Articles (3549)
Tortuga Travels: Week Four: Sucre, Bolivia
Sunday mornings in Bolivia mean mass and markets. Jenn and Carrie head to Tarabuco, where they prefer to worship the almighty dollar.
Tortuga Travels: Week Five: Potosi, Bolivia
Potosi is the antithesis of Sucre. The major attraction is the old silver mine, Cerro Rico, where Bolivians still work in very dangerous conditions for pitiful wages.
Tortuga Travels: Week Three: Sucre, Bolivia
Jenn and Carrie have found a good rhythm in Sucre: A leisurely breakfast, practicing guitar, drawing, Spanish lessons and watching tourists who seem to have lost their sense of volume and personal spa
Tortuga Travels: Week One: La Paz to Sucre, Bolivia
La Paz is a city of beauty, a city of activity, but most of all a city of karaoke bars and photocopierias. If you think that’s weird, try catching a bus.
Tortuga Travels: Week Two: Sucre, Bolivia
Jenn finds her Spanish lacking trying to explain Halloween. She also discovers the joys of Bolivian line dancing.
Rafting the Amazon #9: The Final Stretch – Peru
The last morning on the raft in Contamana and a fire sale to get rid of everything.
Rafting the Amazon #6: Whirlpools – Peru
Strong winds push the raft into a large whirlpool that was inescapable until the winds died down.
Rafting the Amazon #7: Indigenous Village – Peru
Strong winds mean slow going again. The evening is spent in an indigenous village, but the locals were not very outgoing.
The Final Stretch: Reaching Contamana on the Peruvian Amazon in 2026
A 2026 guide to Amazon river travel in Peru, updated from a 2000 narrative about the final leg of a three-week raft expedition ending in Contamana.
Rafting the Amazon #3: Getting Permission – Peru
A permit is needed to travel on the river. Some borrowed life jackets and a small lie later and permission is granted.
Rafting the Amazon #4: Mosquitoes! – Peru
The first day on the open water is spent learning how to control the raft. The mosquitoes make the nighttime miserable.
Rafting the Amazon #5: Pink Dolphins – Peru
Taking one of the smaller river channels that did not flow as quickly led to an interesting encounter with some Pink Dolphins.