South American Adventure
- Thread starter Rickardo
- Start date
Hey have fun! I was in Argentina in 92 for my first trip O/S.. Was a great experience being in Buenos Aires..Hey All,
I wont be around for a couple of months, i'm heading over to South America for a backpacking adventure! I'll be making my way through Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil and Argentina with a few friends.
Once i get back it's back into saving for another IP
From what I read some savvy people are actually buying land in Argentina at the moment, so you might want to make that your first IP
Rickardo,
When you are in Bolivia you may want to check out the jail there.
I read a book about an English prisoner that used to conduct tours through it, he has been released now but other prisoners still do them. It is supposed to be safe as they will not rob you as they make good money from the tours and if they started robbing people they know they wouldn't get anyone on the tours.
In this jail the prisoners have to be totally self sufficient. When they first get in there they have to buy an apartment (cell) and the more money they have the better the apartment. Many prisoners buy extra cells and rent them out or run business's out of them including doctor surgeries. Since Bolivia is a poor country many of the families have to live inside the jail and children/partners are free to come and go to school/work. They also produce much of the countries cocaine from within the prison walls.
The book is called Marching powder if anyone is interested, I found it quite interesting.
Pablo.
When you are in Bolivia you may want to check out the jail there.
I read a book about an English prisoner that used to conduct tours through it, he has been released now but other prisoners still do them. It is supposed to be safe as they will not rob you as they make good money from the tours and if they started robbing people they know they wouldn't get anyone on the tours.
In this jail the prisoners have to be totally self sufficient. When they first get in there they have to buy an apartment (cell) and the more money they have the better the apartment. Many prisoners buy extra cells and rent them out or run business's out of them including doctor surgeries. Since Bolivia is a poor country many of the families have to live inside the jail and children/partners are free to come and go to school/work. They also produce much of the countries cocaine from within the prison walls.
The book is called Marching powder if anyone is interested, I found it quite interesting.
Pablo.
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Sound like an interesting read and tour. With this talk of coke, your last name isn't Escobar is it? I thought he was dead?
are you going to see the inca/mayan temples? i soooo want to see them before i fall off the twig, but understand they are very, very crowded - nothing like how the travel shows present them.
if you do visit can you let us know your experience and hints (and photos). that would be sensational.
if you do visit can you let us know your experience and hints (and photos). that would be sensational.
Hey All,
I've been a bit slack with uploading photos from this trip, but here they are.
Overall it was a really fantastic experience, highlights were walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, hiking to the top of an active snow covered volcano in Chile, lounging around the beach in Rio De Janiero Brazil, 4WDing through the salt desert in Bolivia and the Iguazu Waterfalls in Brazil/Argentina.
Peru - Machu Picchu
Peru - Cusco and The Inca Trail
Iguazu Falls
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Bolivia
I've been a bit slack with uploading photos from this trip, but here they are.
Overall it was a really fantastic experience, highlights were walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, hiking to the top of an active snow covered volcano in Chile, lounging around the beach in Rio De Janiero Brazil, 4WDing through the salt desert in Bolivia and the Iguazu Waterfalls in Brazil/Argentina.
Peru - Machu Picchu
Peru - Cusco and The Inca Trail
Iguazu Falls
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Bolivia
Pablo,
I had a bit of a look at the prison tours, but apparently they don't really happen anymore. I will check out the book though.
lizzie,
I did visit the Inca temples (the Mayan temples are in Central America - that's a while separate trip in itself!)
I trekked the inca trail, which is roughly a 50k trek over 4 days. There are a number of variatons on the trek but on the one that i did, the first 3 days were spent trekking through the mountains, visiting small inca ruins along the way. On the morning of the 4th day you trek to the main inca city - Machu Picchu, and spend the whole day exploring that.
Overall it was such an amazing trek, it was actually more challenging than i expected, especially since you are over 3000m above sea level and you are doing a lot of steep climbs for hours at a time, but i got through it reasonably easily in the end.
The trek took us over some absolutely breath taking landscape, it was so fantastic to see.
The actual city of Machu Picchu itself was really beautiful, but yes it was also very crowded which was my only complaint.
I would highly recommend doing the 4 day trek, as it adds so much to the experience of reaching Machu Picchu.
