Travels
Invest in Experiences! You learn so much about yourself, others and our beautiful Earth.🌍
We've eaten coconuts in Thailand, touched the pyramids in Egypt, hiked to Machupicchu in Peru, climbed mountains in Lesotho, walked on a glacier in Argentina, gone snorkeling in Zanzibar and cycled the Death Road in Bolivia.
Marc has toured Europe and I've walked on the marble floors of the Taj Mahal. And there's still so much more to see and do!
We also love traveling in South Africa! It's really a beautiful country! Rural Transkei has many untouched beaches with cows walking around and scuba-diving in Sodwana is an absolutely spectacular and colourful sight.
Then there's the Drakensberg mountain range, Table Mountain, great wineries, many stunning coastal towns, arty Clarens and, of course, many game parks to see animals.
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Meringskloof Camping 2024
“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.…
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Glamping at De Krantz
“In glamping, you’ll find the best of both worlds – the beauty of nature and the comforts of home.” De Krantz is only a 35 minute drive from Ladybrand! There’s no need to…
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Reconnecting at Korannaberg Bushcamp
Sometimes you’ve got to disconnect to reconnect. We didn’t have any wifi or cellphone signal for the weekend which forced us to disconnect from technology for a while and reconnect with nature and…
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What a Winterful Day!
Just go with the snow! It is freezing cold in Ladybrand today due to all the snow in Lesotho. It even snowed in Ladybrand for a little while on Sunday morning! Marcus woke…
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Delicious in Mauritius
“The best thing about happy memories is making them!” We had an amazing time during our week-long getaway in Mauritius. We stayed at the enchanting Mauricia Beachcomber Resort in Grand Baie. The actual…
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Our Trip to Pilanesberg National Park
How do you stop a rhino from charging? You unplug him. 🤣But seriously though,😯 you drive away really, really quickly. We were driving right next to two rhinos who walked into the road.…
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River Destiny Camping
Ain’t no weekend like a lekker camping weekend! This time we chose to go to River Destiny Lodge in !Gariep. We wanted to go somewhere we can get to without the caravan having…
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Ouma Jane’s Birthday Weekend in Nieu Bethesda
“It’s very refreshing to go away and take a break, to clear your head, and just get into something else.” I know Peter and Imke are really looking forward to this post! Without…
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Camping at Moolmanshoek
We do these things not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. – quote seen on poster in the camp’s ablution block. We went camping at Moolmanshoek. It ‘s about…
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Our weekend at Amanzi Private Game Reserve
Looking for an African bushveld adventure for the family? Amanzi Game Reserve in Brandford! It’s about a 40 minute drive from Bloemfontein. We enjoyed a much needed weekend away. I think the outdoors…
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Gqeberha.. . For Me, Always PE
Gqeberha is the new name of Port Elizabeth… I haven’t met anyone yet who is enthusiastic about this. It is apparently originally a khoisan word, now written in Xhosa… But they say it…
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The Fat Mulberry in Fouriesburg
It was a last minute decision to get away for the weekend before the Easter weekend. We booked a place near Fouriesburg, just over an hours drive from our house, called the Fat…
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Camping at Uithoek near Fouriesburg
Bright stars, fresh mountain air, wildlife, yummy food, friendly people and a caravan… Those are the ingredients for an awesome weekend! We haven’t been away from our house in a long time! So…
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Our Getaway to the Drakensberg
We packed our bags, the kids, the kids’ bags, the kids’ pram, the kids’ toys, the kids’ snacks, the kids’ day bag and …. off we went passed Clarens, passed Sterkfontein dam to…
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Koranna Camping
“Second Star to the right and straight on ’til morning. -Peter Pan” The abundance of stars was one of my favourite things about our Koranna trip! I haven’t seen so many twinkling stars…
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Camping at Korannaberg
“There is a treasure hidden in every moment. The joy of life is finding it.” -Katrina Meyer 🌻 It’s so nice when one discovers a beautiful place close to home. We will definitely…
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Katse Dam, Lesotho
We made a quick international getaway to Lesotho this weekend, and, in Carol’s words: “We had a dam good time.”😝 The Lesotho Kingdom’s Katse Dam has been on my “must-see” list for a…
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MSC Sinfonia Family Cruise
