Category: South-America

People surfing on the waves near Choroni 6

South-America / Venezuela

28 Feb, 2012

Caracas / Choroni / Chichiriviche – Venezuela

There are several reasons why there aren’t that many people traveling to Venezuela for their holidays. The most important reason for me is that the currency exchange is quite messed up. There exists something like a black market for currency exchange because the offical rate is quite unfavorable for the visitors. The official rate (for euros) is around 5, meaning 1 euro will get you 50 bolivars (currency in Venezuela). But the rate on the black market can get upto 10! Meaning that you “lose” half your money if you use the official rate. There’s a reason it’s called the...

Made it back to the top near Cabanaconde after 2 days! 0

Peru / South-America

28 Feb, 2012

Colca Canyon

  The obvious destination after visiting Arequipa would be vising the Colca Canyon. To be honest, I have no idea how I came up with the idea of going to Colca Canyon since I didn’t even mention it during my research. But I’m glad I did though. After seeing what Cuzco and Machu Picchu had to offer, I was ready for another adventurous hike and outdoor activity! Besides, Colca Canyon is one of the top tourist destinations too. Since it’s a top destination, there are plenty of travel agencies offering tours to visit the site. But it is perfectly possible...

One of the floating islands on Uros 5

Peru / South-America

31 Jan, 2012

Puno / Lake Titicaca / Arequipa

After the Machu Picchu experience I was getting ready to move on to see the rest of Peru. Next up was Puno and more importantly, Lake Titicaca. Puno Too get to Puno, I took one of the inexpensive overnight buses from Cusco to Puno, just a little heads up, when you take the bus in Peru, be sure to wear enough clothing, because for some reason they turn up the A/C really high. I had like 3 layers of clothing on and was still freezing. Puno by itself doesn’t have much to offer for the real tourist. It’s just your...

Father of the year near top of MP mountain. Kid enjoying the ride. 2

Peru / South-America

23 Jan, 2012

Machu Picchu (small change of plans)

As I mentioned in an earlier post about Machu Picchu, I said I’d do the Salkantay trek, a 5 day trekking to Machu Picchu. However, I made a last minute change to that plan. A few days before I was supposed to do the hiking, I met some people on Couchsurfing (yes again), they told me about their own itinerary and plan to go to Machu Picchu without the use of any travel agency or trekking. Which means cheaper! Considering the weather conditions (it was/is raining season) and the price of the hiking tour, I decided to cancel the tour...

View from Plaza de Armas - Cusco 1

Peru / South-America

23 Jan, 2012

Start of the Inca adventure in Peru (Lima & Cusco)

Edit: Actually posting this just now, since there is very limited internet speed here in Venezuela! What better time to start writing about my trip(s) in Peru than on my last day in Lima, Peru.  To be honest I didn’t think I’d be traveling so much during my time here in Peru, but there’s just so much to see and visit that you can’t help it. And to make things worse, Peru has a great (and cheap) long distance bus traject all over the country. There are tons of different bus companies that offer you great service depending on the...

Llama with a hat... or is it alpaca 8

Chile / South-America

30 Dec, 2011

Santiago – Valparaiso // Chile

When I was doing my research on Santiago and Chile in general, I had to really dig for stuff to do. Since I’m only visiting 10 days, I had to manage to find something to do. But in reality, the 10 days I stayed in Chile really flew by.Small warning, this might be a lengthy post, since I’m wrapping up 10 days worth of stuff. Santiago The first impression of Santiago was… not too exciting. The city itself looked quite run down and being the capital of Chile, I expected it to be more “flashy” and entertaining. But truth to...

Mural near La Boca 1

Argentina / South-America

22 Dec, 2011

Don’t cry for me Argentina…

You never appreciate what you have untill you no longer have it. That’s the thought that went through my mind on my last day in Buenos Aires. Towards the end of my stay, I kind of felt that I stayed “too long”, that I’ve seen most of the things already, things were getting a bit boring. But as I planned my last full day in Buenos Aires, I realised that I had to leave one day earlier. I’ve always thought I had to leave on a sunday morning at 6am, meaning I would still have a friday night to go...

Sunset at Puerto Madero 2

Argentina / South-America

10 Dec, 2011

First week in Buenos Aires

Next country / city on the list was Buenos Aires – Argentina. After coming from Brazil, the culture here is quite different even it’s on the same continent. People often call Buenos Aires the Paris of South-America and there is a good reason for that. A lot of the buildings here have a strong European if not French influence. According to the guide from the tour, apparently when they were building up Buenos Aires the French culture was at its peak so they “copied” a lot of it. I can’t say I’ve been to many mountains or nature parks here...

Chillin' at the beach 4

Brazil / South-America

2 Dec, 2011

Moving on: Ilha Grande, Sao Paulo, Foz do Iguaçu

It’s been a while since my last update and during this time I’ve moved several times already and am currently writing this post on the airplane towards Buenos Aires. It’s been quite hectic the last couple of days since I moved to several different places. I had to find hostels and find transport from and to places and to the hostels. From Rio de Janeiro I’ve moved to Ilha Grande (extra destination), Sao Paulo and Foz do Iguaçu. I stayed only a few days at most of these destinations but still enough to see a lot of what the city...

Brazil beaches 7

Brazil / South-America

22 Nov, 2011

Experiencing Rio de Janeiro

So yesterday I finally got a taste of the real Brazilian sun and it wasn’t exactly kind on me… I got kinda burnt on my neck and slightly on my arms too. Though I was already kind of black, now I’m really getting closer to that fondant chocolate color. I didn’t think to bring sunblock on that day out since I’m dark skinning, I figured it wouldn’t effect me that much. But today I went to the beach again and tried to even it out a bit, but during my shower just now, I have some really ugly farmers tan...

Follow:

More