Rio de Janeiro was one of the most anticipated destinations in our travels. Offering one of the seven wonders of the world, several iconic beaches and a beautiful green mountainous topography, Rio tends to encourage high expectations, and we were no exception. Drinking our
first beer on Copacabana beach, watching the locals play foot volley (an incredibly skillful blend of beach volleyball and football) and looking up to sugar loaf mountain, we sensed that we wouldn't be disappointed.

Our first full day in Rio promised the best weather, so we got up early and jumped on the first train up to Christ the Redeemer. The wonder itself was pretty spectacular, although we found ourselves spending at least as much time looking at the amazing views of Rio below us. Although mornings are supposed to be the quietest time to see the Cristo, there were still an annoyingly large mass of people up there, making photos a real challenge. Even more annoying were dozens
of photobombing protestors who were obviously under the erroneous assumption that us tourists had the capacity to unspend billions of dollars on stadiums and divert them to school funding. The other main gripe the protestors had was that the majority of World Cup revenues were going to a greedy and corrupt Fifa, but in a country so familiar with the world game we were surprised they expected anything different from Sepp Blatter and co.

The other main vantage point in Rio is sugar loaf mountain, accessible via a relatively pricey cable car. To get maximum bang for our buck we went at sunset on a beautiful day, enjoying memorable views of downtown Rio, Copacabana and Ipanema by day and night.

Rio is not necessarily all mountains and beaches; it also has plenty to offer downtown. We took a walking tour to see all the main highlights, including Saint Anthony Church, the Lapa Arches, the
Escadaria Selaron (famous colorful staircase), the Theatro Municipal and a Havaianas store.

One of Cindy's friends from Australia recently moved to Rio (her husband is working on the 2016 Rio Olympics) and we caught up with her for a nice lunch. By then we had already worked out that food in Brazil was expensive by South American standards, but we were surprised to hear how much, even by global standards, accommodation costs in Rio's zona sul (relatively affluent area that includes Copacabana and Ipanama and other nearby suburbs), especially when you take into account the relatively modest average annual salaries in Brazil.

We spent the rest of our time in Rio on and around the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. We biked the length of both beaches, had a swim or two, and bought a soccer ball to make use of the goals on Copacabana beach. Everyday hundreds of healthy locals run and bike along beachside paths and use outdoor gyms, so we decided to get in on the fitness act by visiting a crossfit gym in Copacabana.

At night we drank at surprisingly affordable beachside bars; our favorite was the Bacardi bar, which served dangerously large mojitos. For one night we splurged on a beautiful meal at a Sofitel hotel terrace overlooking the beach. Unfortunately we seemed to be the only ones really enjoying our meal as the rest of the diners were Fifa officials who were typing on their laptops and blackberries while they ate.

We were in Rio for the last five nights before the cup started, and Copacabana was a hub of frantic (and in some cases chaotic) activity as the Fifa fan fest and nearby bars were erected against all odds at the absolute last minute. We also saw the masses of fans from around the world (with the US, Australia and Colombia seeming to contribute the largest numbers) descend on the beaches of Zona Sul. One of these football pilgrims was Cindy's brother, Napo, who arrived two days
before the opening game for an extended stint in Rio. We really enjoyed catching up with Napo for a couple of days before heading to our next destination, Iguassu Falls.

The focus of our big trip was always the World Cup in Brazil, and we finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. By arriving before the cup started we were able watch the atmosphere slowly building and now that the cup has started we’re really enjoying soaking it up.

We entered Brazil on an overnight bus from Montevideo to Porto Allegre. Luckily the 13-hour trip wasn’t as uncomfortable as expected, and the border crossing was the easiest we’ve had so far, with the bus company taking our passports and looking after all the paperwork while we slept.

Porto Allegre is a medium-sized coastal city in the south of Brazil that is hosting a few games during the World Cup (including that Australia v Netherlands game where Tim Cahill scored the goal of the tournament). Immediately after dropping off our bags in the hotel we headed straight to the FIFA ticketing centre to pick up our World Cup tickets. We had secured most of our seats several months ago but it was a great feeling to finally be in Brazil and holding the shiny tickets.

Over the last few months you all no doubt will have read plenty of stories about Brazil not being as ready for the cup as FIFA would like. On the way back from the ticketing centre we got a first-hand view of this. New roads to the stadium were far from finished, resulting in massive traffic jams. The stadium itself still had plenty of scaffolding on it and the surrounding area was a hub of frantic activity.