Cruise, Eat, Sleep, Repeat…. We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time… I can’t believe it’s already over! While the Sinfonia cruised from Durban’s harbour to Mozambique’s Portuguese Island, we…
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New York, New York
New York, New York! The Big Apple did not disappoint! My most favourite part about New York was staying with the Wolf pack and going to see the Broadway show I told you…
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Long Island with the Wolf Pack
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”– From Les Misérables Adam and Lisa took us to the most amazing broadway show; Les Misérables! (Even though they’ve seen the play…
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From Philly With Love
Don’t worry, South Africa, America also gets power cuts! (Or maybe Eskom followed us to the USA!?) The train we are on now to New York City is stuck at a random station…
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History Lesson in Washington DC
Freedom is not free… During the last three days we’ve learnt so much about American history and past American presidents. There’s so much info but I’ll just briefly mention the famous…
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Our Stay in Seattle
Imagine a city which has mountains, oceans and fresh water lakes. A city with thriving businesses, fun activities and nightlife as well as forest areas and many hiking trails. Imagine a city where…
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Beers of the USA’s West Coast
That’s a lota beers! This post was written by Marc… (He has really undergone a Lupulin threshold shift!) Lupulin threshold shift \lu·pu·lin thresh·old shift\ n 1. When a once extraor-dinarily hoppy beer now…
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Roadtrip to Seattle
USA Roadtrip! Yeah! 😄 A roadtrip, like life, is about enjoying the journey and making memories along the way. We took a 4 day leisurely roadtrip from San Francisco up north…
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Walking Amongst Giants
The trees we encountered were so gigantic we drove our car through one of them! It was so exciting that we drove through that tree twice! I could hardly believe…
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If You’re Going to San Francisco
My favourite cardiologist told me that drinking one glass of red wine every day is good for your cardiovascular health. According to studies it’s even better than not drinking any alcohol…
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Taking Chances in Mammoth Lake and Yosemite
We almost couldn’t get into Yosemite National Park because the gate closest to Mammoth Lakes, where we stayed that night, was closed for the last 2 days due to fires in…
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A Curious Ghost Town, Aliens and Death Valley
We were heading towards Death Valley from the Grand Canyon when we noticed the sky had an unusual display of lights, clouds and colours as we drove towards the sunset. We…
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A Grand Canyon Moment
It was bigger and grander than what I expected it to be! It was quite a privilege that we got to see and experience the great Grand Canyon. I tried…
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Roadtrip from Vegas to Grand Canyon
It was sooo hot today! Luckily our rental car has an aircon. Our car said the outside temperature varied between 90 and 112 degrees Farenheit! (112 degrees is 44,4 degrees…
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What Happens in Vegas…
How do I even begin to tell you about Vegas!? It’s all the glitz and glamour you’ve heard of: big screens, tall buildings, colours, sparkles, dancing, music and lights everywhere…. It’s…
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Exploring Los Angeles some more
I said I’d post more about what we’ve been doing in Los Angeles… there’s too much to see and do here. 🙂 On Sunday we hired bicycles and went cycling from Marina Del…
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Exploring Los Angeles
The City of Angels has so much diversity and so much to do!! It would have been overwhelming to explore the city by ourselves. Luckily Los Angeles has been an awesome experience for…
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Our American Adventure Begins
We are in Los Angeles! Whoohoo! We’re now lying down (really exhausted) on a nice comfy bed in Donné’s apartment. We’ve been in America for only a few hours and we’ve already…
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On Our Way to the USA
“We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.” It’s the final countdown to our US of A trip! It still feels unreal to me. 🙂 I’m excited but…
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Skiing in Africa
“The important thing is to take that first step. Bravely overcoming one small fear gives you the courage to take on the next.”– Ikeda It was our 3rd time together at Afriski…
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Our Travels to the Transkei
South Africa’s rural Transkei is one of our favourite holiday destinations!! There’s one shady character we met in the Transkei a few years ago who we’ll never forget… He’s a short, small man…
