Salar Uyuni: The Bolivian Salt Flats

September 17, 2015September 17, 2015 / brittanyherriot / 3 Comments

I was awoken to the sun glinting through our bus window in the wee hours of the morning. It had been a rather fitful sleep, huddling together on the freezing cold bus, drifting in and out of the elusive world of slumber. The road was suddenly a mess of jarring bumps and as I looked out the window I noticed that we were no longer even on a real road; we were on a path through the desert floor. The bumps were from the sand having frozen and hardened in place. The Bolivian desert is a cold and cruel place come sunset, as we would soon find out on our three day tour through this incredible place. We bumped along, savouring the slight warmth the sun was passing through our windows as our breath misted in front of our faces. Continue reading →

Surviving Death Road

September 11, 2015September 11, 2015 / brittanyherriot / Leave a comment

My body was beaten down. Sore, sick, battered, and utterly exhausted from multiple illnesses and five days trekking through the mountains, I desperately needed to recover. So far I had spent most of my time in South America being sick as a dog. Unfortunately the next stop on my list wasn’t exactly an easy place to travel. In fact, I’d say I was heading into the most unforgiving country yet: Bolivia. I stayed on one more day in Cusco because I was simply too sick to move, but I was still trying to catch up with Anthony so I couldn’t linger too long. With my purse full of drugs, water, kleenex and puke bags, Sally and I set off on an evening bus from Cusco to La Paz. I was feeling absolutely terrible and we were only going to be increasing in altitude as the bus chugged on. I was miserable and couldn’t sleep and waves of nausea over took me. Continue reading →

A Journey Through The Salkantay Pass To Machu Picchu

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015 / brittanyherriot / 5 Comments

It was a long 18 hour bus ride through some hard terrain to reach the renowned city of Cusco. The bus ride left Sally feeling awful; it was the high altitude and the tight corners that we zipped around at dizzying heights as the cliffs fell away below us. Sally had to close the blinds and force herself to not think about it as it was giving her some major anxiety. Eventually she dozed with the help of some sedatives, and I spent the whole evening trying my best to sleep and failing miserably as I always do on night bus rides. I listened to my music and only snagged about an hour of sleep around sunrise. We rolled into Cusco at 8am and stepped off the bus into a frigid morning, our breath misting heavily in front of our faces. Sally quite literally screamed as she desperately tried to layer on more clothing as quickly as possible. Continue reading →

Medellin and Bogota: The Giants of Colombia

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 / brittanyherriot / 1 Comment

I was seething with excitement at being reunited with my good friend Anthony in Colombia as we had made plans to travel together through South America for the next three and a half months. Many moons ago, we hatched plans to meet in South America when were were both back in Yellowknife working for the City. Our friendship blossomed over endless talks of travel and alas we decided on meeting in Colombia in May. Continue reading →