We are slow travelers, but all of a sudden it seems like time is not cooperating. Our last month in South America is flying by. Ol and I are in Argentina and traveling south to the beaches of Uruguay and a short stay in Buenos Aires. From there we will catch our return flight home. Living in and exploring South America for the past seven months has been an incredible experience. We have found that we don’t want it to come to an end. It seems that everything now is conspiring

Because of the rainy season we weren’t able to explore the Amazon like we had planned. After exploring Iguazu Falls we could understand why. The sheer amount of water it takes to sustain the falls is incredible. It didn’t take much to imagine the amount of rain and flooding that was occurring upstream. Our original plan was to cross into Brazil and travel south exploring that country. However, because of the problems and hurdles in obtaining a visa we were forced to skip Braz

Brazil has always been on our list of places to see in South America. Carnaval, the Amazon, Rio, the Christ the Redeemer statue, and Iguazu Falls are just a few of the things on our list of things to do in Brazil. However, U.S. citizens are required to obtain a visa to enter Brazil and before we could visit Brazil we would need to get approval in advance from a Brazilian embassy. We also needed a visa to enter Bolivia. We went online and put together the documents required to

When we arrived in South America seven months ago we had planned our first week in Cartagena. We also planned on meeting our children in Santiago, Chile for Christmas.  We knew that January would be the perfect time to visit Patagonia in Chile and Argentina, as there are only a few months to hike safely in this region. We also wanted to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, spend time on Easter Island, and visit Bolivia’s salt flats during the rainy season. Other than that we

I spent days going back and forth on whether I would bike the "Most Dangerous Road in the World” with Ol. I agonized over my decision. I interviewed fellow backpackers that we had met on our journey and I read blogs. It seemed like I learned that someone in every group gets hurt. There were stories of lots of broken wrists, arms, and legs, and those were the minor injuries! I read one harrowing story of a girl who broke her back when her tire hit a large rock and she was thro

This is the post that I couldn’t tell my mom about until it was over. If you see her, tell her that I’m okay. Maybe a little crazy, but okay. The reason I couldn’t say anything is because I signed up and paid for a bike tour down “The Most Dangerous Road in the World.” Seriously, more people are killed every year on this road than any other road in the world. We have been in South America for several months now. I have done my share of city sightseeing and church tours. I was

We arrived in La Paz on the overnight bus from Uyuni at 5:30 am. We had received an email from our tour company telling us that our tour to Lake Titicaca was being moved up to 6:00 am because of a scheduled bus strike for later in the day. Therefore, we had about thirty minutes to get from one bus to the next. Fortunately, both busses were at the same bus station. We unloaded from the Uyuni bus and made our way to the bus to Lake Titicaca. We settled in for the four hour ride

In doing our research, we were prepared for a rough three days in the Bolivian Andes Plains. The websites warn against expecting much more than the basics. There are no luxury accommodations, the food is simple, and the transportation is often cramped and overcrowded. The hostels are located at high altitude, in remote wilderness, and in Indigenous communities. There are no private rooms and meals are served family style. Some blogs told of people going hungry for three days.

It was 8:00 pm and I was running down the streets of La Paz not quite sure where I was going. I couldn't see Ol who was faster and had run ahead of me. We were running to catch a bus for our tour to the Uyuni salt flats and he had gone ahead to hold the bus for us. Just as I was about to give up hope, I saw a line of buses near the bus terminal. Ol was standing next to the Todo Turismo bus loading the backpack into the bus. It was 8:02 and we luckily caught our bust Uyuni wh

When Ol realized that it was Valentine’s Day and all I wanted was a hot shower, he knew that he was getting off cheap. When we reached La Paz, after leaving Carnaval in Oruro, we checked into a boutique hotel which was a converted old convent in the historic city center. Our last hotel had a great balcony, but hot water was a luxury. All I wanted was a shower and an English speaking television station. We checked in, showered, and cleaned up. We then sent our laundry out to b