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Traveling to the Edge of Africa – Cape Point
Imagine how adventurous and ambitious (or desperate) Bartolomeu Dias and the other first european explorers must have been! To sail off into the big unknown without really knowing where they might end up…and…
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Reasons to Fall in Love with Cape Town
Many people are totally in love with Cape Town and it’s easy to see why. Cape Town is simply on a completely different level to other places and it’s quite difficult to compare…
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Our Quick Getaway to Shumba Guest Farm
You don’t always have to travel very far for a bit of adventure. Sometimes a break from your routine is the very thing you need…and maybe you’ll discover, like I did, that there…
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10 of my favourite things in the Midlands Meander
So about 4 weekends ago, the only weekend in 6 years which it snowed in Ladybrand, Marc and I went on a road-trip to the Midlands Meander. Although we were a bit bummed…
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A taste of India – Taj Mahal & India Travel Tips
The Taj Mahal is one of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World… And quite a remarkable sight! It was definitely not a disappointment! Our bus stopped quite far from the Taj because…
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A taste of India – Jaipur to Bharatpur to Agra
Jaipur is known as the pink city. “Pink it’s the color of passion, Cause today it just goes with the fashion.” But in India it represents hospitality and it was painted pink almost…
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A Taste of India – Delhi
If India was a food it would be a sweet &sour pumpkin-marshmallow-chocolate pie covered with ‘hundreds and thousands’ served with nutty caramel ice-cream and silver balls. When I think of India I think…
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Scuba in Sodwana Bay
It’s an incredibly exhilarating yet daunting feeling- to be 20m deep in the ocean while sucking oxygen from a face mask. I was not a natural scuba diver…not at all…It was actually really…
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Malealea in Lesotho
“Muther, futher, good morning!” We will never forget the friendly, little face of the Basotho boy who greeted us with such enthusiasm when we returned to the campsite late in the afternoon after…
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Hakuna Matata in Zanzibar
Are your feet constantly frozen? Does your nose resemble Rudolf the reindeers? (Shiny, red and wet). Is your body constantly shivering with imaginary ice knives piercing it? Are you counting down the days…
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Exploring Ladybrand
After a few years of wanting to see Ladybrand’s natural rock “stalle” (stables), I finally did! It was such a quick climb! It would have been even quicker if I could keep up…
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Family Time in the Eastern Free State
We had one day to show my parents the Eastern Free State. It was one jam-packed day but I think we did a pretty good job. Thanks to Lionel for being the tour…
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Exploring Lesotho’s Mohale Dam
We celebrated Marc’s birthday in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho at Mohale Dam. Mohale is about a two hour drive from Lesotho’s capital, Maseru. Besides for random little rocks which had fallen on…
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Reminiscing about our Time in Thailand – Phi Phi and Bangkok
After our 7 nights in Phuket, we rode in a speedboat to Phi Phi island. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort. There was a nice pool and a few restaurants nearby selling…
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Reminiscing about our Time in Thailand – Phuket
I’m so excited for a friend of mine who is busy planning a trip to Thailand! It made me remember our Thailand experience and I felt like writing about it… For our honeymoon,…
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Addo Elephant Park
If you want to see elephants, Addo Elephant Park in the Eastern Cape is the place to go! When we went to the park over Christmas we saw about four hundred elephants in…
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Appreciating Family Christmas in the Eastern Cape
After William and Charnè’s beautiful wedding at the Blue Lagoon Hotel in East London, we drove to my parents place in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, just outside Uitenhage on the way to Jeffrey’s…
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9 Tips for Backpacking South America
Here are just a few things you need to know and others which are nice to know before your South American backpacking adventure. 1. Spare cash in US Dollars Hide some spare cash…
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17 Things for Backpacking South America:
Traveling South America is a lot more popular and easier now than it was 20 years ago. We’ve really had such an enjoyable and fulfilling experience that I would recommend a break-away journey…
