sitting 350 meters away from an erupting volcano🥹🌋
It’s funny, on one hand you’re completely mesmerised, watching the lava and rocks shoot into the air. They land so close to us, and you hear the hissing sound as they roll down the sides of the volcano. It’s beautiful. On the other hand you’re quietly wondering what on earth you’re doing this close.
We sat on the ridge for an hour or so, bodies tired from 7 hours of walking. Our guide pulls out a bottle of red wine that we all share. The volcano erupts approximately every 15 minutes. At first, clouds cover the crater and only the deep rumbling sound and smoke tell of what’s hiding. When the clouds clear and darkness falls, we all watch in awe.
#volcano #hiking #volcanodefuego #guatemala
We stayed with a family in a tiny mountain village outside of Cusco, Peru💚 Through a mix of broken Spanish and limited English, we shared experiences, meals, and laughter during four of the most memorable days of this trip. They welcomed us into their daily lives, teaching us about alpaca keeping, twisting grass into ropes for their roof, and so much more. It was such a rich and meaningful experience, leaving us feeling deeply grateful.
If anyone is interested in staying with Juan and his wonderful family, send us a PM—we’d be happy to connect you with them. Photos and contact details are shared with their permission, of course✨
Somehow the sky ended up being our favourite thing about Uruguay. Never have we witnessed such intensely coloured sunsets, dramatic afternoon lightning, or soft daylight on a cloudy day.
We spent a week staying with Yannicks aunt and husband, who spend half the year in this beautiful place. It was the perfect way to end the trip.
That time we hitch hiked from Chile to Argentina, and it turned into one of the best days of the trip🤭 Imagine you’re somewhere in the desert, almost broke and on a tight schedule, and you realise there’s no bus for 6 days… We entertained ourselves for two days and then decided we’d try hitch hiking. After many hours spent under the scorching desert sun, we secured a ride for the day after. The next morning, after about 10 minutes, our new friend and driver laughs and casually drops that he is on this trip because he lost his german drivers license and he can’t work without it. Hahah. At that point we weren’t even surprised; we were chewing tarmac like we’d been starving for decades😂
Sooner rather than later we make it to the boarder, only to realise it was closed. Agreeing this is the most stunning landscape we’ve ever seen, we decide it’s not the end of the world. So, we take a casual five-hour detour, make about a hundred photo stops, pick up two more hitchhikers, almost collide with a vicuña, and somehow roll into Salta by 8 PM.
10/10 would recommend👍
We came to Atacama to see the stars and the milky way, it being one of the best places in the world for it, but made it there in perfect timing for the short yearly period of rain and clouds. It’s funny, considering Atacama is the driest desert on earth. Although disappointing, we enjoyed a 40 km bike ride around the moonlike landscape near San Pedro de Atacama, catching the soft early light before the rest of the town woke up.
On the endless list of cool shit the earth does, geysers rank high🌬️Deep below the surface, magma superheats water trapped in underground channels, making the clay appear to boil and forcing steam to erupt under high pressure. We visited the Tatio Geysers, one of the largest geyser fields in the world, perched at 4,320 meters between Chile and Bolivia. Very, very cool.
While crossing from Bolivia to Chile on the towering Andean plateau, we drove past these flamingo-filled lakes. The flamingos added a poetic, almost ironic touch to a landscape so harsh, colorless, and desolate. Maybe that’s the definition of ’It is what you make of it.’ Or maybe it’s just the pink algae and bacteria that thrive in the salty, mineral-rich waters of these lakes🤭
Pictures taken at laguna Kara, Bolivia.
Where the sky meets the earth, you will find Salar de Uyuni, the world’s biggest salt desert👀🤍 It formed many thousand years ago, from a lake that slowly dried out and left its salt and minerals behind. Being there, it’s so intensely white it’s hard to keep your eyes open. During the rainy season, a thin layer of water creates a mirror effect that perfectly reflects the sky, a phenomenon we were lucky enough to experience. It’s a place that made it feel like we were on another planet. 🪐
Had a fever dream where we climbed a glacier and watched the sunrise at 6000 meters, or at least that’s what it felt like💭🌞 It was equally thrilling and terrifying, walking next to crevasses you can’t see the bottom of, pulling ourselves up steep icy sections with our axes, hoping the ice would hold.
It’s quite addictive, climbing higher and higher into the atmosphere, but this will probably be our record for a while.
Huayna Potosi, 6088m.
What life looks like here in the Bolivian Andes, staying in the remote village of Tuni. 🥹⛺️
This village is home to just a handful of families, one of which takes in hikers. So we find ourselves here, in the home of Andres and his wife. In the mornings, he drives us out to nearby mountains and tells us to call him on the walkie-talkie when we’re ready to be picked up. The walkie-talkie never has any connection, but somehow he’s there in time to pick us up anyway.
These shots are from our summit of the Austrian Peak, 5320 meters above sea level. Absolutely beautiful.
For anyone planning to hike the mountains around La Paz, we couldn’t recommend this place enough! Just search “La Maison d’Andres” on Google Maps and thank us later😉