Back home you may also have heard that many Brazilians aren’t too happy with the money being spent on the Cup. We learnt pretty quickly that we couldn’t expect the locals, even the soccer-mad ones, to be as excited as we are. Most of the people we spoke to expressed a lot of frustration and stressed that the country had better things to spend billions of dollars on. It doesn’t help that most Brazilians either couldn’t afford, or couldn’t get their hands on, any tickets. 

While in Porto Allegre we spent plenty of time wandering through the pretty downtown area (see the pictures below). We also attended a Crossfit gym in the suburbs. We know that a lot of people might roll their eyes when somebody mentions Crossfit (Sam used to be a bit like that too before he tried it), but we continue to be amazed at how welcoming and generous the Crossfit community has been to us.

The box we visited in Porto Allegre was the fourth we’d visited in four different countries (by then we’d also done workouts in Lima, Mendoza and Montevideo). At each box, the coaches were really friendly and interested to hear about our travels. They were all patient with us (given that one, or in Brazil both, of us didn’t speak their language), and none of them let us pay anything for the workout. Our coach in Mendoza even offered to put on a barbecue for us at his house, but unfortunately we were leaving the next morning. The locals we’ve worked out with have also been fantastic. In Porto Allegre, one gave us plenty of recommendations of things to do there and then insisted on driving us to his favorite restaurant.

From Porto Allegre, we caught a long bus to Florianopolis, which sits on the western edge of Ilha de Santa Catarina. The large island is known for its beautiful and varied landscape, including large lagoons, lush mountains and beautiful long white sand beaches. The island has been a popular summer destination for Brazilians, Uruguayans and Argentinians for a while, and is becoming increasingly popular amongst travelers (particularly backpackers) from further afield.

After arriving in Florianopolis, we headed straight to our beachside accommodation just in time for a beautiful sunset. We didn’t realize at the time that we wouldn’t see the sun again in the three days we were there. With the weather as it was, we spent most of our time in the room or in the small town nearby, which doesn’t make very interesting reading. Our one highlight was quite unexpected. We had just enjoyed a nice quiet meal when our waiter told us that the Brazilian soccer legend, Romario, was playing in a friendly match a few hundred meters away. At first, Cindy couldn’t believe it, given that we were in such a small town and Romario isn’t as young as he used to be, but we braved the cold and rain to enjoy watching the legend in action (albeit at a much slower pace).

With the world cup now underway, we wanted to finish this post by letting you all know which games we’ll be attending (ideally we would have posted this a week ago but we've been really busy). We’ve already seen the first four (more on that in a later blog) and will be cheering on Costa Rica to, we hope, an unlikely group victory tomorrow:

Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina in Rio De Janeiro on 15 June at 7pm (3pm on the West Coast of the States and 8am on the East Coast of Australia)

Belgium v Algeria in Belo Horizonte on 17 June at 1pm (9am on the West Coast of the States and 2amon the East Coast of Australia)

Argentina v Iran in Belo Horizonte on 21 June at 1pm

Belgium v Russia in Rio de Janeiro on 22 June at 1pm

England v Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte on 24 June at 1pm

Portugal v Ghana in Brasilia on 26 June at 1pm

The winner of Group E (likely to be Switzerland, Ecuador or France) v the runner up of Group F (likely to be Bosnia-Herzegovina) in Brasilia on 30 June at 1pm

As you can see, we don’t have any Australia or US games. We got almost all of our tickets before the draw was announced so it was just by chance that we ended up with what we got. You may know that both teams have been drawn in tough groups. In-fact the three countries whose press have been most critical of FIFA’s culture of corruption have by complete coincidence we’re sure (OK maybe not 100% sure), ended up in the three toughest groups and are playing in the most remote locations. Even so, after Brazil the US and Australia have the most fans attending the World Cup, so there are plenty of Aussies and Americans here cheering on their teams and proving that both countries are plenty soccer mad enough to host the 2022 World Cup.

Buenos Aires is built along the shore of the Rio de la Plata, or River Plate (although it looks a lot more like an ocean than a river to us). On the other side of the river is Uruguay. We took a short boat trip from BA to the closest Uruguayan port, Colonia del Sacramento, where we spent the first of our four relatively uninteresting days (with the exception of three main highlights) in Uruguay.

Our first highlight was exploring the streets of Colonia, which is a beautiful small town that has retained not only its colonial streets and buildings but also its charm despite becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination.

