Argentina....a land of ups but mostly downs.....

Hola Amigos,

We flew into Salta from Santa Cruz on possible the most empty flight I have ever been on, seriously like 20 people in a plane that could have carried like 80 to 100. Once in Salta we checked into our hostel and made for food. Now this has been our issue with Argentina, the food is not very vegetarian friendly as I am sure we would all expect from a country that revolves around beef. Anyways the full force of that reality hit during lunch. The few things we could try are generally ruined by too much cheese, pizza and empanadas. We turned to self catering, fresh vegies, pasta and corn on the cobb but that is only possibly if there is a kitchen where you are staying.

Anyways we went on a day trip to the Salt Flats whilst in Salta. We drove through some amazing desert to get there. Had fun with the camera taking fun shots, however it was freezing and really windy.

After Salta we took a 4hour bus to Cafayate, a wine district near some more really fabulous desert. Another half day trip took us into the desert to the rock formations and gorges. Wine was tasted and empanadas eaten at the House of Empanadas, the first place with actual vegetarian food, not just cheese. It was fabulous till the second day when Bron got sick and threw up. This has been the case pretty much since, she has had pretty much a permanent stomach ache and our initial struggle with food became that much worse. So the second day at Cafayate was spent inside or on the roof in the sun in hammocks.




















We booked bus tickets to Igauzu Falls before Bron got sick and decided to keep on that track, a 6ish hour bus was therefore on the cards for the next day to a city called Tucumon where we had to overnight it before the 22 and a half hour bus ride the following day to the Falls themselves.

Iguazu was definitely worth it though, we spent about 4 hours walking in the national park in awe of the sheer magnitude and beauty of them.

The next day we were on another 20ish hour bus to Buenos Aires which is where I am now.

We spent the day after arriving in the morning walking the city taking photos of artitecture and monuments. We walked through Plaza de Congress, and to the Oblisc. We then went a bit further to La Recoleta Cemetry, where all the who´s who of Argentina are buried, including Evita. We finished off the day with a Tango show that was satisfactory, there should have been much more live music and dancing and much less theatrics and singing. However, it could have been worse.


As Bron is still really quite unwell we are flying home in the next couple of days so this will be the last blog that I write. My South American holiday has definitely been a life chaging experience. However, due to our not so awsome time in Argentina I leave wanting to go no other place than home!!!!!

La Paz & Sucre

Bolivia has been a mix of highs and lows for us. La Paz can be overwhelming. It is at an elevation of 3,660 meters above sea level, making it the world's highest "de facto" capital city, or administrative capital. Whilst there we sampled some more culinary treats, such as vegetarian curries at the Indian Star, if you could eat their really, really hot curry you got a free t-shirt. Alas none of us felt up to the challenge.

Other than the mountain biking I elaborated on in the previous blog we went shopping in the witches markets, which include the sale of pretty much everything including llama foetuses (no we did not purchase one of these). We found an awesome organic, vegetarian café called Nameste which I think has possible the best Pad Thai I have ever tasted (please note I am yet to visit Thailand). This all brought us to another overnight bus to Sucre, however before we left Jane decided in order to make her Snow Boarding date in Bariloche, Argentina, she would need to fly (the alternative would have been unmanageable amount of time on buses).

Bron and I were left to take the night bus to Sucre, which was approximated to take 11 to 16 hours. In our case it was more like 19 hours, on a crappy bus with no toilet, on unpaved roads winding through what seemed like an endless canyon. You can imagine that when we actually arrived in Sucre it took a while to take in and appreciate (to change our state of mind).

Sucre is a pretty nice city, although from the outside it looks like a crap hole in the middle of the desert. Since arriving we have seen Liberty House, the building in which the Bolivian Declaration of Independence was signed. It has numerous artefacts, portraits, swords and weapons of the freedom fighters including those of Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de Sucre, now known as the liberators of South America, due to their central role in numerous countries independence. Possibly the coolest thing is the original flag of Argentina that is displayed in a glass cabinet. It is over 195 years old, made of silk and has the colours inverted i.e. white on the outside and blue in the centre. Apparently it was later changed to appear stronger.

Today Bron and I did the other Sucre touristy thing, which was going to the Dinosaur tracks. These consist of approximately 5055 prints in a limestone wall next to a cement mine. There are apparently 8 species recognisable from the prints, one of the lines of footprints holds the world record for the longest track of a carnivorous dinosaur. We had fun with all the life size replicas. The wall is pretty impressive though. Tomorrow we are off the Santa Cruz before flying into Argentina.

