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South America Backpacking Trip
  • Zach Henshall
  • Charlotte Fricker
  • Zach Henshall
  • Charlotte Fricker

South America Backpacking Trip

Our first backpacking trip. A few months touring the most spectacular locations of South and Central America! Read more
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  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Cusco - Hidroeléctrica - Aguas Caliente

    December 27, 2019 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    So on Friday we set off early in the morning via bus (7 hours) to get the the small tourist town of Aguas Caliente, which is purely there for tourists, for the surrounding village of Machu Picchu! On our long bus ride we stopped for a buffet lunch which was very nice, before reaching the high altitude of nearly 5,000 feet through a scenic mountain drive to get to Hidroeléctrica. Once we arrived at hidroeléctrica we took a 2.5hrs flat walk along the hidroeléctrica train line through the jungle, surrounded by the mountains where Machu Picchu lies, and arrived at Aguas Caliente with just enough time to get shown to our hostel and showered (cold 😂😅 as they don't really have the infrastructure for good water pressure 😭). We meet our group for dinner around 8pm and got all the tickets and info we needed for the climb to Machu Picchu the day after. We meet alot of nationalities in our group which was nice but oldly we got separated into Spanish speaking and English speaking later on! 😂 We thought this would just be to tell us about the trip details, but ended up being for dinner too... Two separate tables.... One British /Americans and the other made up of Spanish speakers only 🙄😮😢 strange times lol. Oh well still didn't stop us from talking to everyone 😂Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Machu Picchu with the Inca Climb

    December 28, 2019 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    So today was the day we made it to Machu Picchu 🤗😁 we started the day at 4.30am with a packed breakfast, then met a few other British travellers at 5am to climb the Inca steps to the entrance, which took around 1hr 30mins to get to the top! It was a tough climb, not forgiving and not for the faint hearted, as we witnessed one woman crying her way up! We celebrated at the top with a cheese sandwich and then made our way through the tour groups to inside the Inca village 😊 we opted to guide ourselves as we had the whole day to explore, as most had until about 11pm, where they would have to make the walk back down the steps, and back 2.5hrs along the trainlines to hidroeléctrica for the bus back to Cusco at 2.30pm the same day! 😳 Not for us thank god! So we got a few good views of the typical shot of Machu Picchu as we waited longer than most for the clouds to disappear... And then come back eventually lol, but it made it quite atmospheric to watch. We encountered some world class posing going down, which was funny to watch but also quite annoying if you wanted a picture in a certain area... Without that person in your shot 🙄😂.
    So in the mid morning we decided to walk to The Sungate (45mins uphill walk) where we could see the Inca village in a whole other light. Also this is the entrance used if you're doing the 4 day Inca trek to Machu Picchu, this is the first view point of the village. Apparently there are about 9 different entrances to Machu Picchu!! After being at The Sungate for around 10/15mins we were lucky enough for clouds to clear to get an amazing view of the village and landscape! Around lunch time we made it back to the village, where we explored the alleyways, sacred temples, stones and houses, of how the Incas lived..... Also while trying to earwig information from English tour guides at every part of the walk haha 😊. As the rain came later we opted to get the bus back down to aguas caliente for another night, it came with alot of queuing and some arguing along the way.. In the que and on the bus 😂😂 I mean it is tourist central. All in all though an amazing day that we both really enjoyed!    Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Sacred Valley Inca Trail

