a thousand turns

PERÚ: MACHU PICCHU I don’t think that I’m going to say a word.

Setting off from Atillo into the hills, during a short break in the rain, my pack laden with food and camping gear I’m vaguely anxious. The way the locals direct me doesn’t match the route description I have photocopied from the guide book and there is absolutely no path to follow on the boggy wet […]

In the morning, I cook breakfast, break camp and walk less than a hundred metres before emerging from the trees into a clearing surrounded by a variety of more or less ramshackle structures dotted around a rough football pitch. I survey the scene to identify the building emitting smoke and then make my way towards […]

Looking at my map, Isla Jaina catches my attention, for some reason. I know nothing of the place but the map indicates that there is an archeological site on the island – which is part of another biosphere reserve – at the end of a twenty kilometre dead end track. I take the turnoff towards […]

Cuba’s fortunes have generally hung on a single crop and before tourism the main harvest was sugar. The area around Trinidad is dotted with the ruins of enormous 19th sugar plantations which ran on the sweat of African slaves.