Surviving Death Road Unscathed

So Bron and I cycled down the World’s Most Dangerous Road (also reffered to as Death Road). It was pretty awesome. We were all kitted out in wind proof pants and tops, bmx style helmets, new buffs to protect the face from the cold, stylish bright orange safety vest, gloves and googles – in short we looked like badasses.

The American Development Bank named the road the Worlds Most Dangerous Road in 1994, as it averaged 200 plus deaths a year. There is now a cealed road that bypasses the road completely, it is now only really local traffic, about 3 or 4 cars whilst we were on it, that still utilise the road.

We started out at approximately 4700m above sea level and descended a bit over 1km in about 3 1/2 hours of cycling. We started out cycling above the cloud level then descended through the cloud, this meant that the road was muddy and that we didn’t really see the view down the side of the road – there was a wall of white rather than the sheer drop. For a lot of it you could only see about maybe 10m in front of you.

Also the government decided that there would be less accidents if the drivers could see just how close their wheels were to the edge of nothingness… it is the only road in side of the single road, which for many parts was 20-30cm away from the cliff edge. There have actually been a few deaths from cycling in recent years so it is seriously a dangerous road that one needs to respect.

We rode through some waterfalls and mini rivers over the road and finished up at an animal refuge La Senda Verde. Animals rescued from neglect or the black market end up here. We met some spider monkeys, Bronnie was befriended by Professor Biggles, a little green parrot that sat on her shoulder. There were heaps of macaws and other bright parrots. The Bolivan law prohibits the release of animals back into the wild so for the time being this is home for these animals. There are no cages and the only animals restrained are those who are a risk to other animals or people.

After lunch we took the flying fox over the valley. It consisted of 3 zip lines up to about 520 m in length. Well built men can reach speeds of up to 85km an hour on it. Our guides, as they had to launch and catch us also had fun zipping through the canopy. A fabulous end to a amazing day!!

Lake Titicaca

So the journey continued to Puno in order to visit Lake Titicaca and the floating islands, which were amazing. We headed out to the islands in a small boat with our guide and a boat predominately filled with Chileans.

We had an entire small island to ourselves, there are approximately 75 islands in total and you could see about 50 of them from our island. We had a run down on the goings on the island. Basically everything is tied to the reeds that grow in the lake. They are used to build the islands, the houses, the boats, the lookout towers, and are the principal food stuff for the local people. They drink the water from the lake, fish in the lake, they are pretty much self sufficient but reliant on Lake Titicaca for their existence.

They showed us in miniature how the islands are built and that they are anchored in place so they do not move unless the people want them to, in which case they just pull up the anchor and float to where ever it is they want to go. The local women and children sang songs for us and then we were able to take on of the reed boats to another central island before we headed back to Puno.

After crossing the boarder to Bolivia we spent a couple of days in Copacabana in order to visit the Island of the Sun. We did a day trip that involved possibly the longest of boat rides ever to and from the island. I am serious that I think we could have swum faster. The island wasn’t really what we were expecting, so we got a 3 hour walk in the sun with pleasant views of Lake Titicaca, which we had to keep reminding ourselves was a lake and not an ocean.

Cuzco & the Inca Trail

Cuzco is also a pretty amazing city. We took it upon ourselves to partake in the culinary experiences on offer, from Japanese, Indian, English, and traditional Andean cuisine, we indulged. The colonial architecture was also a draw and we visited churches, one of which that was built by the Spanish over an Inca religious sight during the occupation (a symbolic gesture to be sure). The Incan ruins are still under the Church today. Catching up with travelling friends and the occasional shopping helped to occupy us before our epic undertaking, the reason for our presence in Cuzco, the Inca Trail.

The Inca Trail is something that I believe everyone should do if the chance presents itself. It was amazing. We started the first day at about 5:20am, a slightly more respectable time to the start for Colca Canyon. We meet our guides, Cezar and Jose and the rest of our trekking companions on the bus. It was about a 2 and a half hour bus ride to the Sacred Valley where we stopped for breakfast and to buy some supplies, water and colca leaves and coal to chew/suck on the trail, I will elaborate further shortly.

Another 45 minutes or so and we were at the start of the Inca Trail. We had to have our tickets and passports stamped as we passed through the checkpoint (there were another 3 long the way). Then we were off. It was not long however till we were passed by our super human porters, this point I can not stress enough. They are like 5 foot and 50 kg and can carry up to twice their weight. It is however illegal for them to carry more than 20kg each these days. There are official weighing stations to attempt to ensure that is the case, however the porters vary in their abilities and some of the smaller/less experienced porters give some of their weight to the bigger/more experienced ones in between the stations.

They would leave our campsites just after us, rush past and gun it to the next lunch/camp site for the day set up, cook and be waiting for our arrival. The food was amazing, 3 course meals served in a dining tent with a table and chairs (I remind you that I struggled enough with my small day pack and that carrying all of this stuff they take in their stride). There was even hot water at dinner to wash our hands in.

