In Germany, we are used to super-fast bullet trains taking us from A to B efficiently and (though most Germans will not agree with this) mostly punctually, often being not much slower than the equivalent flight. In South America, if there are trains at all, they do not quite work like that. Most of the [...]

It can be quite funny, travelling around South America: you find yourself in a Spanish-speaking country, speaking to a local whose level of Spanish is barely enough to negotiate the letting of a hotel room. In these Andean countries we are traveling right now (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia), many still speak their native indigenous tongue — [...]