South America 2021

Let the adventure begin! Read more

Exploring the streets of Amsterdam. 35847 steps 26,6km reached in constantly changing weather conditions. At one minute sun is warmly shining and a few moments later it is pouring and we are running to hide in some store. That is traveling! Read more

We’ve been lucky enough to stay in our friend Victoria’s apartment in Haarlem during the last 2 nights and had been even luckier to go a birthday party on Friday night. Fun experience! 🥂 Read more

We spent the evening at the seaside of Netherlands in Zandvoort. There we had a chance to see Formula1 track and taste the local seafood 🌊. Read more

Our last day in the Netherlands was all about being real tourists. We went to van Gogh’s museum and afterward ate waffles in a lively and sunny park 🍃. Ready for our longest flight ever in the evening! Read more

Travel day. We spent the whole night flying to São Paulo, Brazil. Due to time zone shifts, the night became twice as long but the flight still went quite fast. After couple of hours of sipping coffee in a busy São Paulo airport we finally got on the plane again and landed to our final… Read more

We woke up early in the morning and decided to go straight to Copacabana beach. Although it was a bit cloudy, we still managed to get a bit tanned, swim in a wavy ocean, and get our first caipirinhas 🍹. Read more

Colorful city center and fogy Jesus. For the second day in a row, we were looking for chances to go on the famous summits of Rio but fog and clouds didn’t seem to be leaving the city any time soon. As the Uber driver said the weather não é normal. On the other hand, it… Read more

Today we finally had our first hike of the trip. It was a relatively short one up the junglish mountain but it nevertheless made us sweat. At the end of the trail, we reached the cable car that took us up to the Pão de Açúcar peak. Luckily the skies opened up today to give… Read more

Samba night 💃🏼. Last night was a real Rio De Janeiro experience! We took samba class to learn basic moves of the dance, solo and with a partner. After that, we went to practice it in a Samba bar full of Brazilians. We tried to blend in with our moves and had lots of fun! Read more

Our 26-hour bus journey across Brazil began today 🚍. We were stuck in Rio traffic with the slow Uber driver and had to run in the station asking everyone for directions to get to our bus on time. We came one minute before the bus left 😅. The legroom looked promising although staying more than… Read more

A prolonged bus ride. We continued the ride throughout the night and the morning. Unfortunately, the whole road got blocked by a truck (no victims in the accident) and created a huge traffic jam. It increased the total trip time to well over 30 hours. Throughout the trip, we had nice views and changing landscapes,… Read more

We began the day by taking a bus and hiking to see Iguazu Falls which are considered to be one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. These falls can be seen in both Argentina and Brazil. On the Brazil side, we had a chance to see breathtaking panoramic views and take a boat… Read more

We had a calmer day today reading books, swimming in the pool, and planning our next steps in the trip 😌. However, in the afternoon we went to visit one of the largest dams in the world Itaipu Dam which is on the border of Paraguay and Brazil and is managed by both countries together⚡️. Read more

We started the day early to do a day trip to Argentina 🇦🇷. Although we live close to the border, people around and online had different information of how we needed to get there and what kind of entrance requirements exist. On the advice of our hotel, we spend 1.5h in the morning waiting for… Read more

There were weird Paraguayan ads all over this Brazilian region advertising cheap shopping which caught our attention. We lived just a bridge away from the second-largest Paraguayan city Ciudad del Este, which turns out to be one of the largest free-trade zones in the world. As we had some time in the morning, we decided to… Read more

Most of the day we spent traveling by bus. We felt really tired and sweaty after a 24-hour trip. When we finally arrived in Bonito got a nice welcome in our hostel. One lady met us with freshly picked and cooled mangos and told us everything about the surrounding area. This was probably the first person in… Read more

After having our breakfast in the hostel and eating true vitamin C bombs acerola berries, we went on the road to reach Nascente Azul park for snorkeling. As usual, we enjoyed the company of other Brazilian tourists and a Brazilian instructor/guide who only spoke Portuguese. I guess we are getting better at it as we had pretty okay conversations… Read more

