11 South America Backpacking with Indie Travel Podcast – podcast

July 24, 2010 by admin
Filed under Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Leisure, Nature, Peru, Podcasts, Sightseeing, South America, Uruguay, World, featured

3 Comments

In Podcast 11 I talk to Craig and Linda from Indie Travel Podcast about their 4 months travelling with friends in South America, visiting Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay. They pick out the highlights of their trip, and give some advice on travelling by bus, how to avoid scams and pickpockets and how they enjoyed staying with locals on this trip.

Craig and Linda on the Salt Flat Tour

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

To download the South America backpacking podcast, right click here [mp3] 45 mins

To subscribe to all my podcasts in ITunes click here

Chile

Craig and Linda flew into Santiago because of the cheap flights from Auckland in New Zealand. The city is surrounded by mountains and can be bathed in smog although Craig & Linda enjoyed their time there with museums and great street food.
Patagonia in southern Chile has amazing scenery although Craig & Linda didn’t visit, as it is one of the most expensive regions to visit in South America and they didn’t have enough time.
The island of Chiloé is a great place to relax and slow down, with a Pacific Island feel with food being cooked in underground ovens, and a place you can spot seals and dolphins.
In northern Chile, the area around San Pedro de Atacama is beautiful although the town itself is a tourist trap. You can use San Pedro de Atacama as a base for trips into the surrounding area but as an alternative you can approach from the north from Uyunay in Bolivia. This region is known for its natural beauty with mountains and salt flats.
Craig and Linda enjoyed an astronomy tour with a Frenchman who has set up telescopes in his house to view the very clear night skies in this area that has very little light pollution.
Linda and a friend spent a weekend in Valparaiso in Chile with plenty of street art, funiculars and brightly coloured houses where the local government had commissioned open air murals around the town. They also visited Viña del Mar, the coastal resort of the region.
Unfortunately, Chile is one of the most expensive countries in South America for food and accommodation, along with Uruguay and Argentina.

Salt flats in Bolivia

Peru

Craig and Linda travelled by overnight bus from Santiago to Antofagasta and up to Lima and spent 7 weeks in Peru, 3 of which were in Cusco where they attended a local language school to learn Spanish.
Cusco is not representative of Peru as a whole as it is very touristy, being the main jumping off point for trips to Machu Picchu. We discuss the pros and cons of visiting Machu Pichu which is a major site but also expensive and crowded by comparison to other sites that receive far less visitors.
From Cusco they enjoyed a trek through the Sacred Valley, visiting local villages that were well off the tourist trail.
Craig and Linda didn’t visit Machu Picchu preferring to spend time at some other lesser known pre-Incan sites near Trujillo such as Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna.
They especially enjoyed their time in the northern cities of Trujillo, Chachapoyas and Chiclayo and wish that they’d spent more time there than in Cusco.

Salt hotel in Bolivia

Bolivia

From Peru Craig and Linda travelled to the shores of Lake Titicaca, stayed at Cococabana and did some walking on Isla de Sol, a large island in the lake.
They visited the Uros floating islands made from reeds that were constructed as a refuge for the local people but have now become a major draw for tourists and brought more prosperity for the locals.
They had mixed feelings about La Paz which Linda loved as they stayed with locals and she enjoyed the street-food. Craig found the city dirty and felt unsafe as they were targeted with 3 pick-pocket attempts while they were there.
From Uyuni in Bolivia Craig and Linda visited the salt flats for a 3 day 4 wheel drive tour staying in a salt hotel and ending at San Pedro de Atacama. They loved the amazing play with perspective, coral islands covered with cactus and the heat haze with the mountains in the distance.

Uros floating islands in Peru

Argentina and Uruguay

Craig and Linda visited the Iguazu falls from both the Argentinian side which they found more developed but also more crowded and from the Brazilian side which had less visitors. The car to take them to the falls was arranged through their hostel and was only a little more expensive and more convenient than taking public transport.
From Puerto Iguazu they took the bus to Montevideo in Uruguay where they stayed with a friend who took them to his grandmother’s Lake House. This was close to the popular beach and surfing resort of Punte del Este which was reputed to have the best surfing on Uruguay’s east coast.
They also enjoyed Montevideo which was a relaxing place with plenty of culture and galleries, a contrast to the buzzing atmosphere of Buenos Aries. They also spent some time in in the town of Colonia in Uruguay.
In Argentina Craig and Linda did some wine tasting in the Mendoza and la Plata regions but found it difficult to take part in the wine tasting unless you were part of a tour as the wineries would only open their cheapest wines to try.