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Traveling South America as South Africans
People were generally surprised to hear we’re from South Africa because there aren’t many South Africans touring South America – yet. When they discovered we’re South African their attitude towards us became even…
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Back Home – Sao Paul to RSA
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss We’re back on African soil! It has been an incredible 3 months backpacking through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Every…
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Ilha Grande
This bus we are on now smells like burnt incense sticks and a dirty nappy. My nose will probably soon get used to it…I hope. We made it, just in time once again.…
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The Curious Case of Traveller Joe
We don’t know Joe… But we’ve seen him 6 times in 2 months in 4 different countries…. Is this merely coincidence? Is he perhaps secretly following us? Are we meant to learn something…
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Rio de Janeiro
At first we were afraid. We were petrified. Kept thinking there might be a criminal right by our side, but then we stopped spending our nights thinking of what all could go wrong,…
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Florianopolis – Our Halfway Stop between Iguazu and Rio
After our visit to the falls in Foz Iguazu we travelled on yet another overnight bus to Florianópolis. You really get used to long bus rides and sleeping on busses… After a few…
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Brasil’s Iguazu Falls
It wasn’t part of our original plan. (not that we really have a strict plan.) We were very impressed and content having experienced the magnificent Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side. The plan…
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Argentina’s Iguazu Falls
The first thing we noticed about the small town of Puerto Iquazu when we climbed out of the air-conditioned bus is that it’s hot! Really hot! You immediately feel as if the air…
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3 nights in Buenos Aires
We are usually not big fans of big cities but Buenos Aires was a pleasant surprise. It has so many beautiful buildings, parks with huge trees and plazas with green grass. The many…
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From Glaciers to Whales to Buzzing Buenos Aires
After returning our wet and muddy, hired gear of the glacier trek, we ate a hamburguesa at a cute, local bar in El Calafate center. We noticed a Nelson Mandela quote written on…
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Experiencing the Perito Moreno Glacier
The site and sound of the white giant is absolutely incredible! The famous Perito Moreno glacier is almost impossible to describe and one just tends to stare at it in awe of the…
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Arrived in El Calafate
We are the most South now than we have ever been on this planet! We arrived in El Calafate today and our “Big Ice” glacier tour is tomorrow. Very excited! We hired a…
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Bariloche to El Calafate on Route 40
“That went up like a scuba-diver’s fart.” If anyone knows the meaning of this expression or when one would use it, please let me know. We ate supper together with other travelers at…
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San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
Bariloche is even more beautiful than what people were telling us it will be. It’s Spring here now so we can’t ski, but it’s still “muchos frio.”(very cold) The town has a real…
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On the Road again after Work Away
Our first work-away experience was awesome! Susan and Dave were such great hosts and our time with them went by so quickly. They immediately made us feel comfortable and welcome. Rex’s “sound effects”…
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3 Argentinian Ways of Life
This post was written by Marc 3 Argentinian Ways of Life We are still on Suzan and Dave’s farm outside San Rafael. Here are 3 “Argentine ways” which are normal here and have…
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Working Away in Argentina
“When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either stop being mistaken or cease to be honest.” That’s one of Dave’s quotes which I like. (It was originally said…
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Argentina – Mendoza, our first stop in Argentina
This post was written by Marc Argentina – Mendoza, our first stop in Argentina So far Mendoza has been one of the prettier cities in Latin America we have seen thus far. Most…
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Our Stay in Santiago – Part 2
Here we are lying and relaxing in the main park of Mendoza, Argentina. It’s pretty and green with lots of trees, water-fountains and the sound of a happy flute playing in the background.…
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Our Stay in Santiago – Part 1