In the morning we went for a hike. We reached a wonderful private river beach with the clear water which refreshed wonderfully after the hike 🥾. Read more

Today we rented a car to go to stay in Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland area (almost the size of the UK) and home to many exotic animals and birds, even pumas and jaguars. We had to go off-road for an hour to reach our pousada we will be staying in. We did a day and a… Read more

We continued our exploration of Pantanal by going to a 5 AM hike around the area. The weather is really hot during the day so early mornings and late evenings are the only chances to see animals. We encountered many anteaters and armadillos throughout the hike. Later in the afternoon, we took a boat ride through the… Read more

The day started with a couple toucans joining us for breakfast. We were excited to see these colorful birds so close to us 😍. After the breakfast we finished the exploration of Pantanal, this time riding horses 🏇. It capped off our time in this region nicely, with us encountering couple more unseen animals and enjoying the nature… Read more

We spent the night on the bus, having tried leito (bed) seats for the first time. It doesn’t compare to a normal bed but it was nevertheless the best sleeping experience we had on the bus 😴. We arrived in rainy and cold São Paulo. Nevertheless, the mood was “super max” as the sign says why we… Read more

It was the starting day of our Formula 1 weekend. The Interlagos circuit is famous for its rainy weather and it was no different today with clouds, wind and chilly temperatures throughout the day 🥶. The midday practice session was the first time we heard formula engines roaring. Everybody got on their feet and started cheering the… Read more

We woke up the second day for Formula 1 not being too much in a hurry, as we knew how to reach it with the metro and what waiting times to expect from yesterday. How wrong we were! We arrived 1.5h before the practice session and were met with half of the kilometer queue to… Read more

Race day. The streets around the circuit were full from the early morning anticipating the upcoming event. The atmosphere in the stands was full of excitement despite a couple of hours of waiting in the heat for the race to start. We couldn’t have been luckier with the race, witnessing an on-the-track battle between two… Read more

After having a calm morning recovering from the race, we finally went out to look around São Paulo itself. We went for a walk in Avenida Paulista, which is a main street in the city. As Brazil was celebrating its Republic Day today the street was closed for the cars and was in a celebratory mood. We… Read more

We booked the flight to our next destination and Tuesday became our last day full in Brazil. We went out to the downtown area and Mercado Municipal which is the main market of Saõ Paulo. The place was buzzing with people trying to sell their produce as well as small restaurants serving food and drinks. The most… Read more

We set our next destination to be Peru but we woke up in the morning not knowing if we will manage to get there. When we were boarding a plane to Brazil, we got asked to show our return tickets. Since we didn’t have any, we quickly booked a flight to Santiago, Chile which was… Read more

We arrived in Lima late at night and despite being chased down by multiple taxi drivers, we took a 15 min walk to our hostel. After having a light breakfast we had immediately felt a huge relief of being able to communicate in Spanish, as we spoke with a local worker who directed us to… Read more

We had a relaxing morning in our hostel, which has cozy terraces on the top of the building. Later in the day, we explored the colorful neighborhoods of Lima buying street food while passing by. All the parts of the city close to the ocean looked really developed and lively, with many surfers and paragliders… Read more

We went for a walking tour with a guide in the Historic City Center of Lima. She told us about history, architecture and important people who lived there. We got to know more about Inca culture which is very unique! Finished the tour with a taste of Pisco Sourcocktail which we continued enjoying later in the… Read more

Having recovered from the evening pisco sours we went to a market to try ceviche, lime-marinated seafood. Additionally, we enjoyed fresh juices and fruits which you can find anywhere around Lima 🍎🍊🍇. Read more

We spent the morning buying a SIM card 📱. It was easier and better organized compared to Brazil, only involved waiting in a long line to get into carriers shop and then they took care of the rest. Later we hopped on the bus and started our journey exploring Peru. The first views straight after… Read more

In the morning we got to practice our bargaining skills when trying to rent our bikes in Paracas. After we got them we headed to Paracas National Reserve to see the desert and panoramic views of the ocean. The ride with the bikes wasn’t the easiest one as hilly terrain and strong winds constantly pushed us back. Nevertheless,… Read more

