pedro (2400m) and the places I wanted to visit (4300m). I was quickly informed that my plan was too ambitious, and I should take a day to simply rest – which turned out to be a very wise piece of advice. I was gutted to miss Piedras Rojas though.

Tian and I ended up renting bikes on day one (i.e. our rest day), and cycling to Valle de la Luna. Apart from a few steep but luckily not very big hills, it was a really nice way to explore the area. Valley of the Moon is frequently described as an otherworldly looking place, and I could certainly see why.


As we entered the valley we were quickly dwarfed by the impressive rock formations. There are also large salt deposits, which make the red and yellow sands shimmer in the sunlight. But the main thing reminding you that you’re definitely still on Earth is the gorgeous backdrop of the Andes and its snowy peaks. I could not get enough of the contrasting view.

On day two we took a tour to Geyser Del Taito. This included an awfully early wake up, and a freezing cold journey to our destination which we were trying to reach before sunrise. El Teito is the third largest geyser field in the world. Our reward was seeing many bubbling pools of water, and the geothermal formations spraying water around like miniature volcanoes. Incredibly tall steam columns surrounded the whole area when we arrived. As the sun rose and the first rays of light fell onto us, the steam disappeared almost immediately!

The temperature difference before and after sunrise was apparent extremely fast, and I finally understood why we needed to be there early. On the way back we stopped at a few scenic places, and saw a few flamingos and vicuñas. I love watching wildlife!


After two days in San Pedro, we both took a 3 day tour to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Crossing the border between Chile and Bolivia and entering the protected Eduardo Avaroa Reserve was an interesting experience, which involved lots of waiting around, some very poorly implemented electronic systems, and some more waiting around. But it was all worth it!

The first day was marked by seeing some beautiful lagunas – Laguna Blanca and Laguna Azul. It also included a stop in Termas de Polques, naturally hot pools with a beautiful view of the Salar.


However, the main highlight was definitely visiting Laguna Colorada, the home to thousands and thousands of flamingos. I loved watching these beautiful creatures, and could have easily spent the whole day just doing so.


Day two was the least interesting one of the tour, and mostly felt like constant driving, interrupted only by desert scenery and llamas. However, we ended up sleeping in a salt hotel, which I thought was pretty cool.


In the evening, we were told about yet another early wake up on the next day. With a few grumbles, I went to sleep early again. Little did I know I was about to see the most mesmerizing sunrise of my life!


We finally hit the seemingly endless salt flat which gets flooded by water every rainy season. This creates a surreal mirror effect. If anything ever comes close to perfection it’s a moment of stillness in Salar de Uyuni, when the wind quiets down, and everything seems just like the most delicate painting, enveloping you in its beauty.


I was incredibly lucky to see this as it’s already the start of the dry season. I didn’t think I’d mind missing out on it (the hexagonal shapes in dry seasons seemed interesting too), but it’s honestly more impressive in person than on the photos – and I mean even the good ones not taken by me.

After this magical experience, I spent a night in the town of Uyuni as I was trying to avoid a late night bus. In the morning I was heading to Potosí.

Potosí, Bolivia

The city of Potosí was really just a single night pit stop for me. I wish I could have done it more justice! The first impression was that it’s incredibly hectic and chaotic. Even getting a taxi took me and one more fellow traveler some serious effort and waiting – this never happens!

One cannot mention Potosí without mentioning Cerro Rico, dubbed as “the mountain that eats men”. Cerro Rico is a mine that made Potosí bigger than Paris or London back in its glory, and its silver (and a lot of injustice and suffering) bankrolled the entire Spanish empire. Over time the easily accessible rich deposits of silver have been depleted, and whilst it’s still used for some silver mining, it now also focuses on tin and zinc.

I was in two minds about this tour, as there’s really no other way to call it than poverty tourism. At best, it’s a grey area. The mine is not sanitized for tourists at all, which quickly became apparent when signing the disclaimer acknowledging all the risks I was taking.


I felt many things during this visit. It was very powerful and raw to see the harsh working conditions, and the young age of some of the miners. It was educational to hear from our guide and speak to the few miners who didn’t mind our presence. It was surprisingly exhausting to constantly walk bent over and trying not to bang our heads on something. It was somewhat anxiety-inducing to be crawling through spaces barely large enough for us to fit in, realizing that if anything at all happens, we’ll be buried alive (a third of the group aborted the tour due to this). And it was sad to learn about this place’s past, but also the present.

After a day in the Potosí mine the next morning I took another bus to Sucre.

Sucre, Bolivia

Ahhh… Sucre. How does one not fall in love with The White City.

