Latin America Blog

Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth, according to the Happy Planet index. A statement that Llama Travel’s Travel Consultant Marianela, who has just come back from a 14-day trip to Costa Rica, is not about to contradict. From the dizzying heights of the Monteverde skywalks, to the dense jungles of Tortuguero and the calm flowing waters of the Tabacon Hot Springs, Marianela has put together her top 5 list of what makes Costa Rica such a blissful country to visit.

It’s a sign of a good holiday when your first thought upon returning home is ‘phew, I need a break’. It is the sign of an excellent holiday when a break is already built in. On our Brazil programme, we provide a three night beach break to act as a peaceful limbo between the dizzying excitement of Rio, Iguazu Falls and Salvador, and the humdrum of everyday life.

Next week sees the release of Paddington, a film adaptation of the classic children’s book series about a speckled bear who journeys from “darkest Peru” to England, and throws himself and everyone around him into a whirlwind of adventures.

Here at Llama Travel, we do the reverse; whisking people away from their cosy firesides in good old Blighty and off to the teeming jungles, vast lakes, soaring mountains and faraway cities of Peru and the rest of the Americas. Someone who took the reverse Paddington journey with us quite recently is Llama Travel’s own Sales Manager Graeme, and he found it hard to imagine why anyone, bear in a duffle coat or otherwise, would ever want to leave Peru!

Check out the below for Graeme’s top 5 list of what in darkest Peru is worth shining a spotlight on…

Tierra del Fuego, the archipelago at the end of the world, has been a beacon to explorers since the days of Magellan and Darwin. Lying off the southernmost tip of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego encompasses a scattering of islands across the stormy South Atlantic and the Strait of Magellan. The islands of Tierra del Fuego, including the desolate Cape Horn and the Diego Ramírez Islands, are the forerunners to the frozen expanses of Antarctica, and exist in very harsh subpolar conditions. The largest island in the archipelago is Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, a rugged region of mountain ranges and steppe, fringed with glaciers and dramatic coastlines.