The atmosphere in the shuttle van was one of nervous excitement. Each of us was mentally assessing our accomplices on this hike. Who looked the fittest? Who would be the weakest link? There was fatalistic banter, jokes about who…
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We were sprinting as fast as we could, leaping and stumbling over slippery rocks of lava. At 2,500 metres, the run was more tiresome than would otherwise have been the case. But we had to keep going. We could…
Inside San Juan Chamula church, were locals everywhere, sitting and standing, chatting or deep in solemn prayer. Men ironed clothing and colourful ribbons with the utmost ceremony. The women, richly costumed in their local, traditional weaves, sat cross-legged on…
At the dock of a floating souvenir store in the middle of Tonlé Sap Lake, a fragile woman paddled to our boat. Her child – or her grandchild; it was impossible to tell – clung to the side of the…
My hands were shaking uncontrollably, but it wasn’t from the fear. I knew that below me was an almost 1km drop down to the bottom of the fjord. But the swirling mists hid the valley floor from view. Turns out it’s…
In a gutted royal villa of mildewed walls, a wild gust welcomes cold spray into the shelter through long-glassless windows. Our guide, Dara, is ill-prepared for the weather in rain-soaked shirt and shorts. He shivers, hunched over, his hands…
He was dressed in impeccably pleated suit pants and wore creased but polished black shoes. His face was as worn as his shoes, lines branching off at the corners of his eyes. His ears stuck out behind pokey greying…
At eight in the morning, a scruffy-haired kid resembling a street urchin in black Adidas tracksuit pants and a ripped maroon top escorted us to Nyaungshwe’s main canal, Nan Chaung. We were about to embark on our first Inle…
From Merida, the bus passed through variable scenery from the murky coastal greys of the Gulf of Mexico, to the vibrant shopfronts of beach towns, and finally to the richly verdant, rolling landscape surrounding Palenque. The enchanting ruins of…
Huaraz is a bustling city sandwiched between two thick cordillera slices, making it the perfect starting-point to climb one of the many 6,000-plus metre peaks in the vicinity. Unfortunately, or perhaps luckily for me, I was barely trained for…
The only sound is the shuffling of feet on gravel and the occasional dry-retching of a fellow hiker ahead of or behind me. It had already been an hour of climbing, but it felt interminable. The sun was only…
The jungle trek to Machu Picchu, for those of you not already in the know, is a kind of alternative trail for those backpackers too disorganised or free-flying to pin themselves down for a date for the real Inca trail,…
As I watched as our bus ascend out of town up to 4,700 metres, I started to have misgivings. I’d already heard stories of people breaking limbs on this bicycle ride, and even saw the ugly injury of one…
The starting point for the Amazon basin in Bolivia is in a rather nondescript, almost Asian-like town of mosquitoes and motorbikes called Rurrenabaque. I know what you’re thinking when I say Amazon. You’re picturing trekking through dense jungle foliage…
Boulders, canyons, snow-capped mountains, flamingos, geysers, vicuñas, multicoloured lagoons, llamas, and the world’s largest salt flats. In a matter of four days in Bolivia, you can see it all: the Wild West, frost-bitten plains, a moonscape, and a crystal…