When we were heading to the town of Paracas we had no idea you can take a short boat ride to see penguins, especially when seeing nothing but the desert all around. It took less than an hour to reach The Ballestas Islands, where we were greeted by thousands and thousands of birds and sea life around the… Read more

Today we did a morning cardio climb to the highest dune and had breakfast with an amazing panorama. In the evening went for a buggy ride in the dunes with a driver. It was fun, especially when he went up and down the steepest dunes at full speed! We stopped for some belly sandboarding afterward.… Read more

In the morning, while it was still not too hot, I (Povilas) took the board, put on boots, and went to try sandboarding in the dunes. Although the experience is similar to snowboarding there were little differences that took some time to get used to. Needless to say, after 2 hours I was completely covered… Read more

We spend most of the day in the cozy and colorful backyard of our hostel. Since we didn’t know where we go next, we used this time to reflect on our wishes and plan a couple of days ahead. Our planning culminated in us taking a late evening bus and leaving the sand dunes behind… Read more

After a shaky and wavy night bus ride, we arrived at Arequipa. No wonder, as the city is located at almost 2.5km altitude and is surrounded by 6km high volcanos 🌋. The combination of higher altitude and a nightly bus ride made us feel a bit dizzy but after relaxing at our hotel we did… Read more

We took a rest day without any plans. So most of the day spent reading, watching series, sleeping and relaxing. Apart from that we had a little walk and enjoyed some local lunch, fresh juices, and pastries in the city market 🥭. When we headed back home we stopped to see the view of volcanos… Read more

While Gabriele was chilling I decided to take a hike towards the Chachani volcano to reach 3000 meters elevation. The hike went through the city at first and it was interesting to see fancier neighborhoods turn into car repair shops or garages and then quickly turn into villages without any electricity or water. You could… Read more

We started the day having breakfast in our hotel that is run by a couple from Venezuela and Peru. The husband who is from Venezuela told us a lot about the food and brought to taste various snacks. We used the second part of the day to arrange a 3 day trip to the canyons… Read more

We woke up incredibly early 2:30 AM to catch a 3 AM van going from Arequipa to the Colca Canyon. As the second deepest canyon in the world, it promised a lot of views, hikes, and interesting accommodations to us. However, the day didn’t quite start as planned. The van ride was hard to take.… Read more

Cabanaconde town is at the top of the canyon and today we planned to hike down to the bottom of it. We had our breakfast with 2 French couples who turned out to have chosen the same final destination as we did. We waved each other goodbye until the afternoon and all started hiking at our… Read more

Today’s hike went up and down across the canyon. The first half was all about going up and we deliberately chose more interesting paths to take. We were also surprised by a changed nature, with many cactuses making it hard to walk through tight paths. We walked through a small village in the canyon and… Read more

Everybody at the hotel went to sleep very early to be able to wake up before the sunset. We woke up at 5 AM but were already one of the last ones as we heard people leave for the hike while we were still packing up. For all the goal was to come back to Cabanacondetown… Read more

Today was all about relaxing after 4 days of hiking. We could really feel our legs so we didn’t want to move too much today. Arequipa had plenty of local chocolate stores and cafes so we enjoyed one of them. Besides that, we decided to go straight to Cusco thus we jumped on a night bus and hoped for… Read more

We arrived in Cusco early in the morning. We had a guy from our hostel waiting for an hour to pick us up from the bus station holding our name tags. We’ve never had such luxury but it made the morning much easier. The first impressions of Cusco were positive. Despite being touristy you immediately understand why… Read more

Today was a calm day walking around the famous Cusco city. The weather and the feeling around the city were uplifting although you could feel its touristy downsides. We would feel like celebrities as one after other people were approaching us selling tours, bracelets, paintings or just inviting to restaurants. In the beginning, it was… Read more

Our 50th day, as it’s often now the case, began before the dawn as we took the bus to see a Rainbow Mountain. At least from pictures, this mountain with its colors looked incredible and we wanted to see it. What’s even more interesting is that this attraction only started to exist in 2016 when due… Read more