Our second highlight was going to see Uruguay play Northern Ireland at the national stadium Centenario, which hosted not only the first ever World Cup final but also a couple of devastating Socceroos world cup qualifying matches. The atmosphere in the packed ground was fantastic, although we weren’t too impressed by a national team that is supposed to be among the best in the world. Thankfully the Uruguayans managed one goal to avoid an embarrassing defeat and reduce the risk of us getting caught up in a riot.

Our final highlight was treating ourselves to a big steak lunch at the Mercado del Puerto. Like everything else in Uruguay, the meal was substantially more expensive than in Argentina but at least the meat was good.

Other than that, there’s not much we can say about Uruguay. We spent a fair bit of time exploring Montevideo and its city beaches but it is not a particularly pretty city. We’re told that a few hours to the north of the capital there are some beautiful beaches, but at the best of times these were not likely to impress Californians and Australians who were on their way to Brazil (and even then winter is certainly not the best of times).

Our stay in Buenos Aires didn’t get off to the best of starts. In the first half hour we both became victims of a very nasty bird dropping incident that left us begging for early access to a shower at our hotel. People say it’s good luck, and as it turned out the rest of our time in BA was fantastic.

On our first night we went to Fuerza Bruta, a show that plenty of Argentinians (and tripadvisor) had highly recommended to us. We didn't really know what to expect but in the end the show, which we would describe as a much edgier (and cheaper) alternative to Cirque du Soleil, was a really enjoyable and memorable experience.

The other, more famous, night time activity in BA is tango, which tourists can generally see in one of two ways - either go to a tango club in the suburbs to watch the locals strut their stuff or buy tickets to a more formal tango show downtown. We ended up doing both, visiting La Catedral del Tango for the more authentic experience then getting dressed up and going to El Viejo Almacen to see the oldest tango show in town.

We had come to expect good food in Argentina, and this trend certainly continued in BA. Our favorite meal was a two pound steak from a fine dining restaurant, which we got at a 40% discount because we were happy to eat before 8pm (which was perfect for us but way too early for the locals). Our best value meal was a delicious Choripan we bought from a street vendor in town. We also enjoyed some beautiful pizza and fish from a couple of local favorites, both of which were heavily decorated from floor to ceiling in soccer memorabilia.

Buenos Aires is as soccer mad as any city we’d visited, and the iconic Locos Por El Futbol bar proved to be as good a place as any to watch the Champions League final. While in BA we also went to the inner city suburb of Boca to tour the stadium of the famous Boca Juniors side. 

During the day we visited plenty of tourist hot spots, including El Caminito (a colorful street in Boca), La Recoleta cemetery (the final resting place of Evita), Floraris Genérica (a large flower-shaped metal sculpture), the San Telmo markets (a Sunday-only market that stretches for a dozen blocks in the city) the Obelisco (a national monument that served as a good reference point whenever we got lost), and the Casa Rosada (or pink house, the Argentinian president’s office).

There is also plenty to see just outside of BA. After a short drive north we caught a boat from Tigre, through the small winding rivers of the Parana Delta back to Buenos Aires. To the south of BA is La Plata, where we caught up with one of Cindy’s friends from Santa Barbara and visited the most impressive cathedral we’ve seen outside of Europe.

We spent more time in Buenos Aires than any other city on our trip so far, but we still left wishing we could stay longer. This very European city has a lot to offer, including beautiful architecture, great restaurants and really friendly people, and we’d both name it as one of our favorite cities in the world.

To the east of Santiago the Andes rise quickly to the Argentinian border. On the other side is one of Argentina's most beautiful cities, Mendoza. We chose to take the bus rather than fly, not only because it's cheaper but it offers one of the most picturesque 8-hour journeys you can take in South America. We even spent an extra $5 each to get first class seats on the bus, ensuring we both got a great view of the snow capped mountains. Unfortunately we suspect that was the last time we'll travel first class internationally for a while.

Argentina generally, and Mendoza in particular, has a reputation for having plenty of steak restaurants, and after a few months in countries largely lacking that culinary focus (and after a long bus ride) we were desperate to get stuck into the biggest and reddest steak possible. We spent almost an hour looking for a suitable option but the only place open was a McDonalds-style fast food restaurant. When we returned to our hotel at 7pm the receptionist had a little chuckle before explaining that in Argentina most people eat between 10 and 11pm and restaurants won't even open until 8 or 8:30. That night, and most other nights in Argentina, we had a delicious steak meal at 8:30. Invariably our fellow diners were either fellow travelers or locals of significantly advanced years.

