The worst thing about deciding to take the more "scenic route" to Ecuador (let's face it, it was 1000x better than the coastal road) was that it was subject to some good old fashioned "jungle time" where there is no hurry for anything at all, as long as lunch is on time. Here, you can throw everything you know about punctuality out the window, for it is not "a thing". This resulted in hours of waiting around for collectivos (shared taxi vans), buses and various o...

Quite used to the early morning arrival in an unfamiliar city now, I had made it along the sometimes unreliable road to Chachapoyas. I found it to be a fascinating city in many aspects. Firstly, It is capital of the Amazonas region in Peru, yet only home to around 20000 people. It is relatively small yet has schools, hospitals, government buildings and much more advanced infrastructure than you would think, being so isolated. It seems almost confused, stuck halfw...

The Peruvian north coast occupied my time for only a short period, as I was much more excited to head east toward the Jungle and consequently hopped through the large towns en route. This is probably going to be quite an uninteresting entry, but ill write it anyway just because. So I got to Trujillo at 830am, incredibly worn down but keen to get to the Chan Chan ruins, just out of town. Chan Chan was the largest pre Columbian city in South America, built in AD ...

I didn't really want to get off the bus and into Lima at midnight, especially after my friend Lourdes (whom I was staying with) telling me to be careful. It was straight into the deep end, as I had arrived at the biggest city in Peru (it is an absolute monster), in a random street (there is no central bus terminal) and had absolutely no clue how to get to where I needed to be. Relying on an overly friendly taxi driver's city knowledge, together we cruised through...

Just when I thought I had seen off the worst of Peru and even South America's roads, the route from Cusco to Ica, passing through the Andes was the deadset worst of them all. I don't think the bus came into contact with a straight stretch of road during the entire 18 hour trip. Instead wound its way up mountains, down mountains and when the mountains were over, it for some reason kept on winding its way around. "Oh great! An overnight bus and chance to sleep" I t...