My travels to South America started with leading on the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) Cordiallia Blanca Expedition 2006 ( www.bses.org.uk). I arrived in Peru just short of the rest of the advance party.
However as happens on expeditions the rest of the advance party were delayed in New York for two days and thus it appeared that I had to sort out an expedition for 44 persons alone. Daunting!
But luckily they did arrive eventually and relieved me of the major task of sourcing food for 44 people for 6 weeks and transporting it 8hrs into the mountains. The expedition went underway without further delays and I had 7 young explorers
in my group. The six week expedition was spent between trekking, mountaineering and scientific research.
After the expedition had departed I returned to the mountains to complete a solo climb of Nevado Pisco (5742m, alpine grade PD) which I completed in 5 days owing to a bout of D&V sapping my strength when I reached base camp at 4000m.
Having spent two months in the mountains I was ready for a break I decided that I would visit the beaches on the north of Peru. For doing so I needed to take the bus up to the border of Ecuador as the beaches are about 30 mins from there.
Arriving at the border town it was quite overcast and not wanting to be hanging around at the beaches on cloudy days (picky!!) I decided to pop over the border.
In doing so I had to fend of con-artist taxi drivers and other such rogues who attempt to con/kidnap you. They are annoying but not too dangerous and so letting them blackmail me a little I made it to a bus terminal in Ecuador to be chased
by yet another rogue who wanted some funding for "helping me". A kind indiginous family at the bus station helped me out and expressed that I should give a little money to save him coming back with bigger bullies and afterwards invited
me to stay with them - in a little village called Peguche outside a town called Otavalo which is about 2 hrs north of Quito and 14hrs away from the Peruvian border.
After staying in Peguche for a month I moved through various other tourist towns until I reached Coca. Coca, a sweltering oil town in the Ecuadorian Amazon is at the end of the road as far as road transport is concerned, but where one form of transport
ends another begins and in the Amazon its the rivers. This boat leaves Coca twice a week, conditions and holidays permitting making the journey to the border town of Novea Rocufuerte which can only be reached by boat. The rio napo, a tribuatory of
the Amazon flows past this border town into Peru and hundreds of kilometres later empties into the Amazon. This is the path we shall take. But before it empties into the Amazon we will cut across to Iquitos, Peru - the largest city in the world with no road access.
It took a patient week of boat hopping between the various villages along the river to reach Iquitos. Accomodation was normally found by asking families if you can hang up your hammock on their porch and food was found by knocking on people's doors and asking if they
wouldn't mind cooking.
After a week relaxing in Iquitos it was time to leave. I opted to take the boat out of Iquitos as opposed to flying and it took three sweltering days to reach the nearest town with roads. It took a further two days to get to a major transport hub before travelling became easier. I flew to Puerto Maldonado to reach a rainforest conservation lodge on the rio Madre de Dios where a friend was working where I stayed for two weeks.
Without flying, it took 3 hours on a boat and 36 hours on top of a goods truck to get out of Puerto Maldonado starting at sea level and ascending up to 4000m before reaching Cusco.
I reached La Paz in December where I solo climbed Huayna Potosi (6,088m) a few days after my 25th Birthday (and just after my second bout of D&V!).
My travels to South America started with leading on the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) Cordiallia Blanca Expedition 2006 ( www.bses.org.uk). I arrived in Peru just short of the rest of the advance party.
However as happens on expeditions the rest of the advance party were delayed in New York for two days and thus it appeared that I had to sort out an expedition for 44 persons alone. Daunting!
But luckily they did arrive eventually and relieved me of the major task of sourcing food for 44 people for 6 weeks and transporting it 8hrs into the mountains. The expedition went underway without further delays and I had 7 young explorers
in my group. The six week expedition was spent between trekking, mountaineering and scientific research. 
After the expedition had departed I returned to the mountains to complete a solo climb of Nevado Pisco (5742m, alpine grade PD) which I completed in 5 days owing to a bout of D&V sapping my strength when I reached base camp at 4000m.
In doing so I had to fend of con-artist taxi drivers and other such rogues who attempt to con/kidnap you. They are annoying but not too dangerous and so letting them blackmail me a little I made it to a bus terminal in Ecuador to be chased
by yet another rogue who wanted some funding for "helping me". A kind indiginous family at the bus station helped me out and expressed that I should give a little money to save him coming back with bigger bullies and afterwards invited
me to stay with them - in a little village called Peguche outside a town called Otavalo which is about 2 hrs north of Quito and 14hrs away from the Peruvian border.
This is the path we shall take. But before it empties into the Amazon we will cut across to Iquitos, Peru - the largest city in the world with no road access.
After a week relaxing in Iquitos it was time to leave. I opted to take the boat out of Iquitos as opposed to flying and it took three sweltering days to reach the nearest town with roads. It took a further two days to get to a major transport hub before travelling became easier. I flew to Puerto Maldonado to reach a rainforest conservation lodge on the rio Madre de Dios where a friend was working where I stayed for two weeks.
Without flying, it took 3 hours on a boat and 36 hours on top of a goods truck to get out of Puerto Maldonado starting at sea level and ascending up to 4000m before reaching Cusco.
I reached La Paz in December where I solo climbed Huayna Potosi (6,088m) a few days after my 25th Birthday (and just after my second bout of D&V!).