South America: Rio, Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and Iguazu Falls in One Trip
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In September 2014, I spent about 2 weeks crossing South America: Brazil, Peru and Argentina, in 7 stops, from the beaches of Rio to the high Andes and back down to Iguazu Falls.
Singapore and Peru are almost exactly half a world apart, and I flew home through Doha.
Why this route?
Because it strings together 3 of the great sights of the continent in one loop: a city, a lost Inca ruin, and a waterfall. Rio first, then a flight across to Lima on the Pacific, up into the mountains to Cusco and Machu Picchu, on to Lake Titicaca, and finally across to Iguazu, on the border of Brazil and Argentina.
Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
Rio is Brazil’s second-largest city, on the South Atlantic, and it is famous for 3 things: its landscape, its laid-back beach culture, and its carnival.
The setting is what stops you. The harbour’s mouth is so narrow that the first Portuguese sailors thought it was a river, which is how the city got its name, “River of January”. Around it rise Sugarloaf Mountain, at 395 metres, Corcovado, at 704 metres, with the statue of Christ the Redeemer on top, and the forested hills of Tijuca behind.
Peru
Lima
Lima, the capital, was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1535, and for almost 300 years it was the seat of Spanish rule in South America. That history is still in the old centre, in its churches, cloisters and monasteries.
But the real reason to stop in Lima is the food. The cold current off the coast makes the sea very rich in fish, and Lima is the best place in Peru to eat it, above all as ceviche, raw fish cured in lime. Peru’s cooking pulls in ingredients from the coast, the mountains and the Amazon, and it is not expensive.
Cusco
Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire, and it sits at about 3,400 metres, high enough that you feel it the moment you step off the plane. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage city, built on Inca stone walls, with Spanish churches on top of them.
A tip for anyone going: take the first day slowly. Walk less, drink water, and try the coca tea the hotels offer for the altitude.
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is the reason most people come to Peru. It is a 15th-century Inca site on a mountain ridge at about 2,430 metres, above the Sacred Valley, about 80 km north-west of Cusco.
Most archaeologists think it was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Because the Spanish never found it, it survived almost intact, which is why it is now the best-known symbol of the Inca world. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, and in 2007 it was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
Puno and Lake Titicaca
Puno is a small city on the shore of Lake Titicaca, at about 3,800 metres, founded by the Spanish in 1668. It is the base for the lake.
Lake Titicaca is shared by Peru and Bolivia, and it is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world. On it live the Uros, a people older than the Incas, on islands they build themselves out of totora reeds that grow in the lake. The bigger islands hold about 10 families, the smaller ones, about 30 metres across, only 2 or 3.
The islands rest on a thick mat of reed roots, and they are anchored with ropes to sticks driven into the lake bed. The reeds at the bottom slowly rot away, so the Uros add fresh ones on top every few months. That is what makes walking on one so unusual: the ground is soft underfoot.
Brazil and Argentina
Iguazu Falls
The last stop was the biggest. Iguazu Falls sit on the Iguazu River, on the border between Argentina and Brazil, and there are not 1 or 2 falls, but a line of about 275 of them, nearly 3 km long.
Most of the falls are on the Argentine side, so that is where you get up close, on walkways that run right out over the water. The Brazilian side gives you the panorama of the whole line.
How did the trading fit in?
In about 15 minutes a day, the same as at home. Only the clock changed: South America is 11 to 13 hours behind Singapore, so the check moved with it, and the rest of the day was for the mountains.
I wrote up how that routine works on the road, the watchlist, the alerts and the time zones, in how I trade while travelling.
Have you been to South America? If you could only pick one, would it be Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca or Iguazu? Let me know in the comments.
All my other trips are on the travel log, country by country, and more photos are on Instagram, @iamrecneps.
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