mike

The desolate pampa is an arid, sun-bleached place and water, or the lack of it, has dominated human life since the first people settled around Nasca in 1000BC. Whether it’s mysterious lines on the desert surface, ancient mummy cemeteries, buried pyramids, museums or watching a local goldsmith at work that appeals to you, there is

As our small wooden boat comes alongside the island, strong brown arms reach out to help me ashore. Looking up I see twinkling eyes in an old leathery face, a beaming smile that shows crooked, white teeth and short dark hair sticking out from a knitted woollen hat with ear flaps. I step carefully onto

As I stepped off the plane a dark, almost purple sky was torn apart by violent lightning and a torrential downpour began. Like thousands of others, I had come to this corner of the Brazil-Argentina border to see one of the most awe-inspiring sights on the planet, the famous Iguaçu Falls. According to a legend

Lush, green volcanic mountains towered over us, as the ferry churned its way through the gap in the bleached coral reef, into the translucent calm of Vaiare Bay, Moorea. In 1769 when Captain Cook and HMS Endeavour sailed into the lagoons of these South Pacific islands, it was to the sound of sails flapping in

With its tales of spectacular waterfalls, lush jungles, harsh deserts, remnants of long lost cultures and man-made wonders, South America has always been a continent that has beckoned to me. But it wasn’t until 2005, as a grandmother in my late fifties, that I managed to spend six weeks there, travelling independently and on my

To early pirates and sailors calling at the Galapagos Islands, the giant tortoise was easy prey and a convenient source of fresh meat. Given the added bonus they could be kept alive without food or water for up to a year in the hold of a ship, it’s not surprising tortoise populations were decimated almost

The walking trail is a metre wide space where the biggest and most dangerous boulders have been removed. After stumbling for half an hour, taking tortuous, slippery steps and trying not to sprain an ankle, it comes as a bit of a shock that this rocky terrain is both take-off and landing strip for the

When Captain Cook first dropped anchor on the southern edge of this tiny volcanic speck in the Southern Antarctic Ocean, he called it Desolation Island. Mention the name Kerguelen to most people and you will be met with a blank stare; for few have heard of the place and even fewer have seen it. But

At the southern end of Sun Island, on Lake Titicaca, is a sacred place, used by the local Andean Indians and their Kallawuaya for rituals and offerings to Pachamama, the Earth Mother. The Kallawuaya is a fortune teller, or native doctor of the Andean Altiplano; and this one is a small man, dressed inconspicuously in

The Alta Puna, Altiplano, or high plateau, lies at an altitude of over 4,000 metres to the east of San Pedro de Atacama, in the remote border area between Northern Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. It is a landscape of visual feasts created by extreme conditions; of volcanoes, salt fields and shallow lakes; where high winds,