Baja to Bali

We travel across the largest salt flats in the world as we head out from Uyuni in Bolivia towards the Atacama Desert in Chile. Its a surreal landscape of salt and water, bounded by ice-topped mountains. Its also a physical challenge, as we top 5000m above sea level with temperatures of -10 C at night. We pass through the Andean Volcanic Belt with its bubbling pools of mud and geysers and enjoy a quick dip in the hot waters. At the end of the trip we cross the border into Chile, and then take a couple of tours of the Atacama desert from the small town of San Pedro de Atacama. This marks the end of our time in Bolivia (for now); an astonishing, and unexpectedly amazing country. I hope you enjoy the video.

Our journey through Bolivia continues. In this video we do plenty of hiking in the beautiful Amboro National Park, before visiting the UNESCO world heritage sites of Sucre and Potosi.

We visit Torotoro National Park and see an unbelievable amount of dinosaur footprints (as well as a fair number of stunning views). Then a quick stop in Cochabamba, Bolivia's second largest city, before heading to the wine region of Tarija. No prizes for guessing what we spend most of our time doing in Tarija! Enjoy :)

We arrive in the highest capital city in the world, to the sounds of the El Gran Poder festival, and views of snow-capped mountains. Bolivia has a completely different feel to it, compared to other countries we've visited so far, and I'm not just talking about the effects of the altitude! After spending some time in Bogota, we head to Lake Titicaca, and Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the first Incas. If you like books, I can recommend Marching Powder by Rusty Young, a true story about the notorious prison in the centre of La Paz, mentioned in this video.

We head up into the mountains in the far west of Panama. Its a stunningly beautiful area of steep vegetable fields, dense rainforest, and small indigenous villages. Perfect for a few days of hiking.

We spend a bit of time chilling out in Panama city. We take in a few of the sites in the city including, of course, the Panama canal. We end our time by taking the old fashioned train to the Atlantic coast, following the route of the canal.

We arrive in Panama, and head to the Darien region, near the border with Colombia. We are hosted by a family from the indigenous Embera group in a small village on the banks of the Sambu river. We experience a completely different way of life, hike through the jungle and take a trip along the river. One of the highlights for me was the pet toucan whose personality matched his vibrant colours. Lowlights included drinking very cloudy river water, eating eggs for every meal, and seeing how depleted of wildlife the forest was (hunting is part of the traditional way of life). It was undoubtedly a fairly unique experience.

We spend Easter week in the colonial city of Granada and then head to Ometepe island in Lake Nicaragua. Its a very distinctive looking island, with its twin volcanoes rising sharply from the ocean. We do some cycling, some hiking, some swimming, and plenty of relaxing. Ben samples Flor de Cana, Nicaragua's typical liquor, and we stay in a pretty cool, home made bamboo lodge with lake views. All in all, a pretty cool trip!