There was a minor glitch on our way to Santiago. We got on the wrong bus! We walked to our seat number and found someone fast asleep in Marc’s seat. We woke up…
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Our Road to Santiago
Our last day in San Pedro de Atacama was spent chilling and lurking around town. We leeched some Wi-fi from a restaurant we ate at earlier but they must have seen us sitting…
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Tandem Cycling around San Pedro de Atacama
Have you ever cycled on a tandem bicycle? We got on a tandem for the first time yesterday. We had such a fun day cycling around town! Holly and Ian were in our…
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Uyuni Salt Flats Tour (still with the same terrible guide) – Day 3
We had to wake up at 3:00 am the morning of the 3rd day of the tour. Cesar was no longer looking intoxicated but we all still wanted to punch him for ruining…
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Salt Flats with a Terrible Tour Guide – Part 2
After spending the entire day deserted at the Salt Hostel, making phone calls and waiting for the other vehicle to arrive like Ripley’s Tours kept promising… At half past five that afternoon guess…
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Salt Flats with a Terrible Tour Guide
We crossed the border into Chile this morning (big smile) and we’ve booked 2 nights in San Pedro de Atacama. Our Bolivian Salt Flats Tour was a disaster! Salt Flats with a Terrible…
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Passing through Potosi and Uyuni
How do you know your Bolivian bus driver was driving too fast?… When you arrive at your destination 3 hours earlier than expected, and your husband stays seated even after you and all…
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Dinosaur Footprints in Sucre
Here we are in Sucre, Bolivia. It’s a pretty city with lots of white buildings. We still need to do some exploring… We are staying at the top of the city in Casa…
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Stay in Coroico
We survived Death Road twice! (Only got one T-shirt though.) After our downhill cycling experience with Vertigo 4 days ago, we spent a few days at the town near the end point of…
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Cycling Bolivia’s Death Road
Written on Monday, 7th October. (Posted today because we found wi-fi.) When we were struggling with our Bolivian Visas I asked my good friend, Willem, if Bolivia is worth the effort. (Him and…
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Two Nights in La Paz
We are in Coroico, Bolivia! As you probably already know wifi is very scarce and slow here. We have found a place at the top of the hill, Sol y Luna, with limited…
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Copacabana to La Paz
We had a very scenic and interesting bus trip from Copacabana to La Paz. All of us (bus passengers) had to get out of the bus to cross a part of Lake Titicaca…
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Our trip to the Floating Islands
Can you believe that there are people in this world who have spent their entire life living on floating reeds!? It sounds crazy! We did a tour to the Uros Islands on Lake…
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Inka Trail Day 4 – Machupicchu
Inka Trail Day 4 – Machupicchu Watching the sun rise over the lost city of the Inkas was amazing. We had such a feeling of accomplishment. We did it! We followed the Inka…
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Inka Trail Day 4 – Race to the Sun Gate
This post was written by Marc. Inka Trail Day 4 – Race to the Sun Gate The last morning was the earliest wakeup, 3:30am. We were told no room service on this day…
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Inka Trail Day 3
Inka Trail Day 3 Day three of the trail was an easy (compared to the previous day) 9km walk through the cloud forest. This is the start of the Amazon Jungle so we…
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Inka Trail Day 2
Inka Trail Day 2 We were all quite nervous for this day! We knew Dead Woman’s Pass lay ahead of us which is at a 950km higher altitude than our campsite, Ayapata. I’m…
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Inka Trail with Llama Path Day 1
We said we would tell you more about our Inka trail. So the next 5 posts will all be about our big trek to Machupicchu. This post was written by Marc. Inka Trail…
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10 Cuzco Curiosities
Like every city, Cuzco has it’s interesting and strange things that make it different from any other place. It is our last day in Cuzco today and we really enjoyed our time here.…
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Back from the Inka Trail
What an incredible experience we had! The Inka trail was unforgettable! We are completely exhausted and in need of a shower. My legs are dreading having to climb the stone stairs up to…
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Our Inca trail is starting early
The juice at the San Pedros market is so fresh! You can choose whatever fruit you want and they freshly squeeze it for you. We met up with our german friends at the…