    December 31, 2019 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Our new years eve trip to the sacred valley was a very interesting one and thanks to our tour guide Carlos we learnt alot about the Inca history throughout the 3 main towns that have inka ruines in the Urubamba valley. First we visited Pisac Incan Town located on the mountain top, with a view of 3 valleys, stone alters to the sun, farming platforms that they used for growing produce and also from above you can see the traditional markets where locals still sell goods. We then stopped at the markets to watch the craftsmanship of a jewellers shop, where they used natural elements of stones & shells to make beautiful, traditional peruvian jewellery. We then went for an amazing buffet lunch, which we both made pigs of ourselves... As yes dessert was included 🍰😋😁🤗 winner! After lunch we visted probably the most famous archaeological town of them all; Ollantaytambo, where you can climb the Temple of the sun located on the top of a mountain and also see many water drainage systems in places within the ruines and town that they still use today! The last place we visited was Chincheros which was about an hours drive up the Andean mountains (so beautiful to see everything below) and located at over 4,000 feet above sea level! We viewed more Inca sites here, but only by bus as the locals here own the land so it private. All the other sites are owned by the government so free to walk. The last part of the trip we visited a family run weaving shop, where the traditional indigenous woman showed us how they make and colour all their textiles, handcrafted with alpaca wool,while we drank caco leaf tea to help with the climate.. They also loved singing to us, on arrival and on departure..... And obviously goes without saying they were hard selling us their products after the show and tell which is only fair 😊😅Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    A Weekend in the Amazon

    January 3, 2020 in Peru ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

    So we spent a weekend in a lodge just outside of Tambopata nature reserve in the Amazon rainforest. That was an interesting experience! We waded through flooded rainforest, got eaten alive by mosquitoes (and definitely caught some sort of mild jungle fever), and sweat profusely 24 hours a day. It was a swampy, stinky, insect ridden dive into the jungle, and we really enjoyed it!
    Despite the trouble adjusting to the heat (and the need to be coated in deet at all times) we ended up having a great taste of life in the jungle. We tried local food (chicken and rice wrapped in bijao leaf) I found my new passion in life; taking long naps in a hammock, and Charlotte became best friends with a jungle cat. Not to mention the wildlife! We saw giant otters, Capuchin monkeys, red howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys (and red squirrels that weren't monkeys) macaws, parrots, parakeets, a black tarantula...'s leg, and hundreds of species of butterfly. Oh and one really weird looking mushroom. Even though we weren't so lucky with some of the more infamous Amazonian fauna like Anacondas and Cayman, it's a wild place and what you get to see is pure luck, we still really enjoyed our stay in the Amazon. Although ultimately that might just be the jungle fever talking.    Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Amazon adventures continued

    January 5, 2020 in Peru ⋅ 🌧 24 °C

    More antics in the amazon including monkey Island (not the best photos) but we did get to feed them up close and personal which was an amazing experience 😍 before they realised we had no food left! Needless to say they got alittle angry about this, so we had to make a quick exit with the help of our tour guide distracting them with a few left over apples 😅Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Amazon adventures pt3

    January 5, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    More of our adventures in the amazon, from ziplining, canapy walking, chilling in hammocks and meeting fellow travellers it was such a great experience all round, even though it was humid and full of mosquitos 😂😅 we still enjoyed every second 😊Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Arequipa City walks

    January 9, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    What a beautiful city Arequipa, we thought that we had been spoiled by Cusco, but Arequipa is definitely our favourite (mainly because the altitude isn't an issue here!) it has so much history too. We visited the old Monastery where the nuns of the city used to live back in 1579... And it wasn't cheap. It cost each nun or nuns family 2,400 silver coins to join.. So that's about $150,000 in today's money... Wow abit pricey! You can still join the Monastery today, as they're always on the look out for new members as they only have about 20 nuns atm! So they now use the monastery for tourist attractions only, for its history and beautiful architecture. But still use the cemetery for the deceased.. So you can't enter that part. We also visited the beautiful Basílica catedral (in plaza del armas) where we got to see the devil himself (1 of only 5 depictions of the devil in the world that exist inside a cathedral!! 😆 ) they have had to barricade him off as too many people were touching him lol!.. Btw this is on the next post 😁... Got to keep you guys reading somehow! Haha.Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Arequipa Monastery, History & Art

    January 9, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Arequipa seems to have alot of art within the city, you can be walking down a street and come across small art galleries down one of the pretty side streets. There was so much to discover in Arequipa that we didn't see. We also visited the Ice Maiden Juanita. An incredibly well preserved mummy of a child sacrificed to a volcano by the Incas around 500 years ago. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed so we don't have a pic!Read more

