Thoughts of the almighty Amazon have the power to excite and delight travellers like few other places on Earth can. In our minds eye we picture thick natural rainforest with giant trees and an abundance of wildlife, isolated indigenous communities with painted faces and fresh, clean waterways filling the World’s largest river system. So imagine our initial disappointment on arrival in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city (approx. 1.7 million population) to find a sprawling, dirty hot and humid metropolis seemingly devoid of any natural flora and fauna. The frenetic streets were choked by traffic and its streets filled with rubbish and unsavory characters. On face value Manaus had limited touristic appeal but it frequently finds its way onto traveller’s itineraries using it as a base to arrange jungle trips or considering it a destination in its own right. We realised that perhaps we’d set ourselves up for a fall, with expectations so high, that Manaus was always fighting a losing battle. We knew there must be more to the city than its face value so we set out to discover what Manaus was all about.
Selling onions at market won’t make you cry
21 Feb
Life can seem hard when you’ve been selling onions every Tuesday for forty years at Silvia market. The old couple with weather-beaten faces sat silently together staring in different directions into the distance. They were traditional countryfolk whose survival hinged on the cultivation of fruit and vegetables on their small farm for personal consumption and to sell here at Silvia’s bustling weekly market. They were Guambiano people from one of the small mountain villages of Pueblito, Guambia, La Campana and Caciques and are considered to be one of the most traditional indigenous groups in all of Colombia.
Otavalo indigenous market
18 Feb
We were travelling from Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and heading across the border into Colombia. We decided to break the journey up with a stopover in Ecuador’s northern highlands and the small town of Otavalo was our choice. Otavalo is famous for its indigenous market, which dates back to pre-Inca times and is now the largest of its kind in the whole of South America. We were initially concerned that the whole town would be like one giant theatre production, where stone faced locals dress up for hordes of tourists to shamelessly flog them tacky reproduction handicrafts at rip off prices, but we were very wrong…so wrong in fact we ended up extending our stay in Ecuador by several days so we could discover more about the friendly and culturally rich Otavalenos (people from Otavalo) with their beautiful hand crafted products, and also to explore the rolling hills just a stones throw from the town.
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Torres del Paine – the ‘W’ trek
Visitors from all walks of life converge on the small hamlet of Puerto Natales to visit Chile’s and perhaps the Continent’s number one national park – Torres del Paine. Located in the Southern Patagonian ice fields at the end of the Andes, the park offers diverse wildlife and incredible mountain scenery, glaciers, lakes, rivers and […]
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