So I’ve been a bit inactive these past few months due to travelling around South America for the past 6 months (Sorry not sorry!). I’ll be going over locations in detail over the coming weeks!

When planning this trip I had not idea what to expect. South America has a long standing stigma of being overly dangerous no matter where you go and to be honest I was a bit nervous. I quickly discovered this couldn’t be further from the truth, yes of course it can be but like all places it requires some common sense along with situational awareness and it will be smooth sailing 99% of the time.

Peru and Bolivia

I booked a 3 week tour with G Adventures from Lima to La Paz because I wanted to ease myself into the culture I was thrusting myself into for the foreseeable future. With my luck I had a 3 day delay on my flight and had to find my way to the second stop on the tour so unfortunately I had to skip Lima.

Arequipa

However I did manage to visit a range of places in Peru such as Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca, Arequipa, Colca Canyon, Cusco, Agua Calientes, Ollantaytambo, Puno and finishing up in La Paz Bolivia. I later came back to Bolivia to visit a tiny section of the Amazon for a few days (I’ll tell you all about it soon).

Peru wasn’t the focal point of my trip during the organision process (Chile was.), I just booked it because I had 3 weeks spare before I started learning spanish in Santiago. What I saw in Peru made me realise even if I dedicated a year I still wouldn’t even uncover half of what is has to offer (like all places though am I right?).

Cerro San Cristobal

Chile

After those 3 weeks of travelling I made my way down to Santiago (Chile) to start my spanish classes. Learning a new language was one thing I had always wanted to do so I allocated 3 months to begin that process. I’ve got to tell you learning a new language is both fun and extremely frustrating! But the reward is well worth the effort!

Out of the 6 months I have been travelling, 5 months has been spent focusing on Chile. Chile being a very long country spanning over half the western coast line of South America has 16 different climates or regions as the Chileans call it. With bone dry deserts to the north and lush forests to the south I had my hands full with seeing everything I could.

Out of the 16 regions I have only missed out on 2, those being the Arica/Parinacota region up north and los ríos a few hours south of Santiago (If only I had more time!).

What I found amazing is that you can pretty much travel the whole continent by bus. They have an amazingly efficient & affordable bus system. Be prepared though it’s not uncommon to travel for 10+ hours so download all the music and netflix episodes you can.

In hindsight I wish I knew about how easy it was to travel by bus. Although G adventures was AWESOME, being on an extended trip with no additonal income makes you think about how you can save money where you can.

From the thundering tropics of the Amazon to the windswept archipelago of Tierra del Fuego I’ve been captivated by the everything about this continent. In my opinion it is the perfect place to backpack but hey you’ll just have to experience it yourself and find out!