18/11/2010 This week I have survived paragliding and glacier trekking without any major incidents. Paragliding was on my second day in Bariloche, a beautiful area in the Lake District. My first day there was spent relaxing at the campsite, then on day two those of us who wanted to go paragliding were picked up after lunch and taken to the landing area. Only two could go at once so the others waited here for their turn. I was in the first group with Loretta. A ...

8/11/2010 A few unexpected events today. We've had a couple of nice days just relaxing in Cafayate, then managed to get to Mendoza in time to do a wine tour on Saturday afternoon, which was interesting but it was mostly red wine which I don't really like so was just a nice sunny day in the vineyards for me. Sunday was a relaxation day at the campsite, with a swimming pool, and today we got up early to make the drive to Santiago. Unfortunately when we went to g...

27/10/2010 From Cusco we drove to Puno where we stayed a night before heading out onto Lake Titicaca. Our first stop on the lake was at the floating islands. These are built of layers of reeds on top of blocks of the roots which is a floating substance. They used to just float anywhere on the lake but now are anchored, and less and less people choose to live on them as they have land as well. After a little trip in a reed boat we got back on our motorised boat...

I have survived the Inca Trail! It was hard work but feels good to have done it. Day one we were picked up from the hostel at 5.30am and drove two hours to a town where we bought walking sticks, and coca leaves and had breakfast. We then continued on to the start of the Inca Trail. Our group was small, only five people, as the rest of our group had passes for the day before. We had a guide, a cook and seven porters to look after us. The porters ran ahead with a...

Altitude + cold = ouch. I was feeling a lot better our last day in Arequipa so I got out to see the town a bit. Next day was a drive day with a high pass and even though I felt better I was still all blocked up and for a while on the truck I got a really bad headache. Luckily it went away when I got out and walked around a bit, and didn't come back. We arrived in Chivay for a late lunch and while we were eating it rained and hailed. We haven't seen rain since R...