In the morning we moved from the hostel in the city center to the hotel further away. Immediately it was a fun experience as we escaped tourist traps and entered the streets full of local people. We were treated to the cheapest lunch of our trip costing 5 soles (1.1 euro) for a soup, main… Read more

Our plan in the morning was to rent a car and go around Sacred Valley close to Cusco. Unfortunately, we didn’t succeed in rental but instead, we asked and were driven to a place where “colectivos” (van buses) go to the small town that we wanted. We arrived in Chincheros – the city that is famous for… Read more

We woke up early to watch the finale of F1 which did not disappoint 🏎. Rooms at night get quite chilly here in Cusco (reminds us of winter in Spain) so we happily watched it covering ourselves with 3 layers of sheets 🛏. Later in the day, we were preparing for our upcoming 4-day hike… Read more

We decided to go to Machu Picchu through 4 day/3 night Inca Trail. This is a famous trail that before Covid would require a reservation before a couple of months but now we arranged it before 4 days. Nevertheless, it’s a popular trail done almost all year round, and little did we know that the… Read more

Our alarm this morning was porters “knocking” on the tent and telling coca tea, coca tea, coca tea. When we unzipped the tent we got hot coca tea straight into the “bed” 🍵. The night went well as we slept on the comfortable mattress and had warm sleeping bags. Today we planned to catch up with… Read more

We slept above 3500m elevation and the night got cold. We also heard some rain going down at night and felt that our luck is over. However, in the morning the skies were again blue and inviting us for a hike. Today’s hike was with many historical sights along the way. It was incredible what… Read more

As we were falling asleep for the last night, we heard our friend from the Amazon jungle starting to sing ritualic Shipibo songs. He was very close to nature during all the hike, stopping and examining the plants and doing little rituals along the way to express his gratitude to Pachamama (mother earth). We were woken up a couple… Read more

Today was an aftermath of the Inca Trail so we didn’t feel like doing much besides bringing our clothes to the laundry as we didn’t have many clothes left. In Cusco, a lot of places side-hustle as laundries, so it was enough for us to bring our clothes to a small food market which also takes care… Read more

The goal of the day was to decide our next destination. We were deciding between going to the jungle to explore, going to the jungle to attend ceremonies, or going to the seaside. Although jungle experiences looked extremely tempting, at the moment we felt that we finally wanted to have proper beach time and relax… Read more

We felt super fancy today flying in our premium seats to Talara ✈️. It’s a place which we heard for the first time when booking our tickets and we flew without having a clear understanding of how the place looks. We didn’t quite expect it to look like half-desert half-dunes which we saw when landing. The airport… Read more

It’s strange to say but it felt for us that it was a start of a holiday inside of a holiday. After having breakfast on our patio we went immediately to the beach. There were finals of the local surfing competition happening there in which our hotel owner and her daughters participated. We watched everything… Read more

We started coming up with our holiday routine: breakfast, exercising, beach and books. We were also eager to try ceviche here and compare to the previous places we tried and it certainly didn’t disappoint. In the evening after arriving a couple of minutes too late to witness a sunset we went to have a pizza.… Read more

We finally went a bit further away from our hotel and the beach. Máncora itself is a small but chaotic town. There’s a road right through the city which is buzzing with buses, trucks, and tuk-tuks. While passing by they always leave huge dust clouds behind them. We went to check a local market and… Read more

Breakfast, exercise, beach, books, fresh juice, ceviche, and repeat 🔁. We enjoy our rhythm here. One thing that is also certain in Peru and especially here in Máncora is that dogs are living their own lives and they will never pass the opportunity to say hi 🐶. The hotel dog is excited every morning to… Read more

For Christmas Eve, we grabbed coconuts, fruits, wine, and of course Panettone and enjoyed a cozy night watching Harry Potter. It was a new experience for us to celebrate Christmas during summer under the palm trees and we enjoyed it. The hosts of our hotel invited their friends and family to celebrate Christmas together and we had… Read more