Argentina. We love it. It’s been our favourite country so far and that’s mostly down to the food and drink! Here’s a list of the culinary highlights: – Amazing steak; juicy, pink and full of flavour. Some of the best we had was at “Don Julio” in Palermo. – Submarino (see pic below). A cup of hot milk that comes with a bar of chocolate that you stir in to melt and congeals at the bottom – a proper hot chocolate. – Picadas. Ise’s favourite snack. A plate of meats, salami, ham, cheeses, olives etc, served with nice bread and…

This was Cristian Castro’s philosophy, our 4×4 driver and guide to the Uyuni salt flats. It became our motto for Bolivia. We started our tour of Uyuni on a crisp Friday morning; 8 of us in a Toyota Landcruiser (Cristian, his girlfriend – our cook, an Auzzie couple – Laura and Alex, their friend Seb, a Japanese girl called Megumi, Ise and I). First stop was the “train graveyard”, where 100-year old decommissioned trains lie rusting in the desert. After that, we headed into the salt flats, which are most surreal – huge expanses of blinding white salt, crystallised into…

“…A new job!” Well, that would be top of my list if I had to spend 10-14 hours a day in the hot (up to 45oC), dark, dusty airless tunnels chipping, packing, exploding, sorting and shifting heavy rocks and minerals. Also on my list for Santa would be: a professional massage (to ease away the back ache from crouching and bending all day), some jasmine scented bath oil (to wash away the grime and stink of hard graft) and some decent protective hand cream (the dust and rocks are very drying and chafing). Do the miners of Potosi have the…

The road, if you can call it that, from La Paz to Coroico has earned the epithet of “The World’s Most Dangerous Road” due to its morbid reputation for being the route on which the most deaths occur annually. It’s estimated that 200-300 people die or are seriously injured each year as a result of taking a tumble over the sheer drops, which are the main feature of the road’s 64km length. Naturally, such a road attracts the attention of maniacs intent on mountain biking at speed along the narrow, crumbling, rock-strewn track and round the many hairpin bends into…

We’ve been in Bolivia since last Friday. teamGoolTM travelled from Cusco to Copacabana (commonly known as “Copa”, at Lake Titicaca) by bus and had one of the smoothest border crossings so far. We’re now on country number 12 of the Big Trip and I had been a bit apprehensive about Bolivia after having been told (by other travellers) that the food was terrible and that we were bound to get ill. So far, however, Bolivia has been pretty good – cheap, interesting and mostly dry, with some good food! The women here dress traditionally, with Laurel and Hardy style bowler…

We’re now in Peru, birthplace of Paddington Bear, after having flown from Bogota to Lima and then straight to Cuzco last Friday. We’re staying in a nice hacienda-style place called Quorichaska. When we arrived, the lady at reception made us coca tea to alleviate altitude sickness and neither of us has suffered with it at all. On Saturday we took a couple of minibuses to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley and then a train called the Vistadome to Aguas Calientes, which is the closest town to Machupicchu. The train was a great experience and far nicer than I can imagine…

We’ve been in Bogota for almost a week and have come across an increasing amount of an addictive white powder that can be found on every street corner, in the “panaderias”, sold by kindly ladies with white coats and hairnets. It’s called icing sugar, it covers the delicious pastries and cakes that are made here in Bogota and we’re hooked! We generally have just one “proper” meal a day (i.e. something with meat and vegetables) and otherwise survive on coffee (Ise), chocolate caliente (me) and various tarts, flans, croissants, cheesecakes, crepes, ice-creams and sponges. We are now cake addicts. We’re…

We’ve been in Cartagena since last Sunday – it’s incredibly hot and humid and it took us a few days just to aclimatise and work up some energy. We were staying in the roughest area of the city, where all the drug dealers and pimps hang out, but they didn’t cause us any trouble when we told them “no gracias” to whatever they were selling. The old town, inside the city walls is very cute – old buildings, lots of metal sculptures and statues, horse-drawn carriages and people selling hats, necklaces and artwork on the street – great for people…

We’ve spent the last week aboard the Windseeker, a pretty little boat owned by chain-smoking Aussie Captain Mike (Mr Birdseye-on-Slimfast on the left below), being fed extremely well (lots of yummy pasta) by Maurizio (on the right) – a half Scottish, half Italian (and all mental) chef who could well have been Mario and Luigi’s long-lost brother, given his stereo-typical facial hair and the fact that he used to be a plumber! I was the only girl aboard the boat, but luckily the other boys were fully house-trained. As well as Captain Mike, Mauri the chef, me & Ise, there…