Cartagena burnt down 19 years after it was founded in the 1500s by Spanish colonialists and named after the city of Cartagena in Spain. It is only permitted to use non-flammable materials for buildings, a rule which has affected the…
How hard is the hike to Colombia’s lost city of Ciudad Perdida?
If you always wanted to go to the Lost City of Atlantis but couldn’t as it doesn’t exist then The Lost City is a very good bet. It takes six days and it is a slightly edgier and considerably lower…
Day tripping from Bogota to Zipaquirá’s salt cathedral
Bogota is rough around the edges certainly, I think Plaza de Bolivar would sigh if it were to speak, after all the things that it has seen. However, La Candelaria district is a place to be. Lovely cafes, museums and…
Wildlife watching in Venezuela’s Los Llanos
After travelling up from Manaus into Venezuela via a stopover in Santa Elena and spending two solid days travelling including 12 hours at a bus station I was thrilled to be in Merida. Merida is a city on the Western…
I went on a really cheap Amazon trip and this is what happened
After I crossed the picket lines in Northern Peru I met a guy called Daniel on a boat. We decided to hire our own guide and go on a really cheap jungle trip. We went on an unofficial tour from…
Crossing picket lines through Tarapoto and Yurimaguas to reach the Amazon
Tarapoto I was trying to make my way to the Huallaga River so I got several buses for short journeys and on one of the last ones, a Peruvian guy told me to go with another guy that was heading…
The lesser-known tourist attractions of Northern Peru
I’m very glad that I returned to Peru as I’d missed some very significant places the first time around. The North of Peru has some great historical sites so I knew that I’d made the right decision. My first stop…
My Ecuador animal rescue centre diaries Vol 4
I returned to the rescue centre feeling much better than when I left. I was excited about the challenge and I did a week’s handover with Helen where she showed me all the morning checks and filled me in on…
Trying to do the Quilotoa Loop and failing miserably
Latacunga As I had been up all night from the shamanic ritual, I had the most unattractive sleep on the crowded bus to Latacunga, I must have looked like a total wreckhead. The most impressive thing about Latacunga is that it…
What’s it like to be ‘cured’ by a shaman?
Before and during my trip to South America I suffered from a health issue that meant I was continually bleeding for over a year. This was on account of using the contraceptive injection as a form of birth control when…
Learning Spanish in Ecuador’s Otavalo
For our last night in Quito, Steph and I had drinks in the new town followed by a shawarma. The next day we parted ways at the horrible Quito bus station and I got the bus to Otavalo. She texted…
My Ecuador animal rescue centre diaries Vol 3
As well as the families poor treatment of the dogs, the thieving habits of Carlos continued for the whole time that we were living there, and he was like a magpie in terms of the useless shit that he would…