My Top 2015 South American Travel Highlights!

By Savannah Grace on January 15, 2016 • ( 2 Comments )

I had initially planned to write a “2015 Travel Highlights” post but had to split it into two parts, because there were just too many. Don’t miss My 2015 European Travel Highlights! This post includes My top 2015 South American travel highlights as well as some personal highlights at the end.

Peru

There are so many highlights just in Peru!

Sacred Valley – Ollantaytambo Incan ruins, Maras Salt Mines, Takanakuy (video)

Lima - Enjoying city life and eating delicious, Monastery of San Francisco, record breaking food.

Lima – Enjoying city life, Monastery of San Francisco, and eating record breaking food.

Huacachina - A wild buggy ride and sandboarding in the sand dunes just outside of Ica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVp0ns1oaes

Huacachina – A wild buggy ride (video) and sandboarding in the sand dunes just outside of Ica.

Sleeping in the heart of the Tambopata Amazon (video) for five nights with the sounds of nature surrounding us, and a room with only 3 walls in the Rainforest Expedition Lodges! Canoe rides down the chocolaty rivers, spotting toads, spiders, monkeys, parrots, otters, etc, fishing piranha, 500+ year old giant trees and watching the sunrise over the rainforest canopy.

Nazca Lines – Flying in a tiny 4 passenger plane over the anicent Nazca Lines.

Isla Ballestas AKA Poor Man’s Galapagos – A great option to see beautiful rock formations, pelicans and sea lions if you can’t make it to Galapagos Islands.

Colca Canyon – Witnessing the flight of the giant condors, holding hawks, petting alpacas and lamas, eating guinea pig, ziplining and reaching 4,910m.

Machu Picchu (video) and the four hour hike was even more impressive than I expected!

Galapagos Islands

There are no words that do justice to the spectacular adventures we had on Galapagos Islands. It was a sihpromatum that we even ended up there, with just days to reschedule our South America trip and book an entire week in GI. Ecuador was the 103rd country I visited and some may think after all that travel, there wouldn’t be much left to experience. But Galapagos Islands proved that so entirely wrong. I can confidently say that GI is not only at the very, very top of my 2015 travel highlights but of all time. Before visiting I’d heard all the raving reviews about GI but felt similar to Kees, “What can be so special about seeing birds and lizards?” I am now one of those raving idiots and trust me, it’s one of those places you have to see for yourself! Here are several reasons Galapagos Islands are at the top of my list.

Stumbling upon Galapagos tortoises, the largest in the world, and even wearing their impressive shell! Pelicans, bright red crabs, blue footed boobies, iguanas and owls seem to have lost their natural instincts to fear humans. Snorkeling with giant sea turtles, sea horses, sea lions and penguins just inches from your face. Scuba diving with hammerhead sharks and sitting on the ocean floor looking up at a dozen sharks circling overhead.

Easter Island

Hours by plane from any continent, exploring Easter Island by motorcycle was dreamy. Zooming down empty trails, passing roaming horses and ancient Moai statues which overlook a vast blue ocean.

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Some of my personal highlights of 2015 include:

Becoming a Diane Kroe brand ambassador – Free shipping with coupon code: Savannah

Pets

Welcoming more members into our growing family.

Verbal our African Grey

Two Rats – Monkey and Badger

A pond full of tame Koi all with there own names.

Echo the Owl who hatched on my birthday.

AIRBNB

Renting my apartments on AIRBNB and welcoming travellers to Holland!

Twitter Tweet Meet

Being part of my first ever Twitter tweet meet #JACultureTrav with Jessica, host of #CultureTrav chat.

Family and Friends

The next best thing to travelling is welcoming friends and family to my home in Holland during their travels.

Brother, Sky and his wife, Adriana. Cousin Rebecca. Jess, Bree’s landlord’s daughter. Reuniting after 10 years with Mongolia’s Baagii from my first travel memoir “I Grew My Boobs In China”. Meeting and hosting fellow #TRLT founder Shane Dallas @thetravelcamel. Stunt Performers sister Bree, and her boyfriend Donavin.