Three weeks summarised in a couple of paragraphs, here we go!

Three weeks in and we’ve done so much and covered so many miles.  Visiting the Quest Villa Maria project in Lima was really eye opening and great to see the impact that the project is having. After exploring Lima and visiting ballestas Islands we travelled to went to Huacachinera in he desert. The landscape was stunning especially the view after climbing up the huge sand dune behind the hostel. We raced around the dunes in a sand buggy and tried our hand at sand boarding, with mixed results!

We moved on to Arequipa, a beautiful city surrounded by mountains with a great atmosphere. We used the first day there to prepare for our Colca canyon trek, buying food and sorting out our kit. We spent four days trekking through the canyon, it was tough going but so so worth it. The landscape was beautiful and we got the chance to camp under the stars next to a waterfall, relax in thermal pools and on our last night relax at the bottom of the canyon around the pool.

Back in Arequipa we celebrated Robs birthday and completing the trek in a fancy steak restaurant.

After a couple of days it was off to Bolivia and after a painfully long wait to cross the border we arrived in La Paz. We then took three lots of taxis to cross the mountains to reach the amazon rainforest, somewhere we were all excited to visit. Our first two days were spent at the animal sanctuary, Jacj Cuisi where we helped out clearing overgrown areas and removing poisonous spiders from the dormitory. We went on walks through the rainforest and saw and learnt about so many different trees, insects and birds. We returned to Rurrenabaque and travelled to the Pampas for three incredible days. We spent our days relaxing on boat rides seeing lots of wildlife including squirrel, howler and capuchin monkeys, capybaras, caymen and lots of different birds. We were also really lucky to be able to swim with the pink river dolphins. We also had a go at piranha fishing and managed to catch seven piranhas and two catfish for our dinner. On our last day in the pampas we went looking for anaconda by walking through the vast swamp but sadly with no luck.

After a few days travelling we arrived in Potosi, a town famous for its silver mine. We were taken on a tour of the working mine and it really showed the horrendous conditions they have to work in. The tunnels were small and dusty, with the temperature rising as we got deeper into the mountain. We enjoyed a home cooked meal that night before leaving for Uyuni ready for the salt flat tour. We spent 3 days exploring the diverse landscape seeing volcanoes, geysers, thermal pools, red and green lakes full of flamingos and finishing on the salt flats. We´re now back in La Paz preparing for our six day trek up Pequeño Alpamayo.