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    Chocolate class... Arequipa

    January 10, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    So today we had a fantastic experience at a chocolate workshop, we booked last minute hoping to get a spot, and turned out we we're the only people to book for the morning class.... Which was great as we got a very personal learning experience of how 'Chaq Chao' make chocolates right from scratch using the best cacao beans, cacao butter, powdered milk and natural sugar (only the best natural ingredients) and we learnt about how big chocolate companies add soo many different ingredients, and use the cheapest products possible to cut costs! 😳 In doing so many of us think that Nestle, Lindt ect have the real chocolate taste but actually it's not, we have become addicted to the sugar and not the cacao itself (as there isn't much in there to begin with... Sad realising this!! As personally love Lindt chocolate.. But true 😑😕). In the class we actually got to hand pick cacao beans to roast, then deshell for the process of grinding the cacao beans to a chocolate paste that later gets used with the cacao butter, milk & sugar to make any chocolate you like e.g milk / dark. For white chocolate they only use cacao butter, milk & sugar 😋. (they don't waste anything, and use the caco bean shells for making chocolate tea... Pretty nice, and has better health benefits than green tea... Who knew!! 😉😏). In the last process we got to see the machines they use for mixing all the ingredients together to make the melted chocolate, before tempering at 43°c...then for making it into chocolates with toppings as we did 😁 yum!... Most important part is definitely eating them all 😂Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Arequipa.... Traditions of Perú!

    January 10, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    As promised here shows a picture of the devil within the Basilica Cathedral in Arequipa with the tail and all! 😈😉😅 And alot of sunsets in the beautiful plaza del armas and the view point on the outside of the historic centre. Another thing we (I mean zach lol) plucked up the courage to do was finally eat at a fully traditional peruvian restaurant and order the roasted Cuy (guinea pig) 😳 I know pretty mean right, but was tasty and apparently the peruvians eat them as it helps beat heart disease... Hmm maybe just because there are alot of them available lol 😂 I tried a trout chowder with quinoa (alot of different quinoa here with everything) which wasn't as daring as Zach but was pretty tasty too 😋😘👌Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    The Nazca Lines

    January 12, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our bus hopping journey back to Lima took us straight through Nazca, and there was no way we weren't going to stop and take a look at the famous Nazca lines! We stopped in the town overnight at booked a flight over the lines for the following day. It was a little pricey for a 30 minute flight in a tiny, turbulent aircraft but it was worth it to see the mysterious, ancient geoglyphs in all their glory. Some 2000 years old, and covering an area of nearly 80km2, the lines have baffled scientists, historians and archaeologists alike with their stubborn permanence and incredible accuracy. The civilization that created them has long since vanished and any theories as to how they were made are still up for debate. Some even think they were made by aliens! 👽 In any case the lines themselves are a rare glimpse into the minds of a culture over 2 thousand years old. I have been fascinated by the Nazca lines for a long time and getting to see them in person is something I never thought I would do. So I think it was well worth the vomit inducing flight in the sweltering desert heat. Charlotte on the other hand... well you'll have to ask her 🤢🤮Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Huacachina Oasis, Perú.... Pisco tour

    January 13, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    So we spent just over a day in this oasis in the middle of the desert aka party town 🎉😂😜.... It definitely is here with alot of that in mind, happy hours, dune buggy and the home of Pisco ( Pisco sours 😁🎉) also alot of wine is made here too... Very sweet wine! On our first night we arrived to the heat, headed straight out for tea at our hostel Wild Olive with a restaurant attached (which in included happy hour on drinks of course 😂🎉). On our full day we had here, we opted to do our free Pisco tour (free for Perú hop customers... That would be us! As we can stop off at alot if main places in peru via tour bus with free activities and discounts.. Whoop 🙌😁). Anyway on the Pisco tour at El Catador (20mins outside of Huacachina) we learnt about the process of their wine snd pisco making, then onto the most important tasting session 😂 where we tried x3 local wines and x3 types of pisco. Safe to say Perú have nothing on Chile and Argentina for wine.... But their Pisco is something else... Obviously in a cocktail or on ice-cream 😜.Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Dune buggy & sandboarding in Huacachina