Argentina has also developed a strong reputation as a wine producing country, and three quarters of the stuff comes from the Mendoza region. To take full advantage, we spent two of our three days in Mendoza on wine tasting tours. With the exception of one winery that produced very sweet wines (not our favorite style), we found that the quality of the wine, particularly the red was generally very good. 


We found it hard to believe based on our experience (we managed to get three of the thirty cloudy/rainy days Mendoza gets in a whole year) but the city sits in the middle of a desert. As a result it features a huge and complex irrigation system and winemakers prefer to plant grapes that don't need a lot of water. One of these, Malbec, is the signature wine of the region. Although it's by no means bold (certainly by Australian standards), the better Malbecs we tasted had plenty of depth and character.

On our last day in Mendoza we went for a leisurely 2-hour horse ride around some lower hills and vineyards out of town. Toward the end of the ride we got our first glimpse of the spectacular surrounding snow capped mountains (some almost 6000 meters high) that we're told are clearly visible most days of the year. At night we sat around a campfire, enjoying a meaty Argentinian barbecue and plenty of Malbec.

What would otherwise have been a budget-blowing few days for us came in right on budget (despite many indulgences) courtesy of a currency exchange system that we still found baffling despite getting a heads up from fellow backpackers and coming prepared. The official exchange rate was eight pesos to one dollar, but a couple of years ago it was four to one. As a result locals have lost faith in their own currency and prefer to hold dollars (although government regulations make that difficult). The outcome for us was walking into an exchange house in Mendoza, taking note of a sign saying they'll offer 7.8 pesos to a dollar and having the guy behind the counter offer us 11.4. If official looking exchanges offering attractive rates like this are hard to find, as was the case in Buenos Aires, there are plenty of street vendors happy to pay a premium for dollars. Speaking of Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital was our next stop - we'll have plenty to say about our favorite city in South America in our next post.

After landing at Santiago we caught a bus to Valparaiso. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Valpo (as the locals call it) developed as an important and increasingly affluent port town, although it's prominence quickly diminished following the opening of the Panama Canal. Now Valpo is known as the legislative and cultural capital of Chile. 

The city consists of dozens of hills, each forming a separate neighborhood with a unique personality. The common theme is lots of colorful mansions, steep stair cases, street art, narrow alleyways and century old funiculars. This mix has earned Valpo world heritage recognition and somehow complements the city's otherwise gritty (read dirty) feel.

The Valpo walking tour came highly recommended, and we found that it was the best way to get our bearings before embarking on our own self-guided walking tours. 

For Cindy, one of the highlights of her time in Valpo was the best coffee she'd had since she'd left Melbourne, which appropriately enough came from a cafe called Melbourne that was owned by a Aussie and featured plenty of photos of our former home. We also enjoyed a really nice dinner, complete with a spectacular view of the city, with a Swiss friend we met on our salt flats tour.

While in Valpo we visited its more glitzy (but less interesting) neighbor, Viña del Mar, which features more modern buildings and white sand beaches (but not much else).

Next stop was Santiago, which to be brutally honest was the most disappointing place we've visited so far (even accounting for the fact that we had tried to temper our expectations on advice from other travelers). The postcard scene of a sun kissed metropolis surrounded by snow capped mountains is extremely rare, in large part due to the thick layer of smog that often covers the city. There are some nice old buildings and streets, but they are relatively scarce. It's also not a foodie's paradise, with quality and value generally lacking. It does however host one of the best museums either of us have visited, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which reflects on the still very controversial Pinochet era in a tasteful and respectful way.

The highlight of our time in Santiago was enjoying a four-hour lunch with one of Cindy's friends, his brother and his sister-in-law. Another highlight, having spent the previous month in countries not taking part in the World Cup, was seeing that there is a lot of excitement and anticipation in Chile about the Mundial. There's also a fair bit of nervousness as Chile has been drawn in a group featuring not only the two finalists from the 2010 World Cup but also the footballing superpower of Australia. In all seriousness though, the Chileans we met were all very polite about the socceroos, even pretending to be worried that they could cause an upset in Chile's first game.

Given the time of year and Cindy's general dislike of all things cold, we decided not to go further south to Patagonia (which admittedly offers many of Chile's main attractions). Instead we headed across the Andes to Argentina knowing that we'll have to come back to the south of Chile another time.

