vagamundo: South America Pre-visited

This is not my first trip to South America. In 1983-84 I spent 10 months backpacking, mostly on my own, from Mexico to Bolivia and I was spellbound by the magic and mayhem of this continent. It was like discovering a New World. I knew I would return and in July 1993, Judy & I landed in Santiago, Chile for an 7-month journey from the land of the Incas to the icy wilderness of Navarino Island, beyond Tierra del Fuego. I've posted some photos from those earlier explorations in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Click on the collages to enlarge

Why do I keep returning here? I've always been fascinated by this continent. From an early age I read voraciously about the pre-Columbian civilisations, lost and forgotten Amazonian tribes, tales of insatiable, mad European explorers, and later the rich literature of Neruda, Marquez and others. I studied Latin American studies at LaTrobe University in 1983 but in impatience and haste, cut it short to see and taste the real thing. What's the attraction? It may be the strong Gondwanan link with my home, Tasmania. Or perhaps it's just the thirst for something new, another view over the next pass, or as Kapuscinski would say, a symptom of 'the contagion of travel' to unknown destinations.......

BOLIVIA 1993