Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
Once upon a time long ago, Richa and I boarded our Etihad Airways flight from Mumbai to São Paulo in Brazil. It was to be our first visit to South America at a time when none of the so called ‘influencers’ had been there, but few extreme world travellers like me had. In fact, to this day hardly any ‘influencer’ goes to South America. To say we were excited would be an understatement. To say it was an exotic destination would also be an understatement. At that time in our lives, this was to be an adventure of a lifetime and it was so far ago that it does have a ‘once upon a time’ feel to it. We were a lot younger too and with limited means and this was quite an expensive trip.
Whenever I think of South America, I either imagine Tintin or Indiana Jones – Both fictional characters of course. But then there are also Mike Horn and Ed Stafford, who are real modern explorers, and have paddled and cut their way respectively across the length of the mighty Amazon River and Forest.
Our first South American adventure however was not be in the Amazon but it would take us to incredible places such as Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, Atlantic Rainforest, Lima (not originally planned), Lake Titicaca (not originally planned either), Cusco, Sacred Valley of the Incas, Machu Picchu, La Paz, Salar De Uyuni, the Altiplano Plateau, Andes Mountains and the Atacama Desert. Now that was something to look forward to and the best part (in hindsight) were the change of plans. Oh, the serendipity of travel.
So, we took off at 5 something in the morning from Mumbai and were a bit sleepy. Luckily we had been on the Middle East route a ‘thousand times’ (exaggeration) and so we promptly put on our eye patches on and got our 40 winks for 2 hours. At Abu Dhabi it was like a normal morning. We were wide awake now.
The next flight crossed Africa from east to west and it was particularly exciting for me as it was a day flight and I really enjoyed looking down at the Sahara as we flew over Sudan, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso (some of the countries I want to visit next) and finally saw the delta of the famous Niger River. After that we were over The Atlantic with nothing but Ocean till we reached São Paulo late in the evening there. Over 25 hours had passed but since Sao Paulo is 8.5 hours behind Mumbai, the night had not come to Brazil just yet. We were on the same day as we had left Mumbai but our bodies were tired and with there not being that much to do in São Paulo, we hit the sack in a hotel near the airport.
Next morning there was panic stations as we work up late and we had booked a morning flight out of Sao Paolo on the east of the continent to La Paz in Bolivia towards the central-western part. And I forgot to add that the flight was via Santiago in Chili towards the south-west of this continental mass. Ah, what it means to be young and do 4 international flights back to back from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi to Sao Paulo and then to Santiago and finally La Paz. It wouldn’t be the only time I did this and the last time it was done in 2024 I suitably got a big back spasm. I don’t advise any one to be as stupid as me, in many things.
Now here at Sao Paulo while boarding the flight to La Paz, the adventure had already begun but we didn’t know it yet. We got into our LAN Airways craft and landed just fine in Santiago after being treated to some jaw dropping views of the snow-capped Andes Mountains, ‘high’ up from the air. However, at Santiago we were told that the connecting flight to La Paz, Bolivia had a domestic stop in Chile first and since we didn’t have Chilean visas, we were not allowed to board the second flight. Now why we were not informed of this at Sao Paulo airport itself beats me and I later was told that it was a bit of a ‘fine-print’ aided money-making racket. Still not certain of it, but it felt like so.
Now we were royally stuck in Santiago. This is since we had to pre-book our Inca Rail luxury train to Machu Picchu and the way it works with Machu Picchu is that you have to also buy the entry tickets online for specific dates. Once bought, the dates can’t be changed and these were very expensive tickets as well – way, way more than the entrance to any other historical site. Actually, closer to the cost of a few safaris but I am not sure what the relative prices are now. So, the original plan was to land in La Paz and then take the road west to Cusco. From Cusco we were to take the road again and then finally the Inca Rail to the town of Machu Picchu. And then a short bus ride up the mountain to the actual site. All this was there besides visiting some fascinating places along the route in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. So, if we were to miss our flight to La Paz, all this was going to go down the drain. And Richa was nearly in tears.
I somehow kept my cool and sat silently on the airport bench for a few minutes. I had the world map running in my head (no free wi-fi at that time and frankly the phones weren’t that smart either). And then it occurred to me that Machu Picchu sits between Lima (capital of Peru) on the west coast of South America and La Paz in Bolivia. And so, if we couldn’t reach La Paz (no direct international flight from Santiago) then how about we reach Lima? But last minute flights to Lima were as expensive as Rs. 70,000 per person. That’s just for a 4-hour one-way ticket and it felt like highway robbery, especially for that long ago (actually even now). Then I found a connecting flight to La Paz via Lima, Peru and that was Rs. 25,000 per head (it beats me how a flight to a much further destination is 1/3rd the price of the other which uses a lot less jet fuel).
There would be some challenges in taking this route and the first was visa. Luckily, we had a 10-year US B1/B2 visa and that was good enough for Lima, Peru. Second was the fact that this connecting flight played smart on the dates. The 2nd flight from Lima to La Paz was at 23:59 hours the ‘next day’. So, since the date was the next one, you could tend to assume it is around past midnight. But the flight time was actually 24 hours later and that would have ruined our plans of reaching Cusco and Machu Picchu on time. Was this another case of someone playing smart with passengers?
It is then when I realized that the trick was to meet the baggage handlers at the Lima Airport and that’s exactly what we did. Richa somehow convinced them that there was an emergency, and they agreed to hand over our bags from the airport luggage hold. Imagine passengers being allowed inside the secure luggage hold to scan bags of strangers and then pick theirs from the lot? It definitely wouldn’t be allowed in any other time or place. And then since we had no place to sleep (and Lima at night looked sketchy), we decided to sleep at the airport itself.
Next morning the sun was out, people were moving about and it was a brand new day. Lima was gorgeous and we were actually happy to see a place that was not part of the original plan. And best of all, we had got 2 bus tickets for the very long overnight bus ride from Lima to Cusco, crossing the lower Andes. When I look back I realize we had taken a 25-hour flight from Mumbai to Sao Paulo and then a 5- hour flight to Santiago where we faced the fiasco at the airport. And then another 4-hour journey to Lima, slept at the airport, saw the city and then slept in the overnight bus till we crossed the Andes and finally reached Cusco the next morning. And to think we would be tired would not be true. We were so full of energy even at an altitude of 3,400 meters (after drinking their favourite coca leaf tea) that we were ready to explore Cusco, and all the gems in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. I honestly felt a bit like Tintin – a name given to me by some of my friends way back when I had no clue that one day I would travel all around the world.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He is on a quest to become the first person to travel to every Desert, Forest, Grassland, Tundra & Ice biomes on Earth. Nitin has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. Reach him at: www.facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/