Sucre felt very different from the rest of Bolivia I encountered. It was a lot more relaxed and easy going (the traffic was still very busy, but a little less), it offered the perfect wind down after 3 days in a car and a visit to the mine. There were many great cafes and restaurants. It felt full of international visitors, lots of whom came here to learn Spanish. I’d almost describe it as European. There were also many museums, I especially enjoyed the Museum of Indigenous Art with its incredible textiles from Jalq’a and Tarabuco cultures.


Apart from relaxing, my main activities included a hiking tour to the Maragua Crater. We got to walk along an old Inca Path, see the beautiful formations in the crater itself (the colors, and shapes of everything here were stunning), and be amazed at Niñu Mayu, the preserved dinosaur footprints.


And because there’s no such thing as seeing too many dinosaur footprints, I also went to Parque Cretácico, with a massive cliff called Cal Orck’o covered by over 5000 prints. They were only discovered in 1994 due to the construction of a cement factory. It felt genuinely humbling to think of their age, and knowing that now that they’ve been uncovered their existence is probably about as fleeting as ours due to deterioration by the elements.


I spent four nights in Sucre, and afterwards moved on to La Paz.

La Paz, Bolivia

Yet another pit stop! Unfortunately, I’ve had to rush through Bolivia due to already having booked my Machu Picchu hike, and La Paz was another victim of this.

La Paz feels a lot more authentic than Sucre (maybe it just absorbed the tourists less noticeably), with its hustle and bustle, roads full of mini buses and taxis and various markets. It also seemed there’s loads of things to do around here, and I really loved my hostel! Leaving after just a day was hard, and there were multiple things I wanted to do and couldn’t (Death Road, Valle de las Animas, …)

I spent my day visiting the Witch Market, which I’d describe as nice but overhyped. I followed this by sheltering from rain in a lovely vegan restaurant called La Vida, and subsequently visited the Coca Museum. I finished my day by riding around on Mi Teleférico, the cable car (used as a regular means of transport by the locals) which goes all the way across the city and offers incredible views of La Paz and the mountains it’s nestled in.


My next stop was Copacabana. And no, not the beach in Brazil. The Bolivian town on the beautiful Lake Titicaca.

Copacabana, Bolivia

When I said Sucre was relaxed, Copacabana definitely beat it. Mostly because it feels very small, and there’s basically just one thing going on – the deep blue lake. I spent two laid back days around it. I visited the Floating Islands first, where I sat on one of the floating platforms soaking in all the sun. Whilst most of my trip has been quite sunny, the evenings and nights are still very cold, and I’ve been making good use of my puffy jacket.


The main highlight of my stay was the visit to Isla del Sol. I decided to take a morning ferry to the north of the island, and hike towards the southern port to take a ferry back in the evening. The island has no roads on it, and looks very charming even from afar. The trail I took was well maintained and only had a few people on it. I was rewarded by incredible views of the lake and farming terraces. I also visited some beautiful Inca ruins. Such a lovely day!


However, today is my last day here, and I’ve got two very long bus journeys to look forward to (Copacabana – Puno and Puno – Cusco). Crossing the borders is never too much fun (although usually an experience), and I should arrive in Cusco at 5am the next day. I bet no one envies me this one. But Machu Picchu awaits!

Santiago & Rapa Nui

Prologue

In 2016 I packed a big backpack (too big, if anything) and took a one way flight to Bangkok. I spent about 6 months traveling around Southeast Asia, and I’ve had the most amazing time. It was challenging, eye opening, magical, sometimes lonely or stressful, but never boring. I was enamored. Travel didn’t have to be glamorous, but there was so much to see and so much to do! And it was all at my fingertips. 

Since then I always knew I had to go backpacking again. A lot of fellow travelers I met in Asia raved about Latin America. Before I even finished my first big trip, the idea of the second one was already born. 

Nine years later, and I’m finally doing it! 

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona was my first stop – but I wasn’t alone. You see, Barcelona was also my and Nathan’s goodbye trip – we flew here together, and spent 3 wonderful days seeing this amazing city for the first time together. We were both in love with it – the ingenious and unique architecture of Gaudi, beautiful streets of the Gothic Quarter, lively Las Rambla, and of course, the crown jewel of it all, Sagrada Familia.

The only minor problem was I was feeling slightly ill and even fever-y. I powered through with paracetamol, and by the third day figured I was all fine again.  

On Monday night we said our goodbyes at the airport. Nathan flew back to London, and I flew onwards to start the solo portion of my trip. 

