Travel Review - South America
By Grace
We took a few months out and traveled to South America during the British winter.
We spent 8 days in the Amazon Jungle; it was an amazing trip but hard work at times. We literally went to the middle of nowhere which took 2 days to get to (13 hours by mini bus then 8 hours by boat). I was a bit travel sick on the journey but once we arrived and began to look around properly, I realised that we had come to a beautiful and untouched place, with very few tourists. There were 6 in our group, but we didn’t meet any other tourists until day 6. Although it was very hot and muggy, we didn’t get much chance to wash or change clothes and we had to keep covered in deet and repellant because of the biting bugs, I actually enjoyed it all.
We saw loads and loads of wildlife – lots of birds, a few small mammals and we tried to fish for piranhas (but the heavens opened before we could catch any). We spent a night on an open platform waiting to see a tapir which never arrived and sat watching loads of macaws eating on a clay bank really close to us.
Our trip was all go and we were so busy that we were getting up early (around 6am most days) so I was really looking forward to a few days sitting on the islands. As soon as we arrived back from the Amazon, we took a trip on Lake Titicaca, which was fantastic. We saw the floating islands (good but a bit of a “cheesy” tourist thing to do).
We also spent a night with a family on one of the islands. It was lovely; it was like staying in a miniature village. All the locals are tiny (Francisa our “landlady” was only about 4 ft 9” and her husband wasn’t much taller. They couldn’t speak a word of English and we couldn’t speak their local dialect, so we spent lots of time smiling and waving at each other, which was quite cute. They got us all dressed up in local costume and took us dancing in the square. Francisca may be small but she was very strong and swung Jamie and I around until we could hardly breath! Jamie, being 6 ft (with a pointed hat on his head) looked like a giant next to her, watching her swing him around made everyone laugh.
We took a trip Arequipa (City in southern Peru) and the Colca Canyon. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to do the 3-day hike into it, but I’m actually quite pleased because walking at 4500 meters is exhausting! The canyon was fantastic though and we saw some condors flying really close. We also saw the sunset from a hot springs, whilst sipping a drink with some really nice people.
It was a lovely trip, with so much to see, do and to take in. Definitely recommend it to you, a great way to spend that British Winter.
