It’s 8 pm on a Monday night in Buenos Aires: the summer heat has finally receded and night is slowly beginning to fall. Enjoy that gentle breeze while it lasts, because the seventeen percussionists that make up La Bomba de Tiempo [sp] (Time Bomb) are just kicking off their two hour set and the crowd is about [...]

Mistura.  I’ve had far too many beers and Pisco Sours, and way too much good food to really express in words how awesome today was.  So I’m going to leave you with some photos, and head on out to celebrate a great day of over-indulgence with, you guessed it, yet more over-indulgence.  The actual blog [...]

Days 1-6, here Hours chugging along slowly in the Volkswagen, piled on top of each other as the monotonous desert roads slide past the windows. Long pauses to cool a rapidly overheating motor. Hours more broken down and waiting in the drugging heat for the local mechanic of a dusty anonymous town to appear from [...]

The Church was simple, as was the altar she had set up on the low wall in front of it.  A white cloth, a doll, flowers, a basket.  A well-used deck of cards. “¿Habla español?” she asks, indicating me with chin and cigar. “Sí, sí” Baryan said.  “Cam, I’m gonna go take some pictures.  See [...]

With 2,500 people trampling over its manicured lawns and shooing its herd of chilled-out llamas into the optimally photogenic pose, finding an unseen corner of Machu Picchu seems impossible. And it is:  almost.  But there is one corner you can slip away into, if you have the time and energy.  You won’t see an incredible [...]

There’s nothing quite like a family visit to spur an expat into hyper-turistic mode.  I’ve been in Peru for about a year and a half now, and the list of places I haven’t been yet is embarrassingly long.  The last few days have seen quite a few of them scrubbed off the list, at least. [...]

Montañita Take several surfers, a bundle of slow-travelling South American musicians and artisans, mix in a heavy dose of rum and a little sex, sun and sand.  Pour it all out by the side of a beautiful Ecuadorian beach and you’ve got something that looks a lot like Montañita. I spent a lot of time [...]

“Bad news, guys.  The engine’s doing that thing again.” It’s 4:30 am in the morning and we’re at a service station in a place called Huacho, somewhere between Lima and Trujillo.  This is not news we want to hear.  The five of us plus dog that are heaped on top of each other in the [...]

The rainy season will finally come to an end in a few weeks, Cusco will once again be blessed with too-blue skies and clear mountain air, and all of a sudden every time I turn around there will be a raging Andean fiesta going on. Peruvians, like all latinos, love their festivals.  Most tend to [...]

Update 27/07/2011 – I’ve been advised the project described in this post is currently on hold for family reasons.  I’ve heard vague reports of other permaculture projects in the Sacred Valley, and will try to track down firm details in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, feel free to get in touch for the [...]