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Latin American Music as a force for political change

By nick
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Dec 04 2013

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog that looked at a few of the [...]

Hemingway and the glory days of Cabo Blanco, Peru

By nick
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Nov 27 2013

Looking at the unspectacular smattering of low-strung cabins and fishing boats on a scrubby cape on [...]

¡Arriba! Some famous genres of Latin American music

By nick
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Nov 20 2013

Anyone who has spent any time in Latin America will have been struck by the constant [...]

Four South American dishes

By nick
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Nov 12 2013

You wouldn’t visit Italy without having a pizza, and there’s no way you’d be able to [...]

Icons of Buenos Aires: Evita Peron

By nick
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Nov 05 2013

Argentina has produced a few global icons – Che Guevara and Maradona spring to mind – [...]

Galapagos vacation highlight: Galapagos mockingbirds

By nick
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Nov 01 2013

Your Galapagos vacation will be so jam-packed with animal action, that some species are bound to [...]

¿Cachai? An overview of Latin American Spanish

By nick
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Oct 25 2013

Of the 469 million people who speak Spanish as their mother tongue, more than 230 million [...]

Small vessel Galapagos vacation: Galapagos in figures

By nick
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Oct 17 2013

The Galapagos Islands are one of the most unique places in the world, which is why [...]

3 Latin American cocktails

By nick
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Oct 11 2013

Nothing says ‘vacation’ more loudly or clearly than sipping on a cocktail in your swimsuit or [...]

The humble potato, The Andes’ greatest export

By nick
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Oct 08 2013

While researching a Vaya Adventures blog on Four key ingredients of Andean cuisine, I became fascinated [...]

Trujillo travel guide: Jewel of Peru’s North

By nick
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Sep 23 2013

With colonial architecture, pre-Inca, ruins and warm weather, Trujillo has a lot to offer all who [...]

Galapagos evolution highlights: Darwin’s finches

By nick
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Sep 10 2013

Darwin’s finches are the unlikely poster boys of evolution. Averaging 6 inches in height and employing [...]

Discover Quito: not just a Galapagos stopover

By nick
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Sep 03 2013

Your once-in-a-lifetime Galapagos itinerary will invariably include at least one night in Quito, the capital of [...]

Peru highlights: condors in the Colca Canyon

By nick
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Aug 27 2013

Your Peruvian itinerary will almost certainly include Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu, but this amazingly diverse [...]

Arequipa tourist attractions: Peru’s white city

By nick
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Aug 22 2013

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and it’s also the country’s third most popular [...]

An introduction to South American wines

By nick
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Aug 14 2013

Chile and Argentina are two of the world’s biggest producers and exporters of wine, and their [...]

Luxury Galapagos cruise checklist: the marine iguana

By nick
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Aug 07 2013

The Galapagos aren’t your average tropical archipelago; instead they’re a menagerie of animals weird and wonderful, [...]

10 fascinating Machu Picchu facts

By nick
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Jul 27 2013

You’ve probably been dreaming about your bespoke Machu Picchu trip for yonks, but – if you’re [...]

Salta travel tips

By nick
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Jul 17 2013

Most Argentine itineraries include Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Iguazu and – possibly – the wine country around [...]

Machu Picchu Travel Tips

By nick
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Jul 16 2013

Visiting Machu Picchu will almost certainly be the highlight of your Peruvian adventure. With real bucket-list [...]

A brief history of Cusco

By nick
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Jul 02 2013

Cusco is so much more than the gateway to Machu Picchu. It’s probably the most important [...]

Darwin and the Galapagos: Part 2

By nick
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Jun 25 2013

If you’re planning a luxury Galapagos cruise it pays to know a bit about the history [...]

Darwin and the Galapagos: Part 1

By nick
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Jun 20 2013

Darwin would not be who he is today were it not for the islands. Likewise, the [...]

5 Amazon animal species

By nick
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Jun 18 2013

A trip to the Amazon is on many people’s bucket list, and with the variety of [...]

Trips to Uruguay from Buenos Aires

By nick
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Jun 08 2013

Uruguay, with its pre-Hispanic name, sounds a lot more exotic than it really is. Many people [...]

