When trekking through Peru and Bolivia, South America’s most isolated nations, you’ll be setting foot on the land of the Incas. Diverse and rugged terrain warps itself around the grand crumbling structures of an ancient civilisation, begging you to embark on an odyssey through swamplands, salt flats, dark jungles, jagged mountains and sun-parched deserts. Within these lands lies every true adventurer’s dream as well as plenty of safer culture-rich ambles for the faint hearted.
There’s so much to explore, the only real difficulty a voyager will have is deciding where to start and which next steps to take next. It would take months to do justice to the fantastic terrain but for the shorter expeditions it would be best to start somewhere in the middle of Peru, then journey southwards before crossing over into Bolivia.
Huancayo, a thriving cultural and commercial centre lies in the heart of the Peruvian highlands. Festivals and feasting galore, the ‘uncontrastable city’ is a great place to appease the gods of gastronomy by tucking into a succulent, stuffed guinea-pig before taking the mountain train into Huancavelica. Pass through Ayacucho, the city of churches to reach Cuzco, where the Inca trail begins. Five days of trekking will take you through forgotten cities, ruined palaces, hidden temples and finally to zenith of the trip: the Lost Inca City of Machu Picchu, where mystery and lonely llamas wait.
Revive yourself at the bustling port of Puno, with its busy market and bouquet of mingled smells before taking the ferry across Lake Titicaca to Bolivia. Pleasant interruptions such as stepping onto a floating reed island (or a real one, complete with ruins and alpacas) are always fun to take. Isla de Sol, where Incans believed the Sun God was born, lies on the Bolivian side of the lake and has plenty of archaeological treasures for anyone that steps ashore to explore.
Begin the Bolivian section of your Odyssey by sampling La Paz, the country’s largest city. The ‘sky-high city’ has a selection of museums and cornucopia of markets (witchcraft, flowers; you name it!) to get blissfully lost in. Further south lies Oruro, a rustic mining city. From there, travel in a semi circle to Sucre to visit the massive salt plains and enjoy the bucolic villages on the way, as well as all the breathtaking scenery that hugs every inch of the landscape. Sucre and neighbouring Potosi have a rich colonial legacy, most probably thanks to the riches they bestowed on invaders who set out for El Dorado and found these two cities instead. Sucre lies nestled inside a valley, hosting pretty whitewashed buildings. Its secrets lie underground; the hundreds of dinosaur bones, the labyrinth of covert tunnels and the buried dead that lie in the Sucre Cemetery; Bolivia’s biggest and most beautiful. Potosi’s enigmas are too divided by the land. While fantastic museums and colonial buildings warm up beneath the sun, an icy finger beckons you into abandoned silver mines where slaves once worked and froze to death.
Peru and Bolivia combined are a real treat for the traveller that likes to rough it out. Although the roads are paved with the gold of legends, the cathedrals filled with priceless artefacts and the land rich with culture and beauty, prepare for a little more than visual treasure. The climate varieties are vast and the temperature fluctuations are crazy. Be sure to prepare for the hottest and coldest weather, while your mind embraces the idea of stepping into a land wrought with aesthetic genius as well as dark mysteries.
There’s so much to explore, the only real difficulty a voyager will have is deciding where to start and which next steps to take next. It would take months to do justice to the fantastic terrain but for the shorter expeditions it would be best to start somewhere in the middle of Peru, then journey southwards before crossing over into Bolivia.
Huancayo, a thriving cultural and commercial centre lies in the heart of the Peruvian highlands. Festivals and feasting galore, the ‘uncontrastable city’ is a great place to appease the gods of gastronomy by tucking into a succulent, stuffed guinea-pig before taking the mountain train into Huancavelica. Pass through Ayacucho, the city of churches to reach Cuzco, where the Inca trail begins. Five days of trekking will take you through forgotten cities, ruined palaces, hidden temples and finally to zenith of the trip: the Lost Inca City of Machu Picchu, where mystery and lonely llamas wait.
Revive yourself at the bustling port of Puno, with its busy market and bouquet of mingled smells before taking the ferry across Lake Titicaca to Bolivia. Pleasant interruptions such as stepping onto a floating reed island (or a real one, complete with ruins and alpacas) are always fun to take. Isla de Sol, where Incans believed the Sun God was born, lies on the Bolivian side of the lake and has plenty of archaeological treasures for anyone that steps ashore to explore.
Begin the Bolivian section of your Odyssey by sampling La Paz, the country’s largest city. The ‘sky-high city’ has a selection of museums and cornucopia of markets (witchcraft, flowers; you name it!) to get blissfully lost in. Further south lies Oruro, a rustic mining city. From there, travel in a semi circle to Sucre to visit the massive salt plains and enjoy the bucolic villages on the way, as well as all the breathtaking scenery that hugs every inch of the landscape. Sucre and neighbouring Potosi have a rich colonial legacy, most probably thanks to the riches they bestowed on invaders who set out for El Dorado and found these two cities instead. Sucre lies nestled inside a valley, hosting pretty whitewashed buildings. Its secrets lie underground; the hundreds of dinosaur bones, the labyrinth of covert tunnels and the buried dead that lie in the Sucre Cemetery; Bolivia’s biggest and most beautiful. Potosi’s enigmas are too divided by the land. While fantastic museums and colonial buildings warm up beneath the sun, an icy finger beckons you into abandoned silver mines where slaves once worked and froze to death.
Peru and Bolivia combined are a real treat for the traveller that likes to rough it out. Although the roads are paved with the gold of legends, the cathedrals filled with priceless artefacts and the land rich with culture and beauty, prepare for a little more than visual treasure. The climate varieties are vast and the temperature fluctuations are crazy. Be sure to prepare for the hottest and coldest weather, while your mind embraces the idea of stepping into a land wrought with aesthetic genius as well as dark mysteries.