"Following the Shadow of the Condor" is the account of an epic, two-month, nightmarish-comic, 6,000-kilometer journey along the spine of the Southern Andes, from Santiago de Chile, through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos, to Bogotá, Colombia. Without itinerary, plan and reservations. And as it quickly becomes clear - without adequate preparation.
The intrepid travel team consists of a mother and daughter, both known for their fiery Balkan temperaments and indomitable Eastern European stubbornness, as well as their opposite approaches to the challenges of life in principle, and to travel in particular. The two conquerors of the world follow the shadow of the legendary Andean condor, overcoming altitude sickness, concussion, memory loss, language barriers and cultural clashes. They survive without oxygen, internet, and sometimes without shelter among the alien landscapes of the high mountain Atacama desert, the unearthly beauty of the Galapagos archipelago, the challenging cities of Latin America, their deadly traffic and inimitable architecture.
And these are just some of the adventures of the two travelers during their two-month journey following the shadow of the condor.
Izabela Shopova (born 1971 in Varna) is a Bulgarian writer, now living and writing in Australia.
A child prodigy, she learned to read at age of 4, graduated from high school at 15, played piano and dreamed of conquering space. She was a professional model and an amateur astronomer; worked in a radio station but never planned to write on her own... She graduated from the local technical university, with major in radio engineering and then stepped in a completely different direction by establishing a career in business.
In 2002 she moved to New Zealand together with her husband and daughter. She wrote her first letter from the “Land of the Long White Cloud”, which became an instant hit back in Bulgaria. It was published by numerous websites, newspapers and travel magazines. She went on writing about first hand experiences and second hand memories, thus bringing together parallel cultures and histories… Some of her travelogues won awards in travel writing./ide.li; okolosveta.com/ Gradually, much to her own surprise, she emerged as a professional writer. She put together a collection of her writings – a fascinating amalgam of episodes from the everyday life of an immigrant and the amazing adventures of a tourist… Her first published book “East - in Eden” surpassed the success of her Internet publications and gave the readers a legitimate reason to call her “The Bulgarian Bill Bryson”.
Izabela Shopova lives now in Brisbane, Australia; she still writes for the electronic media and Bulgarian travel magazines and works on her second book about her family adventures in Aussie-Land.
* The website www.colibri.bg is optimized 
