This will probably be my last blog. I went from Iquitos to Arequipa, the city with reputedly the best climate in Peru. True during the day but the extremes of temperature were stark and the cloudless skies and warmth of daytime gave way to bitterly cold nights, made worse if you are staying in a hotel with no heating or hot water ! Trust the local Irish bar to capitalise on the situation by handing out leaflets advertising a heater as one of the reasons to pay a ...

As you see from The Amazon photographs I went on a memorable four day trip on a boat called The Selva Viva, run by a French NGO called Latitud Sur which is run by volunteers who are supporting local communities. One of their most impressive projects is helping a village to refine and extract a high-value oil from local trees which is then sold to the cosmetics industry. The villagers are receiving financial and practical support but the hope is that within two y...

I did warn that as I relaxed more my blogs might become less frequent. I arrived in Cusco, home of The Incas, on June 7th to prepare for the Lares Trek. Cusco is a beautifully preserved ancient city with many claims to fame,not least the highest Irish owned bar in the world. As spiritual home to The Incas it is a worthy centre for what was an amazing civilisation, many of whose traditions live today despite its turbulent and difficult history. The Lares Trek is ...

I arrived in Ecuador, a country of 15 million people and was immediately struck by how reserved they are in comparison with the Colombians. The socialist President Rafael Correa has just won another landslide victory in the elections and most people I speak to are complimentary of him, although some are skeptical about deals with the Chinese to let them extract oil and other natural resources. When first elected Correa famously told George Bush that the US coul...

Of the 68 indigenous groups in Colombia the Guambino are the most immediately recognisable and the ones who have most effectively survived colonialism with their dress, customs and language intact. Every Tuesday they descend on the small town of Silvia to meet, chat and trade in their market. Getting photographs of these shy, proud and hierarchical people is difficult but I managed one or two. See the photo stream. From there it was a 14 hour bus journey over t...