Igauzu Falls, Brazil

Tips for travelling by bus in South America

As they were travelling on a budget, Craig & Linda used long distance buses to get around, normally travelling overnight, despite the fact that Linda finds it difficult to sleep on buses.
The standard of the buses were best in Chile and Argentina and in Peru there was also a wide range of standards with some very high quality buses.
At best these buses can be similar in style to air travel with comfortable, reclining seats, airline style meals and drinks and even sometimes on board wifi.
Depending on the bus, you can book semi-cama seats that recline 45-60 degrees, Cama with 160 degree reclining, and even full cama that lie flat.
Craig and Linda suggest that you research your options and book with an bus operator that has a good reputation, even if it costs a little more.
Always keep your valuables with you on the bus and keep hold of any day-packs , especially when sleeping.
You may like a seat at the front of the bus that has more leg-room and you should also check the position of the toilet before selecting a seat to avoid unwelcome smells.

Couchurfingand meeting locals

On this trip Craig and Linda enjoyed staying with locals through Couchsurfing.org – even though their options were more limited as they were travelling in a group.
They combined this with staying in hostels which also gave them a break from speaking Spanish and an opportunity to catch up on the work for their Indie Travel Podcast site, as they also earn a living through the website.

Other Indie Travel Podcasts on South America

147 How to catch a bus in Chile and Peru
154 South American travel: Peru and Bolivia
155 – South American Travel: Chile, Argenina and Uruguay

Photo Credits: All photos by Craig and Linda and can be seen on their Mars-Hill Flickr site

10 Tiny campsites and eco-travel – interview with Dixe Wills – podcast

July 12, 2010 by admin
Filed under Accommodation, Camping, Leisure, Nature, Podcasts, United Kingdom

2 Comments

In my podcast interview with Dixe Wills, author of the Tiny Campsites guide, we discuss the benefits of slow travel and the things that make the campsites in this guide so special. You can read my review of the Tiny Campsite guide and hear Dixe’s tips and resources for those who want to travel in an environmentally friendly way. Like the Tiny Campsites Guide, this interview is guaranteed to leave you wanting to pack your tent and get out to enjoy these quirky and characterful campsites, handpicked by Dixe and all under one acre in size.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

To download the Tiny Campsites and eco-travel podcast, right click here [mp3] 43 mins

To subscribe to all my podcasts in ITunes click here

Piel Island from Tiny Campsite

I met Dixe when we were both camping at Trericket Mill and Dixe was cycling around Wales to research his Tiny Campsites guide. We discuss how he got into travel writing when he was wondering how to pay the mortgage and on the spur of the moment wrote to the Guardian Newspaper travel editor to pitch an article on Wild Camping. However Dixe suggests that aspiring travel writers should take a reality check, as most freelancers barely make a living from travel writing and he claims to live on the LILO principle – Low Income,Low Outgoings.

We discuss how Dixe decided not to travel by plane any more after he had lived in Guatemala and after many transatlantic flights decided that the impact on the environment was too great – now he travels by train, public transport, on foot or by bike. Dixe finds that travelling slowly enhances his experience of travel as he spots different places from the train he might like to visit in the future and when walking or cycling appreciates the small details around him as well as connecting with local people and culture. He quotes the Arab saying that your soul only travels at the speed of a camel, which is why travelling too fast leaves you disorientated and gives you jet lag.

Resources

Dixe recommends the following resources to plan his travel by train and other public transport;

Seat61.com – a website to help you plan train travel worldwide, named after the founder’s favourite seat on the Eurostar train. The site offers advice and information on planning different routes, train operators and the cheapest way to book your ticket.
Transportdirect.info – for planning travel by public transport in the UK giving door to door information on what transport to use to get to your destination.
Tourism websites – Dixe recommends using local or regional tourism websites for the destinations you want to visit as they often give useful information on how to get there.

Middle Ninfa from Tiny Campsite

Favourite places

We discuss favourite places that Dixe has visited that are off the beaten track but can be reached by public transport and he recommends;

Herefordshire and Shropshire in England which have beautiful countryside for walking such as the Long Mynd Hills but unknown as tourist destinations – mainly because they have very few motorways running through them.
The Cévennes in France is a large area of National Park with a small population as well as beautiful old stone villages – it was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote a book called Travels with a Donkey through the Cévennes. Dixe travelled to the Cévennes by taking the Eurostar from London to Paris and then the train on to the Cévennes region.
West Sweden – Dixe will soon be visiting the lake district of West Sweden called Dalsland , which he plans to reach via Denmark on a combination of ferries and sleeper trains.

