In July/August 2016 I crossed the Altiplano / Puna region along the Ruta de las Joyas Altoandinas between the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) and San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) by foot and solo over a distance of approx. 600 Km. This is a very popular 4×4 vehicle trip nowadays amongst South America backpackers since it follows dusty routes through the beautiful national park “Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa” along amazing remote lagoons where visitors can view the earth basically living. I brought a hiking trailer with me in order to carry most of the equipment and water/food supplies.
Back in 2005, I started my first solo hiking trip into the desert of Jordan. Again, I made use of the self-built trailer which already survived the desert hiking trip in Egypt and which will also survive a following desert hiking experience in 2010 in Syria.
The Salkantay Trail (Camino del Inca Salkantay) near Cusco, Peru, is a popular alternative to the overrun Inca Trail (Camino del Inca) both leading up to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. Since the Inca Trail is regulated and mostly booked out for several months ahead, people switch to the “not yet” flooded Salkantay alternative offered by various agencies in Cusco and Peru in general.
Mallorca is awesome for hiking – although it doesn’t look like this in the first place. The GR221, as part of the European network of long-distance trails, provides roughly 150 lovely kilometers of connected trails. Additionally, there is a lot of map material available with which you can create your own alternatives.
Traveling the world has at least one absolute constant: change will happen. Especially during travels, things are changing constantly – this is the mystical part of traveling. Each day is a day that lacks the stability and “boredom” of our ordinary lives at home. This type of change from normality is what we experienced during our trip to the northern part of the Syrian Desert in December 2009, where our original plans hardly turned out as planned.