The town of Uyuni is about a six hour bus trip away from Sucre and doesn't have much to offer downtown. As with most travelers, what brought us there was that the town acts as a gateway to the largest salt flats in the world.

Three-day tours from Uyuni, through the salt flats and the Bolivian part of the atacama desert, finishing in Chile, are less than $200 each and are actually the cheapest way to get to Chile from Bolivia. The advantage is that you get to see some spectacular scenery along the way.

We chose one of the most reputable and most expensive companies for our tour. There have been plenty of tourists who have died on cheaper tours because of drunk guides/drivers so we were happy to give them a miss. Even then, as a couple we met in La Paz told us, this is Bolivia and some of the better companies can be dodgy. The altitude of the tour varies between 3600 and 5000 meters, and the girl we met had got quite sick. Her tour operator gave her aspirin without telling her what it was and when she got an allergic reaction he refused to drive her to hospital (despite being told by a doctor that she'd die otherwise) until her husband, together with other kind tourists, produced a $400 cash incentive.

Luckily our tour wasn't that eventful. We started in Uyuni early in the morning before heading to a nearby town where locals took salt from the flats to make salt bricks (for building houses) and table salt. Although no permits are required to extract the salt (apparently they have more than they know what to do with), it's not a particularly lucrative business; large salt bricks are worth 15 cents each and packaging a metric tonne of table salt in one kilo bags earns locals less than 10 dollars.

We spent the rest of the first day on the massive salt flats themselves, taking lots of silly perspective shots (Sam thought a few too many) and enjoying a stunning sunset. We were able to get a great view of the scale of the flats from the central Inca Wasy island, a rocky hill full of cactus and petrified coral (a reminder that thousands of years ago, before the water evaporated to leave just huge amounts of salt, this area was part of the ocean). Our first night's accommodation was at a modest hostel here the walls, bed frames, chairs etc were all made out of salt bricks.

Day two started early as we drove from the edge of the salt flats to the neighboring desert. Over the course of the day we traversed the Bolivian side of the Chilean border and saw plenty of flamingos, unusual rock formations, volcanos and lagoons. At sunset we visited a field of geysers near the top of a semi active volcano, which at over 5000 meters was the highest we'd ever been. It was also the coldest part of our trip. At our hostel only a few hundred meters down the hill Cindy put on five layers of clothes before crawling into her sleeping bag, layering on blankets and complaining about still being cold. It didn't help that we had to sleep with the door open because of the scarcity of oxygen.

On the third day we visited one last lagoon before catching a bus across the border to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Although San Pedro is a rustic little town, we quickly realised we'd crossed into a more developed country. Almost all of the cars in town had been built this millennium, many of them in Europe. Unfortunately, prices were substantially higher, with very average meals costing more than Bolivian fine dining.

Tourists use San Pedro as a base to take day tours featuring geysers, lakes and all sorts of other things we'd already seen plenty of in the preceding couple of days on our way across from Uyuni. One unique sight is the Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley), a rocky red desert valley that really looks, as the name suggests, unworldly. Seeing the sun set over the valley was a particular highlight. After a couple of relaxing days in San Pedro de Atacama we took a short bus ride to the larger, but unremarkable, town of Calama to catch a flight to Santiago

By the time we reached Bolivia we had been in third world countries for almost two months, but even so we were more than a little shocked at the view from the bus as we entered the outer suburbs of La Paz. Thankfully the post-apocalyptic scene in the El Alto region (near the airport) gave way to dramatic scenery and relative civilization as we descended into the city centre (which sits in a large valley).

We had a little bit of fun getting to our hostel, the Loki. We'd heard that the Loki had recently moved to a new building but despite giving very clear directions our cab driver took us to the old Loki (we're sure in the hope that from there he'd be able to extract a further cab fare on to the new Loki). After Sam took photos of the driver's number plate and license and Cindy threatened reporting him we managed to get to our hostel without paying any more.

The Loki is owned by Aussies and has a reputation for partying. Although it certainly doesn't encourage sobriety, and welcomes staff leading amateur strip shows on bar tops, there is apparently a line that you don't want to cross. At 4am on our first night Cindy woke up to the sound of an intoxicated guest getting kicked out of the hostel. When he argued that he can't be thrown on the street at that hour, the response was an unsympathetic 'welcome to Bolivia'.