Dixe told me how he came to write the Tiny Campsites book when was cycling across Devon looking for a campsite to stay the night and could only find a large commercial site, but luckily spotted a small camping sign that led him to a small campsite on a farm. He looked for a guide to help him find other similar tiny campsites and realised that, as there wasn’t anything available, he would have to write his own. Over the years he had visited or had recommendations for many delightful tiny campsites and in order to research the book he cycled all over the UK to visit all 75 campsites in the book and more to select the best ones to include.

Park Farm from Tiny Campsite

Park Farmfrom Tiny Campsite

Although there are a wide range of Tiny campsites from farms to back gardens to pubs and museum gardens, the thing that unifies them all is the charm, character and beautiful locations or just an indefinable something that makes you want to go and camp there, as Dixe put it ”a little bit of heaven”. Although I am slightly put off camping by the changeable British weather, Dixe has found that crazy weather can be found anywhere and he recommends June and September as beautiful times to camp, with more settled weather than the July and August.

We discuss the trend towards more unusual or luxurious camping experiences from yurts, to campsites like Broad Meadow House in Cornwall where in addition to the normal camping area, there are a couple of permanent tents with beds and B & B facilities where a delicious breakfast can be delivered to your tent in the morning.

I asked Dixe for some favourite campsites from the book and his suggestions were;

Great for families – Park Farm in Kildale, with fantastic views and walking and a camping barn on the same site where you can dry off if the weather is unkind.
Fantastic Views – Middle Ninfa Farm with only 4 pitches, two of them beside a croquet lawn and amazing views over the Usk valley
Coastal adventure – Piel Island in Cumbria – which can be reached by ferry or by walking at low tide with a ruined castle to explore and a pub where the landlord is known as the ‘King of Piel Island’

You can find more information about the Tiny Campsites guide at www.tinycampsites.co.uk and the book is widely available priced at £10.95 in your local bookshop or from the internet book sellers.

By the way, I featured Dixe and the Tiny Campsite guide because I love his travel philosophy and writing and not because of any financial inducement although I was previously given a copy of the guide to give away in my review.

Podcast 09 – Voluntary work in Ghana, West Africa

June 15, 2010 by admin
Filed under Ghana, Podcasts, World, World Issues

4 Comments

Podcast 09 – In this podcast I talk to my friend Wendy about her recent visit to Ghana to work with the Atiamah Charitable trust. The charity is based in Bristol, England where Wendy lives and was started by a Bristol student doing voluntary work when she came across Atiamah, a 4 year old aids orphan whose parents had died. On her return to England she was determined to do something to help the people of this community in Ghana and started the charity named after this little girl.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

To download the Ghana volunteer travel podcast, right click here [mp3]29 mins

To subscribe to all my podcasts in ITunes click here

Wendy has her hair braided in Wiaga, Ghana

The Atiamah Charitable Trust started working with aids sufferers in North West Ghana but now supports a number of community projects for agriculture, health and education. Wendy first visited the village of Wiaga in 2008 with her teenage son and on this second visit was going to see how some of the projects were developing and to buy livestock and equipment for the agricultural project.

Boys on donkeys in Wiaga, Ghana

Schoolchildren in Wiaga, Ghana

On this trip, Wendy travelled with another volunteer, flying into Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso which was closer to the area of northern Ghana than flying into the capital of Ghanan, Accra, and travelled by road to Wiaga where she stayed for a couple of weeks.

Boy with goat in Wiaga, Ghana

Village houses in Wiaga, Ghana

I hope you enjoy the slideshow below which is designed to accompany the podcast

Shownotes

In the podcast we talk about;

The moving story of how the charity was founded and named after a 4 year old Aids orphan, Atiamah.
Wendy’s journey from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and her first impressions of Ghana and the people she met there.
The different projects that the Atiamah Charitable Trust was supporting such a providing donkeys, goats and carts for poorer families within the community, books and resources for a library, sports equipment for local schools.
The work Wendy was able to do as a medical doctor, setting up simple disease prevention projects such as the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure.
The work being done with womens’ groups who are responsible for childcare, education and agricultural work and future projects such as soap making with shea nut oil.
Why Wendy wanted to get involved in this project as a doctor, to practice some of her basic medical training and how she felt she could personally make a difference.
The rewards from a personal perspective of doing voluntary work and getting involved in small overseas charities like the Atiamah Charitable Trust
For more information about the Atiamah trust, visit their website at www.atiamah.com
Music on the podcast was Venus as a Girl by Andy McGee on Musicalley.com
You can find another interesting podcast interview about volunteer work and travelling in Ghana on The Amateur Traveler from Lillie Marshall of AroundtheworldL.com
All photos are by Wendy Harding and can be viewed on my Flickr site here