If I’d woken up and been told that, due to a bout of amnesia I’d been flown to Madrid, then I could easily believe that’s where I’d landed. Seriously - Santiago is a smart, modern city with efficient public transport, occassional traffic jams, and lots of foreigners trying to make a buck. It [...]

For a panicked moment I thought maybe I’d picked up worms. Perhaps from a cat, dog or llama I’d been playing with.
Then I remembered, I’d earlier eaten spaghetti. And I’ve not long had a nasty bout of food poisoning. And it takes a while for the digestive system to work properly after [...]

I must like them, because I think this is about my third. No more deserts from now, however. My tan is suitably well developed (at least on exposed skin - need to work on my back now) and I think I now understand what dry empty places are about.
The Village of San Pedro de Atacama
San [...]

So in Arica, looking for something to do, I found the offices of Raices Andinas (or something like that, maybe the other way round - I don’t have my notes on me) and booked myself on a four day expedition of the local national parks. And this was a fascinating trip indeed, although in [...]

These two border towns are found on either side of the Peru/Chile border. Reasonably pleasant, they’re popular for their shopping and in the case of Arica the beach. There’s not a huge else to say about them really and my main reason for coming here has been because they provide the highest density [...]

When you travel you try and do everything on a budget. It’s expensive, after all, to stay in a hotel every night, eat out all the time, and pay for buses and flights. But for the past few days I was invited to the beach house of the family I know in Lima [...]

Condors are scavengers - that means they only eat meat of animals that have died and died recently…. Now, in the Colca Valley the condor watching is a huge draw, although in reality the spectacular scenery should be enough for most.
So, to keep the tourists coming and to keep them happy it helps if [...]

It was Douglas Adams that suggested that wherever you are in the universe, asking for something that sounds like “Gin and Tonic” will usually give you the same drink. Of course I’ve only been able to test this theory on Earth, but so far it had proven unbreakable. So in a non touristy [...]

Peruvian food can be quite easily categorised into the following sections:
Salty and meaty.
Egg based.
Dangerous.
Salty and fishy.
Scary.
Salty and vegetarian.
Touristic.
Lomo Saltado is one of the classic dishes - fried and salted beef, served in a big pile with gravy, vegetables and chips - all mixed together. There may be some salad on the side.
Dangerous food can [...]