Easter Island: debunking the myths

By nick
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Jun 07 2013

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known in Polynesian, must be one of the [...]

A guide to shopping in Peru

By nick
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Jun 06 2013

Peru is a fantastic place to buy traditional arts and crafts, but the quality on offer [...]

A guide to shopping in Santiago

By nick
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Jun 05 2013

Downtown Santiago is about as globalized as it comes in South America, and international brand names [...]

A guide to shopping in Argentina

By nick
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Jun 02 2013

Argentina is a shopper’s paradise – if you know where to go. Here we look at [...]

Film review: “Even The Rain” (2010)

By nick
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May 04 2013

Even the Rain is at once a deeply political message and a gripping tale. It tells [...]

Four key ingredients of Andean cuisine

By nick
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May 01 2013

The Andean region is characterised by high altitudes, low rainfall and bitter winters. Not only does [...]

Day Trips from Buenos Aires: Tigre, the Paraná Delta and the Tren de la Costa

By nick
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Apr 30 2013

Buenos Aires is a huge city, and many tourists only end up seeing the central districts [...]

Understanding South America through its History of War

By nick
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Apr 14 2013

It pays to know at least a little bit about the history of a place before [...]

Poor Niagra! Visiting Iguazu Falls

By nick
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Apr 01 2013

When Eleanor Roosevelt visited Iguzau Falls she is reputed to have exclaimed “Poor Niagara!” and it’s [...]

Film review: La Nana (Chile 2009)

By nick
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Mar 22 2013

I watched La Nana (The Maid) knowing nothing about it or its reputation. I was enchanted [...]

Four Latin American blockbusters worth watching

By nick
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Mar 20 2013

Ever since I lived in Argentina, I’ve had a thing for movies from or about Latin [...]

Three questions arising from One Hundred Years of Solitude

By nick
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Mar 18 2013

  Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember [...]

Day Trips from Mendoza, Argentina

By nick
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Mar 15 2013

I lived in Mendoza for two years and I went on countless day and overnight trips. [...]

Where to Visit Pre-Inca Ruins in Peru

By nick
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Mar 01 2013

On my first visit to Peru my girlfriend made me promise that we wouldn’t do any [...]

Exploring Santiago, Chile

By nick
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Feb 15 2013

Chile is famous for its lakes, its mountains, its wines and its deserts, but its capital [...]

Understanding Maradona, Understanding Argentina

By nick
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Feb 12 2013

To understand the gargantuan shadow Maradona casts over his soccer-mad homeland, one has to conjure up [...]

The Acequias, Veredas and Plazas of Mendoza

By nick
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Jan 28 2013

Mendoza is prone to earthquakes, which means that it doesn’t have many historical buildings of interest. [...]

What’s That Gourd? An Introduction to Yerba Mate

By nick
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Jan 28 2013

My first experiences in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay all involved mate… In Argentina the guy who [...]

Lake Titicaca: A Special Place

By nick
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Jan 28 2013

At 12,500ft above sea level and with an average depth of 350ft, Lake Titicaca is oft [...]

Visiting Lima: A Country In Itself

By nick
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Dec 29 2012

We had originally intended to bypass Lima entirely. Snippets from fellow travellers and crime warnings in guidebooks [...]

People actually live in Patagonia: the films of Carlos Sorín

By nick
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Dec 11 2012

Patagonia, especially the wide coastal plateau on the Argentine side, is not all staggering rock faces, [...]

Uncovering Peru with Mario Vargas Llosa

By nick
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Nov 28 2012

Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa enjoys a fame which in Western countries would be limited to sports [...]

Visiting The Life-Changing Perito Moreno Glacier

By nick
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Nov 27 2012

El Calafate, like a teenager who has just experienced a growth spurt, is awkward in its [...]

Discovering Chile with the Poetry of Pablo Neruda

By nick
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Nov 26 2012

Neruda is a very accessible poet. Not only is his verse – centring as it does [...]

Asado – the Beef, not the Bull

By nick
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Nov 15 2012

When I arrived in Argentina I had heard about the ‘amazing steaks’, but to be honest I actually [...]

Ceviche – A Peruvian Obsession

By nick
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Nov 14 2012

It’s strange that my first encounter with ceviche was not in the pages of a glossy [...]

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