The best  way to get an introduction to central La Paz is on a walking tour. Our tour started outside the San Pedro Prison, made famous by the book Marching Powder. Those who have read the book would know this is an unusual facility, where nasty criminals live with their families and need to generate enough money to rent their cells (the most expensive of which feature cable tv and jacuzzis). For tourists the most important lesson is that if a bag full of white powder comes flying over the prison walls, don't pick it up unless you're friends with the drug lord who threw it and you've paid off the guards.

Our tour then took us through the city's market (where you can buy a hundred different types of potatoes and if you're lucky one or two other types of veggies). We also saw some beautiful churches, plenty of alpaca clothing stores, the beautiful (if you excuse the bullet holes in some buildings) presidential square and a nice view from the tallest building in town.

At night we heard that some travelers who are much more brave than us head to a bar that offers cocaine as well as beer, wine and spirits. This wouldn't interest us anyway, but even if it did you'd hate to be there on the day that the bar owner and police had a disagreement over the payment of bribe money. In Bolivia if you get caught in the vicinity of cocaine then they generously give you eight years in prison to prepare for your first day in court. 

We much preferred to spend our down time in La Paz enjoying some of the surprisingly nice food on offer in some very good value restaurants. Our most memorable meal was a true fine dining experience, featuring beautifully cooked llama, nice wine and artistic presentation for only $15 each.

We enjoyed another memorable meal at a middle eastern restaurant (not as strange as it sounds, as there is a massive Israeli population in La Paz). At this restaurant we were lucky to meet some Israeli tourists who then took us leather shopping, helping us understand all the shop signs (which were in Hebrew) and negotiating a reduced 'Israeli price' for Cindy's now favorite leather handbag.

The main attraction for us in La Paz was using it as a base to bike 'death road', a 64km descent down a narrow (as little as 3 meters wide), mostly gravel, road that starts at a chilly altitude of around 4800 meters and finishes in the hot jungle at 1100 meters. Our tour guide preferred the official, slightly less morbid, title 'the world's most dangerous road'. Both titles are deserved, given the road's long history of regular and nasty accidents (the worst killed 100 people). In 2007 a less dangerous road was built nearby that now attracts most traffic, leaving death road to mostly be used by cyclists, support vehicles and local villagers.

A regular dilemma for backpackers is knowing when is the right time to save money and when you just need to go for the most expensive option. Although the most expensive tour company for death road, gravity, cost twice as much as others, and although we could have enjoyed fine dining every night for a week for the same price, our instinct told us that gravity was the way to go.

In the end, we had great bikes, great weather, no injuries (excepting Cindy was sore for a few days as a result of being so stiff on the bike), and therefore no regrets. We're both glad we did it, although Sam probably enjoyed the experience a bit more than Cindy. It was scary (particularly because of the uneven road) but the fast bits were exhilarating, the scenery was incredible and the 3700 meter vertical drop was an amazing accomplishment (particularly for an Aussie whose highest mountain back home is only 2228 meters above sea level).

From La Paz we flew to Sucre, the constitutional capital of the country (La Paz is just the legislative capital); it's important to get that right not only for trivia nights but also because Bolivia had a civil war over the issue. Sucre is much smaller than La Paz, but also a much more historic and beautiful city. Although it doesn't appear on any bucket lists, we really enjoyed spending a couple of days exploring the colonial centre of town at a leisurely pace. It was nice to sleep in, enjoy light lunches at nice cafés and treat ourselves to some comfort food at night. The short relaxing visit was exactly what we needed before a busy and less comfortable 3-day tour from Uyuni to Chile.

From Cuzco we took an overnight bus south to Puno. Puno sits at the northern end of Lake Titicaca, which is the world's highest navigable lake and is shared by Peru and Bolivia.

A short boat trip from Puno took us to the unique Uros islands. These floating islands (there are around 50 in total) are built using layers of buoyant reeds that are regularly replenished throughout each island's 20-year life span. The Uros people first moved on to Lake Titicaca hundreds of years ago to get away from Incan and other aggressors and have been living on the reed islands ever since. Although Uros culture certainly has been impacted by tourism, they still have many unique customs, such as electing a president for each island. The highlights of our visit were walking on the uneven surface (which took some getting used to), seeing a demonstration on how they build the islands, and riding a reed boat between islands.

