Loving the journey: Month Two Round-up

I’m not going to lie: Month two hasn’t been all smooth sailing. We’ve seen some of the most jaw-droppingly amazing places and had some pretty incredible experiences, but it’s been tainted by a lot of upset tummies, sleepless bus rides and genuine homesickness as we’ve travelled through some of South America’s poorest places. We’ve just arrived in Cusco, Peru after leaving the beautiful Bolivian lakeside town of Copacabana. We spent five nights here; working, making some awesome friends and going on a few short hikes. But we left Copacabana with a sour taste in our mouths – literally. Nearly every restaurant we went to made one, or both of us, sick. This was something we had intermittently come to expect in Bolivia, but being sick pretty much every night in a town that resembles paradise definitely put a dampener on things. We acted like two excited kids when lunch today in Cusco was delicious and hearty, and didn’t make us sick (not yet anyway!)

Joel and I said goodbye to Bolivia with similar emotions: we had seen some great sights, witnessed a very different culture to our own and met some truly lovely people, but we wouldn’t feel the need to ever go back. We’d recommend the country to others and we were definitely glad we had experienced it; but once is most definitely enough. Onwards and upwards, we said excitedly, to Cusco in Peru. The City of the Inca’s! Macchu Picchu! Decent food! Meeting up with Mum! That’s the beauty of our style of travel – when a place simply isn’t doing it for us anymore, we move on. Brilliant.

Here’s an overview of our second month on the road – our favourite memories, places and people; as well as the things we weren’t so impressed with.

Favourite place: Cafayate, Northern Argentina. The vineyards set amongst towering mountains and cacti had us from day one, as did the delicious Assado BBQ’s that we cooked ourselves with newfound friends. The Malbec and Torrontes wines and gourmet goat cheese went down a treat. We love our food, and this place allowed us to indulge everyday (and we didn’t get sick once!)

Favourite memories: The volcanoes, salt flats and snowstorms of our 4-day 4WD tour in Southern Bolivia, as well as the Death Road and randomly meeting up with friends in Copacabana that we met in Cafayate (Joel). Running at sunset along rows of golden-hued vineyards in Cafayate, surviving the Death Road, dancing all night with a local Bolivian couple we made friends with in Copacabana.

Favourite people: Coco, Raquel and Augustine from Copacabana. Dan and Carly, a lovely Kiwi couple we made friends with. Dave and Kyle, two pommy mates cycling the length of the continent that we randomly met up with again in Bolivia after meeting them in Cafayate.  The crew from the salt flats.

Food: Argentinian BBQ’s (once again!) in Cafayate. There were no culinary highlights to report of in Bolivia whatsoever.

Worst place: Probably La Paz – the altitude, exhaust fumes, and lack of a decent feed did our heads in.

 Worst memory: The overnight bus from Uyuni to La Paz on gravel roads where a Belgium couple was pretty much sleeping in our laps because they had reclined their seats so far back. Waking up with the worst altitude-induced headache of my life on halfway up Huayna Potosi (Alli). Enduring a crook tummy and a 7-hour bus ride over the Bolivian border (Joel).

Worst meal: Pretty much all of Bolivia.

Over the next month we’ll be meeting up with Mum to do the Inca Trail and southern Peru with her. After that, we’ll make our way to Ecuador in search of a cheap deal to the Galapagos (fingers crossed – that’s bucket list stuff!)