The Amazon Rainforest – one of the biggest highlights that we were able to experience during our time in Ecuador. I first wasn’t sure how I would do, four days in the jungle, but it turned out to be a great adventure with lots of animal spotting, community visits and impressive scenery.
Another local perspective, this time with my dearest Andres, 37, who we met during our time in Montañita, Ecuador. Even though we haven’t been on Galapagos during this trip, I thought it would be amazing to get some insights from someone who grew up and now lives and works there. Thanks Andres for answering all of my questions, even though you are super busy all the time and I was a pain in the butt! (Haha)
After I skipped ‘The Local’s Perspective’ in Chile, as we were mostly just hanging out with fellow backpackers on different tours, I am happy that I had the chance to interview Romolo, 30 y/o, during our four day Amazon rainforest tour. He grew up in and around the jungle and the Cuyabeno community and is an expert in wildlife, flora and fauna there.
From snowy Patagonia to the Atacama desert – definitely a great transformation in scenery. San Pedro de Atacama marked our last stop on our trip through Chile. Our time in San Pedro de Atacama, or, how I would rather call it: the time I lost my lungs to a shit load of dust, but had the best time doing so. Here we go.
With Patagonia in the South and Atacama desert in the North of Chile, people tend to spend less time in the center of the country, based on what we’ve heard before coming here. Some would even say to skip the middle part, because there is not so much to do. I have to disagree with that. True, it is a different experience going from natural wonders and adventures back to city life, but its still worth a visit, especially because the central part has beautiful places, too. For us, Santiago was the first stop there (obviously because we flew in there from PuntaArenas), we then did a day trip to Cajon del Maipo and finally made our way to Valparaiso, which is just 1,5 hours away.
If you are into adventure, outdoors activities and beautiful landscape, Pucòn is your place to go in Chile. We read a bunch of different blogs and talked to other people that been to chile in order to figure out the smartest route to take from south to the north. Pucón (and Villarrica) was almost always on the list of places to see, so we thought – why not check it out.
This stop was probably one of the more anticipated onces that I was reading the most about before our trip, so expectations were running very high. We were first debating whether we wanted to start from Ushuaia, go up to Punta Arenas and then to Torres del Paine or see the Argentinian side first and then make our way over to Chile. We decided for the second plan and flew in to El Calafate, Argentina. To be honest, I was more looking forward to Chile, because I heard so many amazing things about it, but the tours we did from el Calafate were amazing and i am so happy that we made it there.
On this world trip, I’ve decided to try something new. With ‘The Local’s Perspective’, I am starting a new series on the blog, which aims to focus on insights, experiences and opinions of locals that I am meeting throughout my travels. With that, I not only want to provide local tips and tricks to make your stay as authentic as possible, but also emphazise and shine light on different cultures and individual paths and situations that each of them are facing, while living in different countries of the world. With this personal project, I also hope to push myself further to interact with locals on a different level in order to meet many inspiring and interesting people during this journey.
Thank you for your reservation. Flights booked. One way ticket to South America. For the first time in a long time I feel a huge wave of relieve rolling over me. After over two years of talking about it, wishing it, planning it and questioning it and after a hard couple of months at work, we finally managed to pull through. We are going on a trip around the world. South and Central America, Hawaii and then Southeast Asia. Finally!
rannaway - diary of a traveler 