G and I have just flown over the snowcapped Andes to arrive in a very sunny Santiago….such a contrast from Edinburgh in December and being catapulted out of christmas…actually quite the right thing to do! We have been decompressing and drifting through some sightseeing in the city interspersed with cafe …

So recovered from our bike ride up the hill to Cafayate we braced ourselves for the “big run”down to Santiago, it is a feature of trips such as mine that I do have a very flexible schedule but I also occasionally have specific dates to hit for airport pick up …

We had a nice few days by the Lido in Salta which allowed us to catch up on things after a few weeks of rough travelling over the salt plains and altiplano, it is a reasonably large city by comparison with anywhere we have been for weeks so we enjoyed …

The Puna is the local name for the very high altitude plain that is divided between Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, in fact this area has been the subject of a number of historical wars between these three countries principally for its mineral wealth as nothing much can grow at 4000m …

I was delighted by our day on the Great Salar of Uyuni, it had met all my hopes and aspirations and the sticky bit at the end gave us just enough excitement to make it a grand adventure, a few mph slower or not running low tyre pressures and we …

After the stress of the oil flange falling apart, and the amazing recovery thanks to the mechanics in Arica, we took it easy for a day cruising down the PanAmerican highway rather than heading to the mountains, at each stop I fussed over the car checking for leaks measuring oil …

On these trips of mine I tend to have a new copilot each month or so, for me this is a six month trip and a week here or there does not really matter, for them it is a long and quite expensive holiday when flights are considered, so taking …

Having left Duncan in Cusco I had to get to Arequipa to pick up Mark so that we could begin our journey south to Boliva, Chile and Argentina over the next three weeks before I head home for a break at Christmas.  This part of Peru is the altiplano so …

When we first got to Cusco I was not very impressed as I was having a bit of reverse culture shock.  Having spent a good few days in the desert and in the canyons far away from the majority of the tourists I had gained a solid view of rural …

After our adventures in Lake Titicaca Duncan and I headed to the town of Cusco, which is the gateway to the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  Cuzco is a nice little town just on the edge of being over-run with tourist infrastructure, but clean and tidy, safe and with nice …