Train Journeys – Cusco to Machu Picchu

There are a few ways to get from Cusco to Machu Picchu. If you’ve a mind to it, many like to brave the trek over the mountains, the Inca Trail – there are several versions of it. There is apparently some back way in via road but you have to go a long way out …

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Accommodation Review – Hotel Tren Dorado, Riobamba, Ecuador

Riobamba is around four hours by bus from the Ecuadorian capital Quito. The drive is quite impressive at times with the mountains and so on, and Riobamba itself seemed like a nice small city, with a bit of a University vibe. I was there to catch a bus to the Nariz Del Diablo, the Devil’s …

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Accommodation Review – Hotel San Francisco, Quito, Ecuador

I stayed at the Hotel San Francisco (de Quito) in early October. I stayed there principally because it was the hotel used by my Intrepid tour to Galapagos which included a night at both the start and end of the tour in Quito. I also stayed an extra two days before the tour commenced, so …

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Why Rio is ‘All That’!

Umm okay. No that title does not sit right with me. Not really how I talks. But I do have to tell you, one place that really didn’t fail to live up to image and reputation for me, in South America, was Rio De Janeiro. And I’m talking as Andrew, self-confessed nerd who doesn’t head …

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Wadi Rum – Desert of Dreams

Down the south of Jordan in the Middle East is a very special desert called Wadi Rum. I don’t write much about Jordan, probably because my memories are not so strong from my time there and my diaries are all gone, but it really was a great country to visit for a couple of weeks. …

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Little Places – Uch Shariff

Sometimes half the fun of seeing places is getting there. Uch Shariff is a small collection of beautiful Sufi Shrines in Pakistan. They are on the ‘tentative’ list of UNESCO heritage sites. Put simply we are talking about a small group of shrines kinda in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of a little …

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