South american awards 2012

After 5 months of travelling around and through South America we thought it's about time to pick our favourites in different categories. It's all just in our opinion based on what we've experienced in this time. Decisions are mostly influenced by the limited budget of a backpacker.

 

 

We travelled through Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Out of these we chose the winners.

 




easiest travelling award

Travelling in Colombia is affordable, some streches are not more expensive by plane than by bus and those are in good shape and taxis generally have fixed prices or at least fair fares. If you're lost everyone is happy to help.

 

 

 

 

 

friendliest people award

 

Before we reached Colombia we had no doubt it'll be Bolivia. But Colombians won our hearts just after we crossed their border.

 

 

 

 

 

easiest spanish award

 

No doubt, bolivian spanish or castellano is the easiest to understand, no weird accents or slang. If you don't understand them you can be sure they talk Quechua or Aymará.

 

 

 

 

 

must see national park award

Madidi NP in Bolivia is absolutely beautiful, full of life, well protected and only accessible by boat. We'd go there again any time.

Very close second place, that has to be mentioned here is Galapagos. Just unique.

 

 

 

 

most perfect beaches award

Galapagos wins by its unspoiled, tourist and rubbish free beaches full of sea lions and iguanas. You never get bored.

 

 

 

 

 

best hostel breakfasts award

Nowhere else in the whole continent the breakfast came even close to those in Brazil. Fruits, fruit juice, cheese, ham, sausages, different bread rolls, croissants, cakes, coffee, tea. All included in the price. Good morning!

 

 

 

 

 

most relaxed award

Not much is happening in Uruguay which just suits us. Calm little towns, empty beaches and flat farmlands. Quiet.

 

 

 

 

 

budget friendliest award

Bolivia is cheap. Everything. But only in a bus you notice why.

 

 

 

 

most beautiful landscapes award

Colombians green, tree covered mountains, beautiful cities and the caribbean coast with splendid snorkelling and diving.

 

 

 

 

best buses award

 

Argentinian buses with luxurious chairs, dinner with wine, clean toilets.

 

 

 

 

 

outstanding ruins award

Peru with its Machu Picchu, just unbeatable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

best food award

The cheap and tasty food in Bolivia caters to everyone. There's a lot of meat, yes, but half of us is vegetarian and she voted for Bolivia too. If you cook for yourself you'll find the freshest veggies and the juiciest fruits just around the corner in a market. Chef's paradise!

 

 

 

 

most memorable wine award

Uruguay's Tannat you'll remember forever. Best enjoyed with a dinner. Also works without.

 

 

 

 

 

most different to home award

Everything is different in Bolivia, we really felt like somewhere else. And in every taken photo is at least one indegenious person, we like.

 

 

 

 

 

the country we're most likely to return to award

Colombia wins by it's comfortable climate (we say too hot is better than too cold), it's beautiful vegetation, friendly, beautiful people and the Caribbean coast which we didn't explore long enough. Let alone the San Blas islands...

 

Highlight after highlight after highlight

After spending the night in Cobacabana it was time to hop on the bus. Jungle had been an absolute highlight and yet we were heading towards the next. It did not take long until we were at the Peruvian border, queueing to get another stamp in the passport. Border crossing turned out to be fairly easy, whole bus stayed together because of pickpockets and the short walk we had to take from Bolivian immigration office to the Peruvian one. Well organised and easy, and we had time to exchange the few pesitos we had into nuevo soles. When border formalities were over and done with, we hopped back into bus for an hour or so to switch buses in Puno. Puno is the main city from which to explore Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian side, but because we had already seen the lake, we kept going directly to Cusco.  

What was supposed to be a nine hour drive turned out to be twelve hours. Our plan to arrive during daylight failed, as usual. Not many times buses have been on schedule yet... Happy to arrive, we took our heavy backpacks loaded with jumpers, blankets and warm clothes and took a taxi to the hostel. Quick dinner and straight to bed.

Cusco is a nice city absolutely full of Inca ruins. There is a lot to do if you are interested in that sort of thing. We spent days just exploring he city, impressed by the architechture and skills of the Incas. We also visited a chocolate museum and spent time just sitting at the main plaza.

Like everyone else who comes to Cusco, we wanted to visit Machu Picchu, which has been a dream of mine since I heard of its existence. So we booked a bunch of tickets. First we took a bus to Ollantaytambo, about one and a half hours from Cusco, and stayed there for one night. Ollantaytambo is a cute little village on the way to Machu Picchu. We decided to go there, because we wanted to see as many ruins as we could fit in our budget and schedule without doing a tour. The ruins there were quite impressive, and we had a fun day climbing up and down the stairs and terraces, trying to guess the purpose of the buildings.

From Ollantaytambo we kept going to Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu. We heard that most tourists take the train from Cusco and arrive to Machu Picchu around 10am. We wanted to avoid the crowds the best we could, so we stayed in Aguas Calientes instead, planning to take the first bus at 5:30 am going up the hill to the ruins. When we woke up and got out of the hostel at 5:20, we noticed that about five hundred other tourists and backpackers had the same idea. The queue from the bus station was a few hundred metres already, and the end of it was right outside our hostel door! Luckily there are lots of buses, and they leave as soon as they are full, so it took us 20 minutes the most to get to the bus and the same time to reach the gates of Machu Picchu, so we got there well before sunrise like we planned.

We entered the gates inside the area, and first thing we did was climb up a hill to enjoy the view of the first rays of morning light hitting the ruins while having breakfast. Food at Machu Picchu is so expensive that we had decided to bring sandwiches and water despite all the forbidden-signs around the place. Good decision, since we planned to have a full day there. So we sat there a while and then headed for a guided tour that was included in the tickets. We spent almost two hours following the tour guide around the lost city until we got sick of the amount of other people and decided to get away from the crowds to have lunch and to climb up an Inca road to the Sun Gate, located up the hill providing another great view of the ruins. A nice walk, although the constant sunshine made it a bit harder than expected... We decided to relax at the much less crowded Sun Gate and wait for the biggest crowds to return back to the train before walking back to the main site. When we got back, we had glowing red sunburns all over, but still we decided to keep exploring the ruins in peace and quiet. So we walked around until the last buses started to leave towards Aguas Calientes, where we spent another night before heading back to Cusco.

Happy to have seen Machu Picchu but a bit bored of the altitude and the cold we still had almost a week in Cusco. We then decided to book another tour. Being sick of carrying full backpacks we decided to send some of our stuff home. After all, we were heading towards the warmer temperatures now.