The bus from Cusco descended rapidly enough to make our ears pop, like a plane coming in for a landing. But unlike a plane the descent was drawn out, forcing me to spend the night holding my nose and making terrifying faces. When we arrived to the tiny city of Nazca we were exhausted. Magda …

It was dark outside but the hostel was already stirring. As we treaded lightly down a blackened stairwell, we saw lights on under doors and heard the sound of water running. Once on the ground floor we found the proprietor of the hostel making us breakfast. We’d asked for an extra early start: 4:15 am, …

Macchu Pichu is the most famous Incan site in the world, deservedly so given its location and mysterious history, but the prelude to Macchu Pichu is the Sacred Valley of the Incas. A deep valley carved by the Urubamba river on it’s descent to the Amazon, the Sacred Valley was the breadbasket for the Incan …

How long had it been since we’d stayed in a city so interesting? It might have been back in Rio, or Brasília, or Salvador. But none of those cities has what Cusco has, which is layers. Cusco was the knot at the center of the array of strings that connected the Incan Empire. It was …

The boat to Isla Amantani was as slow as a Peruvian taxi is fast. We putted across Paucarcolla Bay then out into the open waters of Lake Titicaca. To the south was the Cordillera Real mountain range in Bolivia. Somewhere at the base of the crisp white peaks was tucked La Paz, probably still wracked …

We are floating on reeds, complete with bed, cabin, solar panels, and bottles of beer. Occasionally one of the residents runs barefooted across the matted foliage and everything shakes. My boots are off and I’m sitting beneath an umbrella made of the same material as everything else on the island: totora reeds. We’re a half …

There once was a great salt lake, 12,000 feet above sea level. Over time it dried up and left behind one of the most incredible geological aberrations in the world: The Salar de Uyuni. The salt from the evaporated lake remains, creating 7500 square miles of salt planes, a hard white sea that stretches to …

From the gravel parking lot in the border town of Tambo Quemado, we hitched a ride on a bus headed east. Our idea was to see one last town in the Sajama region before heading to Oruro, where we’d catch a train to Salar de Uyuni. Usually we have a plan, but between the blockades …

Somewhere in the middle of the high Bolivian desert, I crouched down next to the remains of a human. The bleached bones were pouring out of the mouth of a tomb, a skull looking up at me from its side. Animals and grave-robbers has dislodged this once important person from his resting place, and no …

The first thing you read about La Paz is that it is 13,300 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest city in the world. At that height comes a bonanza of  ’highest’ titles: Highest Soccer Stadium, Highest Sky Scraper (cheating), Highest Airport. Flying in from Cochabomba, which sits at a mere 8,400 …