7. Backpacking in South America with Stephen Pt. 1.

This week on the Recipe to the Road podcast I speak to Stephen about backpacking through South America during times of political unrest. Stephen is from Donegal in Ireland and along with his partner Siobhán he spent 6 months in South America.

This will be a 2 part episode. In part 1 we speak about route planning, navigating political unrest in Chile and Bolivia and visiting the world-famous Machu Picchu.

Previous travels

Stephen starts by telling me a bit about his previous travel experience, before his South America trip. He travelled around South East Asia and absolutely loved it. He didn’t make any plans before the trip other than to go with the flow and found it very easy to navigate.

He also spent some time as a digital nomad in Gran Canaria which is one of the Spanish Canary Islands.

Backpacking in South America

Stephen and Siobhán started their travels in South America in Santiago, Chile. Like Stephens's previous backpacking trip they didn’t have a plan and planned their route based on tips and advice from other travellers, hostel owners and locals.

Unlike Asia, travelling in South America this way proved to be slightly more challenging as the distances are much greater and flights were more expensive than in Asia. They mostly used buses to get around for this reason and therefore had to be a bit more organised in their route planning.

Navigating political unrest as a backpacker

Additionally, they had to deal with political unrest, as both Chile and Bolivia had riots during their travels. However, not having set plans gave them the freedom to navigate these challenges.

They found that the unrest in the cities they were in was mostly protests and street parties rather than violent riots. Protesters were conscious of tourists and ensured they could always get through the crowds. Stephen said they never felt in danger.

They kept an ear to the ground always asking anyone they could if they were good to go to their next location.

Despite what was going on in both Chile and Bolivia they still got to see lots of places, like the famous San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia from the book Marching Powder.

Peru was chill

In Peru, they found a more relaxed atmosphere, with no political unrest. They travelled along the coast, visiting the Nazca Lines, and enjoyed activities such as sandboarding and paragliding over sand dunes at Huaccachina. They also took a tour to Machu Picchu and visited the Paracas, which is known as a mini Galapagos Islands.

Route

Santiago, Chile→ Mendosa, Argentina → back to Santiago, Chile → San Pedro de Atacama, Chile → Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia → La Paz, Bolivia → Copacabana, Bolivia → Cusco, Peru → Huacachina, Peru → Nazca Lines, Peru → Paracas, Peru → Mancora, Peru → Guayaquil, Ecuador → Baños, Ecuador → Amazon, Ecuador → Cali, Colombia → Medellin, Colombia → Cartagena, Colombia → Santa Martha, Colombia → Palomino, Colombia

Part 2 of Stephens interview will be out on 8th March. Next week he speaks to me about visiting the Amazon rainforest, wandering into a dodgy area in Colombia and island hopping from Colombia to Panama to avoid the impassable Darrian Gap.

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7. Backpacking in South America with Stephen Pt. 1.

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