    January 13, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    In the afternoon in Huacachina we decided to explore the dunes of the surrounding desert (highest sand dunes in the world... 1176m high!! 🌍😜😀😮) by dune buggy tour and included we also got to ride the dunes via sandboard! I have to say that I didn't think I had the guts for this tour, zach had to convince me otherwise... As many others we met also rated this trip and not to miss! And oh it did not disappoint at all, we loved it 😍 we started off in groups of 8 in each dune buggy with an experienced driver (well... crazy driver who was clearly trying to kill us🤪), he was driving at full speed on the dunes and down the huge drops 😳😮 it was fantastic but can see why some of seats looked wet when we first got in 😂😂. In parts we stopped for view points of the surrounding dunes and towns, then back in for more crazy driving lol... then it came to the sandboarding! So we started off boarding down small slopes, and after the 3 slopes we thought oh not so bad.. Not too scary! Well I can tell you the biggest drops we're to come... And they were huge 😮😳 it took us awhile to work up to them (not zach as he seems to have no fear 😁) ... But in the end we just went for it and loved it (even though we were covered head to toe in sand... And lots of sand burns😂. The views were amazing, and as it hit sunset on the way back the driver turned crazier (maybe some werewolf vibe going on... Had to get us back before full moon 🌝😂) but it made it all the better and end to an amazing trip 😍😊🌅.Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Paracas National Reserve

    January 14, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today we took a trip to the national reserve within Paracas to explore the volcanic cliffs and rugged coast. It was very pretty and I'm sure there were many interesting facts about the landscape and how it was formed but we were very tired and weren't really listening to what the guide was saying. Looked really nice though 👍😂 although the guide did mention it was as important as Machu picchu!Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Miraflores, Lima

    January 16, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    On our self guided walking tour of Miraflores we also came across alot of street art within the main city which reminded us alot of the same artists within Buenos Aires in Argentina and Río de janeiro. Among the street art were lots of Boho looking cafes and food markets, handcraft markets (which I'm sure are all aimed at tourists) but the skill that goes into making alot of the crafts seems worth buying atleast something, even if it's small... Plus will go into our backpacks lol.Read more

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    Back to Lima again... Miraflores

    January 16, 2020 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    So today we're back in the capital city of Perú, Lima for a second time but in Miraflores (tourist area as some might say or the upmarket side) . First time we stayed in the historical centre (back in December) , which was lovely seeing the 'real lima' as the locals say, with the crazy hustle and bustle atmosphere... Full of traffic and over populated centre.... If you like that sort of thing 😉😅 As we found out it was such a contrast to Miraflores. We stayed nearly central to the main cafe, shops and markets but also in a 5 min walk from the coast line, which we loved as we didn't see any coast on our first visit. We also really wanted to visit Paddington Bear on the pier front 😂😊. Also from the top of the coastal walk as it banks down huge hills you can see for miles and many surfers out catching the waves. For us Miraflores was much more chill and definitely seemed less crazy with people trying to sell us things, maybe because it's more of the business area, but still nice for boutique cafes and good coffee shops, and of course TGI Fridays right on the coast with amazing views 😂😁 we had to make an exception after alot of local cuscine... We had to see how it compared to the UK... Not a patch on the UKs TGIs have to say! We did managed to make our own walking tour of the many parks in Miraflores, with coffee and empanada stops on the way of course! ☕🥐😋 One of the stops included the 'Love Park' which reminded me of Guadi's amazing Park Güell in Barcelona... But just on a much smaller scale 😊😘 we enjoyed the sunset and night views of the beach front before heading back to our hostel... Where they had temporarily turned off the hot water until 9pm,but turned out it didn't come back on at all, not even by the time we we're leaving for our flight to Ecuador at 5.30am the next morning lol 😂 so that wasnt pleasant journey for our fellow passengers...but that's another story 😂... Don't worry will tell you all about it on the next post! 😳Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Quito, Ecuador...the Centre of the Earth

