All the way south

"Duuude! You look like a hobo." Those were the welcoming words that greeted me when I emerged from arrivals at Mexico City's main airport, the words of my great friend Daniel, who himself was on a bit of a trip, returning to his native country for a few months to work on a personal project. I hadn't realised just how much my beard had grown, growing from hipster to homeless in the three months since I saw him last, and his reaction was probably justified. The trip started as it would mostly proceed and end, with lots of eating. We stopped off at a chain called Casa de Toño to sample some pozole rojo  (soup), with some flautas  and a little taco thrown in for good measure. It was a lot of food, but holy crap...flavor! Variety! Spice! Parts of my tongue were tingling, parts that hadn't tingled in months. Daniel had always hyped up the food in Mexico, and it made a spectacular start in living up to expectations. I was already looking forward to the next meal. W...

Buenos Aires My 20 hours or so in Buenos Aires was no more than a glorified stopover, but I managed to pack in a lot in that time. Yet another sleepy late night landing, with dinner still to eat, meant I forked out for a direct taxi to my hostel, and upgraded to a private room when I got there. In a couple of days I was going to be sharing an Antarctic ship cabin with two other random guys, so some alone time beforehand justified the expense. My hostel was right in the middle of the San Telmo district, a bohemian area hopping with bars, plazas, and tango. After quickly checking in, I strolled out at 10pm, navigating the easy grid system of streets to the Argentinian asado (barbecue steak) place one of the hostel staff recommended. I failed in finding it, but I wasn't short for other options that late at night. I settled for a brewpub, and had a delicious brewed on premise IPA along with a burger. I had heard that Buenos Aires was quite similar to a modern European city, ...

A big delay in my flight to Peru gave me the unexpected opportunity to sample two completely unrelated things I had wanted to try - an Outback Steakhouse (an American chain with an Aussie theme that was randomly in Quito airport) and more Ecuadorian craft beers. The flight was delayed long enough for me to try a surprisingly delicious steak and the whole brewery range - pale ale, lager, porter and stout. The god of airports doesn't allow such fun to go unpunished however, so the compensation for my merriment was being forced to spend nine overnight hours in Jorge Chávez International in Lima. I'm not sure who decides the airport flight schedules, but I imagine whoever organizes the one for Lima is an insomniac who loves to inflict his sleepless suffering on others - so many flights there leave at ridiculous early morning hours. I landed in Lima at 9.30pm and was departing for Cuzco at 4.30am. I had to wait until 1am before I could check my bag in, so in the end I only got 1...

Being used to long haul flying, I barely noticed the short hop from Bogotá to Quito, the high-lying capital of Ecuador. An airport taxi pickup from my hostel gave me an easy introduction into this new country. Luckily there was a Danish hipster heading to the same hostel at the same time, so I was able to share the cost with him. View from Secret Garden rooftop With an ultra-modern airport highway, the taxi cruised along until hitting the higgledy-piggledy old colonial streets of the San Blas area of the centre, where The Secret Garden hostel was located. The hostel was recommended to me by a couple of Canadian girls I had shared a dorm with in Medellín, more so for the three day trip to the sister hostel near Cotopaxi mountain that was not to be missed. With the December 10th deadline for the Inca Trail in Peru looming, I only had just enough time to do this three day'er before hitting the Galapagos for four. That would be it for Ecuador. After grabbing a lovely lunch wi...

So far, the rule with Colombian buses had been to take the prescribed travel time and add an hour or two. Having been informed that the bus to Bogotá takes 7-9 hours, I feel into a deep VIP-seat slumber expecting to get at least a solid 8 hours of sleep. I was in the middle of a dream when Xavier poked me awake at 6am. I still wasn't fully awake, and still wasn't fully sure if we were actually in Bogotá just 7 hours later, when I said au revoir to him and clambered into a taxi. Finally, a daytime arrival at a new place. My first impressions on the near hour-long journey into the centre were...underwhelming. Lots of traffic, lots of buses, lots of flat sprawl - Bogotá wasn't impressing me so far. Having been hostel dorming it for a while now, I decided it was time for a break from backpacking. I had booked myself into a four star hotel for the next couple of nights, right in the historic central region, known as Le Candelaria. My extremely early arrival meant that my hot...

Irish people like to think that we can spot other Irish when we're abroad just by looking at them (which is true, we can). I think after living two years in the Netherlands, I can now do the same for the Dutch. I've been using this skill a lot in Colombia, because there's a whole lotta Dutch here. I shared a taxi from the airport to the centre of Medellín with two meneers from Amsterdam and The Hague. Yet another night time approach to a new place, but this one was the best yet. Medellín is located both in a valley surrounded by hills, and on the sides of the hills themselves. The airport is outside this urban basin, and the area where I was staying (Poblado, where most of the hostels and nice restaurants/bars are) is located on a mountainside south of the centre. When I got to my hostel rooftop the view was incredible. I spent five minutes with a beer in hand just drinking it all in (along with Martin, my dorm roommate - Dutch of course). A really nice, modern hoste...