We also took a much longer boat trip to the island of Taquile, a more traditional island (excepting that it's almost four kilometers above sea level), with soil, rocks and a reasonably challenging ascent to its main village. One of the first things you notice on Taquile is that all of the locals are wearing elaborate headwear featuring differing shapes and pom poms pointed in different directions. At lunch we were told that the position and type of the headwear is used in much the same way as a gringo's Facebook relationship status to indicate whether the wearer is single, dating, married or 'it's complicated'. The advantage of Taquile being close to the centre of Lake Titicaca is that you get a true appreciation of how big the lake is. At times it was easy to imagine that we were looking at the Mediterranean sea rather than an inland high altitude lake.

Next stop was the Bolivian border, where Sam got a free pass into the country while Cindy paid $135 for a visa. Bolivians will tell you that their former president fled to the US with half the country's money, so perhaps they're slowly trying to claw it back from American tourists.

Just past the border was the small lakeside town of Copacabana, which inspired the naming of the much more famous (and we expect more picturesque) beach in Brazil. In Copacabana we wandered through the streets, visited the main cathedral and enjoyed some delicious local trout served with lake views from a street shack (which at $3 was the first of many memorable Bolivian cheap eats). 

We then boarded a short, but interesting, bus trip to La Paz, featuring lake crossings (where we and our bus crossed on different vessels) and the most third world roads we'd encountered so far. There'll be more on La Paz (and interesting roads) in the next post.

When most relationships become serious couples talk about getting married and having babies. At that stage of our relationship the discussions were about getting married and hiking the Inca trail to the Machu Picchu. Our four day and three night trek was the first thing we booked for our big South American adventure and our expectations were sky high. With the help of some beautiful weather, an awesome group of fellow trekkers and the most universally impressive tour company we've encountered anywhere in our world travels (Alpaca expeditions), the trek blew away even our expectations. More on all of that later... 

We arrived in Cuzco several days before our trek commenced to allow plenty of time to explore the beautiful city and acclimatize to the high altitude of the region. Cuzco was the centre of the Incan empire (in-fact the name Cuzco derives from an indigenous word cosq´o meaning the naval of the earth), and still features plenty of Incan walls and streets. During the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors took over the city and began reshaping it to suit themselves. The Spaniards tore down 80% of the Incan site of Saqsaywanan to build their own houses. They also put the locals to work, building large catholic churches across the city.

As a result, Cuzco features an interesting mix of Incan and Colonial architecture, both beautiful and impressive in their own way. One example of this is Qorikancha, which was originally the most important temple in the Incan empire before the Spaniards looted it and built a Church on top.

One of the main attractions in Cuzco is its Cathedral (and adjoining churches of Jesus Maria and El Triunfo), which sits prominantly at the head of the Plaza de Armas and houses some of the most valuable and interesting artworks in Peru. As our tour guide pointed out, the Incan builders, painters and sculptors who worked on the cathedral were forced to do so and didn't necessarily understand, or agree with, the Catholic faith they were tasked with celebrating. The scene of the last supper, for example, was somewhat lost in translation as the Incan painter included cuy (guinea pig) as the main dish. Our favorites were the cheeky signs of defiance, with Incan religious figures very carefully disguised in otherwise overtly Catholic paintings and sculptures.

As most visitors do, we used Cuzco as a base to explore nearby archiological sites, including Saqsaywaman, Q´enqo, Tambomachay and Pukapukara. Despite being a shadow of its former self, Saqsaywaman was our favourite, not only because the name sounds a lot like sexy woman, but also because it features a 125 tonne rock that we imagine would have taken an army of people to move into place. We also toured the nearby Sacred Valley, visiting the Pisac and Ollantaytambo archiological sites, as well as the Pisac markets and the beautiful small town of Chinchero.

One of the advantages of Cuzco drawing crowds from all over the world is that some foreigners stay and open up nice restaurants. While in Cuzco we enjoyed some really nice crepes, pizza and american-style sandwiches. However, the highlight was still the Peruvian food, and in particular a really nicely cooked piece of alpaca tenderloin.

On the morning of our hike we were picked up at 4:20 and driven to kilometer 82, the starting point for the inca trail. At that stage most of the trekkers in our group were a little nervous, but those nerves turned to excitement as we started the relatively flat 14km walk to our first campsite. Along the way we saw the first archeological site, Llactapata, and enjoyed views of the snow capped mount Verónica. Our campsite was a couple of kilometers uphill from most others, and as a result we enjoyed seeing the sun set over the beautiful valley below. At dinner our guides assured us that the most scenic part of the trek was still ahead of us, which was good news since nobody had been disappointed with he scenery on day one.