Santiago, Chile

Santiago was only meant to be a pit stop for me. The truth is I wanted to head to Easter Island as quickly as possible, but did not want to take the risk of flying on the same day, just in case of any delays. 

Since I was already there, I decided to make the most of it, and signed up for a walking tour. It was a great way to get a bit of local context, and learn about the city, the country and the culture. It helped ground the rest of my experience in Chile. 

And the next morning I was off to Rapa Nui. 

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile

The flight to Rapa Nui from Santiago takes about 5 hours. It’s hard to describe just how much this place is in the middle of nowhere – seeing the little bit of green land from the plane was quite exhilarating! At times I kept thinking to myself it should not be possible for it to exist. But it does. And it’s utterly wonderful! 

I’ve spent about a week here. Whilst this is a lot of time for an island that you can drive around in an hour, I figured this might be the only time in my life I make it all the way here, to this tiny, remote Polynesian island, so I may as well make the most of it. And I’m really glad I did that. 

It turns out my illness wasn’t over. The first few days I’ve been on and off struggling with fever, muscle aches, not sleeping at night, and getting increasingly concerned about the possibility I might need to seek medical attention at one of the most remote places I know. 

Luckily, I slowly started to feel better, just in time to enjoy the two days of tours I’ve booked around the island. Most people who know anything about Easter Island know the statues, known as moai. As a tourist you can only visit most of them with a guide, therefore guided tours are very common around the island. 

I’ve particularly enjoyed visiting the quarry, Rano Raraku. This is where the moai were created. It was incredible to see the various stages of carving, and a lot of the “heads” just scattered around (the reason why people often believe the moai are just heads is that in the quarry a lot of the statues ended up buried over time, and only the heads are visible – they do in fact all have bodies). Many of the moai on the island are toppled over, and in various stages of deteriorating. Some of the most impressive (and restored) sites were Ahu Tongariki, Ahu Tahai and Ahu Nau Nau at the Anakena beach. One can only imagine how ominous and awe inspiring it must have felt to see the moai when the island was first discovered. Their solemn faces standing silent vigil over the island. And oh, so mysterious! 

Apart from the moai, the island is also worth seeing simply because it’s beautiful. With a population of about 8000 people, it does feel like a large village. Everywhere you walk you hear a friendly “Iorana”. Roosters wake you up in the morning. At this time of year, Rapa Nui is very lush and green, and everything is in bloom. The temperature is about 25 degrees in the day, and 18 degrees in the night – just cool enough to sleep. Not to mention it’s incredibly safe, which as a solo female traveler I have a big appreciation for.

I spent one of my last days accidentally cycling close to 50km on a truly terrible bike. I had multiple regrets that day, such as not properly looking at the distances, not starting earlier in the day and not paying more for a bike that doesn’t feel like it’s attacking me constantly. Rapa Nui was more hilly than I had hoped. Whilst this adventure took a lot longer than I planned and basically meant that I never got a chance to relax on the beach I was headed to (I had to turn back before it got dark), it was still a really nice way of seeing the island. 

Last, but not least – turtles! There are many turtles at the beach in the town. Just watching them from the shore, I counted seven or eight of them. Given I’ve been feeling ill, I’ve very reluctantly passed on the opportunity to go scuba diving, as the timing didn’t work out well (this hurt – Rapa Nui has so many endemic species I wanted to see). However, I couldn’t help myself, and did spend one day snorkeling with the turtles. I obviously ended up burning my back… but luckily not too badly. Worth it! 

After about a week in Rapa Nui, it was time to go back to mainland Chile. It felt like just the right amount of time too. 

Santiago, Chile

I spent two more days in Santiago. I was staying in Barrio Italia, which is one of the safer, and also more lively neighborhoods, and I very much enjoyed it. Loved the street art! I spent my first day mostly walking around San Cristobal Hill, whilst on the second I decided to visit a few museums.

The Museum of Memory and Human Rights was a history museum mostly focused on Pinochet’s dictatorship and the atrocities committed during this (still very recent) time. Honestly, whilst it was interesting and educational, it was also pretty rough going and utterly heartbreaking. 

Later that day, I’ve visited Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, which definitely lifted my mood. It showcased a beautiful collection of various arts, such as textiles and statues from various regions of Latin America. 

Coincidentally, during these two days I’ve also met up with one of my friends and ex-colleagues Ed and his partner Becky, as their three week sabbatical perfectly overlapped with my trip for a few days in here. It was great to see some familiar faces and have a Pisco Sour together. 

Two days later, I was catching another flight, with San Pedro de Atacama as my ultimate destination. And I’ll cover that in the next post!