As we are heading south, we thought we couldn't miss out on Valparaíso with its hills and Unesco World Heritage Site buildings. The day bus from La Serena to Valpo (as it's known here) allowed us to see the scenery change and become increasingly green. We arrived as the sun was setting. On the trip down we had struck up a conversation with a lovely French couple who had been travelling the world for the past 6 months and who gave us some useful tips for Vie...

We arrived at La Serena after a 17 hour bus ride from San Pedro de Atacama. I had food poisoning on the bus and was sick into a variety of containers during the night. The other passengers were glad to see me get off. After a day of rest we did a tour of the nearby Elqui Valley and saw the vineyards, orchards and took in the beautiful scenery. We stopped at three Pisco distilleries and tried various spirits and wines. The highlight of the tour was our amusingly d...

Due to the distances we again had a number of flights ahead of us to get to our next destination, San Pedro de Atacama. From Cusco, we flew via Lima to Santiago. Our plan was that after a night's stay in Santiago we would then catch an afternoon flight to San Pedro. However, what we hadn't anticipated was that the airport hotel across from the terminal would be completely full. Apparently lots of people were travelling due to Independence Day celebrations in Chil...

Day One - 10kWe were picked up at 6am from our hostel in Cusco to begin the four day trek along the Inca trail over the Andes to Macchu Pichu. We met our fellow walkers, an Australian couple, Kaz and Aaron; our guide, Ramiro; and our team of porters and the cook. We stopped for breakfast at Ollantaytambo, an Inca fortress built into the mountainside where Manco Inca fought the Spanish conquistadors in 1537. We bought some Coca leaves to help with the altitude bef...

After the interesting journey to get to Cusco we afforded ourselves the luxury of a lie-in for the first time on the trip. We had purposefully left a few days extra in Cusco to relax and prepare for the Inca trail. And good thing we did because 'soroche' struck again. This time it was me who was affected. Constant nausea and not being able to breathe after ascending the slightest incline dampened the initial excitement of being in Cusco. What joy when it finall...