Day two was the toughest, featuring a steep climb to Warmiwañuska (or dead woman's pass), the highest point on the trail (at 4200 meters), followed by an equally steep descent. We had lunch where most trekkers camp, then took on a second climb to a false summit at 4000 meters. We arrived at our camp site just before sunset having covered 18 tricky kilometers on a long day. Although we were all tired, we were proud that we'd all made it in one piece and that nobody had succumbed to altitude sickness. The weather on day two was generally foggy and we got a little bit of rain, but if anything it probably helped that we couldn't see any more than 50 meters of the daunting trail ahead.

Our reward for covering so much territory in the first two days was that our hike on day three was at a relatively relaxed pace. On a beautiful sunny morning we enjoyed stunning views from the third pass and the nearby ruin of Phuyupatamarka. From there we descended steeply, shedding layers as we watched the vegetation change to match the lowering altitude. We arrived at our third campsite in time for a late lunch, hot shower (not a typo) and short nap. Just before sunset we visited the nearby ruin labelled 'the mini Machu Picchu', where our porters handed each of us t-shirts to congratulate us for making it. At the end of what was our favorite day on the trek we enjoyed one final dinner with our guides and fellow trekkers, who we'd become good friends with by then.

Day four started at 3am as we quickly packed our bags and rushed down to the nearby checkpoint to ensure we were one of the first groups let through at sun rise. After a steep climb we arrived at the sun gate and got our first view of the Machu Picchu. The weather was again kind to us, and one of our enduring memories of the trek will be watching the sun rise over the Machu Picchu. Having descended to join thousands of other, more nicely dressed, tourists, our guides gave us a tour of the lost city. Next, a few of us climbed Wayna Picchu (the mountain you see behind the Machu Picchu in all the postcard photos) to see the condor shaped city from a different angle. We met up with the rest of our group for lunch in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes before boarding the train and bus back to Cuzco. After a nice hot shower we met up with our new friends in Cuzco for dinner before saying goodbye.

We usually try not to fill our blog posts with detailed reviews of tour companies (we figure that's what tripadvisor is for) but we'll make one brief, worthy, exception for Alpaca expeditions. In short, they ensured we always had the best of everything. Our guides were informative at the sites, direct when they needed to be (to make sure we stayed ahead of the crowds) and hilarious and friendly all the rest of the time. The chef consistently produced multi-course meals that you'd be happy to get from a fully equipped permanent kitchen. We were also the only trekkers to get some much welcomed creature comforts, including coca tea at the top of dead woman's pass and a warm shower on day three. Best of all, the company, which is owned by a former porter, looked after it's porters better than any other (including kitting them out with North Face equipment). When asked to provide suggestions for improvement on our feedback form it really was impossible to think of anything.

Anyone thinking about doing the inca trail should definitely give Alpaca serious consideration. You should also try to do it as soon as possible. Unfortunately we saw many signs that tourism is starting to swallow up the whole Cuzco region (even though we deliberately came during the quieter period between the wet and dry seasons). For example, each day 5,000 tourists pay 20 US dollars to visit the Cathedral which, in smaller crowds, we're sure would be a much more impressive and tranquil place. Climbing Wayna Picchu already attracts a large fee and, we think, an unsafe mass of people who are prepared to pay it (but in many cases not physically prepared for the steep climb and descent).

We're told there was a small window of opportunity a little over a decade ago, after the Peruvian government had got terrorism under control but before the crowds really started rushing in, when Cuzco and the inca trail were probably at their best. That's when Sam's grandparents, lifelong travelers and professional travel writers who put us to shame, came to the region.  But that's in the past - our best advice now is come as soon as you can get a hold of an inca trail permit. In the next couple of years a new international airport will open and tickets to the Machu Picchu will have a time limit on them.

Some places are supposed to be busy, like nightclubs and theme parks. However, Incan religion, architecture and culture was always focussed on nature, and the reality is that every train-catching, coke-sipping and selfie-snapping day tourist dilutes every other tourist's ability to fully appreciate the Machu Picchu, sun gate, sacred valley and other ruins. The real advantage of doing the inca trail is that it's the only archeological experience in the region with a head count limit. For this reason (together with choosing a tour company that kept us ahead of the pack) in many ways the ruins we enjoyed and appreciated most were those that we saw between kilometer 82 and the sun gate.