    January 18, 2020 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    So we finally got here..whoop 😁🙌 I say this because we had trouble landing in Quito as we flew in, the tubulance was terrible, probably with the city being in middle of so many high volcanoes the wind were too strong to land... And everyone on board made that very clear, it was like being on a roller-coaster were everyone screams as you start to go down 🎢🙄😂 it's funny now but was pretty scary at the time. We attempted 2 landings in different airports and both were too turbulent to land in, finally landing in Guayaquil about 30mins away, we had to wait about and 1hr 30mins on the and here so they could try again in Quito. Luckily 3rd time lucky we landed 😊✈️ and everyone applauded the pilots 😊👍 so on our first day we took a guided tour around the historical city centre where we're staying. We visited the markets where you can buy any part of an animal that you want, herbs / flowers for wishing away those bad spirits within or just pick up some local fresh fruit and veg! Also you can get lunch for just $1 either the veg option or the cow stomach soup if your feeling adventurous 😏 we also tried the traditional edcudorian warm corn drink... As they love their sugar it tasted like rice pudding... Yum 😋 we also got to try alcoholic sweets that apparently the women of Quito started to make when alcohol was prohibited back in the day, so they could secretly get drunk at gatherings without any notice of any alcohol consumption through drinking! The tour took us through many historic buildings and old secret courtyards, where locals used to have private gatherings to prevent too much noise for their neighbours and also for privacy (alot of the streets are very narrow and close together, so these courtyards were a perfect solution!). We also visited some of the most ornately decorated churches and monstrosities in South America. Especially San Francisco Church which is decorated head to toe in gold leaf on the interior!Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip

    Quito Walking Tour

    January 18, 2020 in Ecuador ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    At the end of our walking tour we decided to explore more of the old streets near to where we are staying... In the day time of course as it actually quite a rough area in the evenings! 😳 We quickly saw the warning signs when we initially arrived to our hostel on the first evening and we were greeted by a bouncer on the gated door, he warned us not to venture the side streets around us at night and not to walk to the virgin Mary statue as most people get mugged! But aside the warnings its still a nice area in the day 😊😁 so good to venture and grab some lunch on the old streets.Read more

  • South America Backpacking Trip
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    Quito Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour

    January 19, 2020 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today we took the hop on, hop off bus around all of Central Quito City, starting from historial centre in San Francisco Square (home to the gold leaf Church) and headed to see the Vigin Mary statue that overlooks all of the historic centre from from mountain top with a great view over the city. From there we went onto see the Basilica Cathedral still within the historic centre, surrounded by green parks. We decided to buy our ticket in to climb the towers of the cathedral, it was pretty high and alot of non queuing going on the climb up and down the steps, so you can guess there were a few hairy moments near the edge 😂😅 the next stop was the Boho neighbourhood of La Florania, which would have been great in the evening, as everything was pretty much shut! It seemed to be a posh neighbourhood for the richer hippies or vegans 😂 as it seemed to be there posh gated homes with restaurants just on there doorstep so they don't have to venture into downtown Quito lol. Although it seemed lovely, and the cafe we found did excellent food! The next place we stopped was obviously the main shopping and living area of most of the locals, with lots of high rise buildings and shopping centres, and a big park in the centre (trying to be like new york I'm guessing! 😳). One of the last places we past was a small neighbourhood close to the modern district, with lost if hostels, lovely looking plazas with nothing but restaurants and happy hour bars... Plus the good old handy craft markets close by, which is definitely aimed at tourists 😂 with the same panchos, scarfs, bags and pottery that they had in all of Perú. To be fair though every time we have seen a market like this we're drawn in, and end up buying something... So it does work. Lol 😂 we ended the tour back in the historical centre, but was good to see how the building and culture changes from each side of the city.Read more

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