The second day was tough; we had to climb up to a height of 4200m above sea level at a pass called Dead Woman’s Pass. I had like a 24 hour head cold from the altitude which made the up hill climb slightly harder work. After the pass it was about 3 hours of downhill to our campsite. That night was not a great one for our group; I awoke to use the bathroom in the night to hear numerous members of the group vomiting. We awoke in the morning to find out that almost the entire group had food poisoning, only really the vegetarians and those that did not each much of the meat (2 out of like 13) we alright. This made for a slow day for the group, as many were still sick with no choice but to continue trekking.

Because we were slow though it meant that we had the Inca Trail to ourselves on the third day which was great. This was the day that we passed the most Inca ruins (although we saw ruins from day one). Cezar gave us detailed insights into the ruins and the Inca Culture as well as the Andean surroundings at every sight. 8 hours of trekking saw us walking on original Inca Stones and stairs (up until then is stones/stairs that the government installed for the trek). The scenery was breath taking, the snow capped Andes, cloud forests, Inca Ruins. There really aren’t words to do it justice; it is truly an amazing part of the world.

The morning of the last day we awoke at like 3:45am for the trek to the Sun Gate and then finally Machu Picchu. At 5am we were let through the check point and we on our way. We had to climb steps that were literally vertical, a challenge we were up to at like 6 in the morning to be sure. The view from the Sun Gate was amazing; you could see all of Machu Picchu (means old man mountain), Wanna Picchu (means young man mountain) and the surrounding mountains as the light from the rising sun fell on them.

We had a guided tour from Cezar of the ruins, the Sun Temple and King’s residence. Apparently priests in the Sun Temple would endure isolation in a small room with only corn flour and water, praying in a small hole in the wall. That is dedication for you. There were numerous other interesting stories to go with the other areas of the ruins. The Incas culture is amazing, their architecture supreme in its design and endurance, their astrology exact and informative of agriculture.

Arequipa & Trekking Colca Canyon

Hola Amigos,

Apologies for the delayed blogging but as you will find out we have been away from technology trekking and on buses, or just out of the internet loop for a while. This means that I have to go back to our time in Arequipa approx 17 July and slowly, through numerous blogs work my way up until the present.

One of the first things that we did in Arequipa other than check into a hostel was to eat fabulous crepes at an awesome French Cafe - I had caramel custard and raspberry ones with ice cream which was awesome!!!!!! We spent the rest of the day seeing the colonial architecture and shopping for lama and alpaca items.

The next day we were up at 3am for the start of our 3 day Colca Canyon Adventure. It is about a 7 hour bus trip to the start of the trek, hence the hour of departure. Sleeping on the tiny bus that had another 15 people on it was a challenge, however time seemed to pass by and it was not long till we arrived at the Condor Lookout, approximately 3400m above sea level. We spent about an hour there but actually saw more condors from the bus as we drove away than we did at the lookout, they need warm updrafts to soar on and it was only really starting to get warm when we left. They are about 1m tall when standing with a wing span of 3.5m. The small town just beside the Colca Canyon is called Cobanaconde which was the stop from the bus; the next two days would be by foot. We were lucky enough to arrive whilst the locals were celebrating one of the virgins (I thought there was only Virgin Mary but I’m not sure who we were celebrating). One family each year takes responsibility for feeding and providing beer for the town for the festivities! How crazy is that! It’s a big honour and they more or less spent the year doing fund raising activities to pay for it.

So now to the canyon! It was crazy steep, the first day we went down, down, down for about 4 hours or so. It was steep switchbacks for most of it. All had to be done by pedestrian or donkey, no cars. We finally crossed the canyon over a raging river and found ourselves in an oasis! It was so lush and green, quite a contrast to the dry desert with only rocks, cactus and salt bush. There are 8 little communities in the Colca Canyon, 2 of which were above 5000m. We walked through 3, staying the night in the family of one. The next day we continued along the canyon to the oasis, swam in a swimming pool that has water straight from the river. Then the real challenge began, after lunch we started our epic trek 1200+m vertical to get out of the canyon. It was pretty intense, so steep. I got out of the canyon 3 hours later just before dark. It was truly a test of character. According one version of the lonely planet it is the deepest canyon in the world, according to another it is the second. Either way, I was pretty happy with our efforts getting into and out of it in one piece.

Our group and guide Solome were awesome; we have caught up with some of them further into our travels and have details for future travels when in their parts of the worldJ.

The final day was back on the bus for some sight seeing on the way back to Arequipa. It was a pretty awesome trip and good training for Inca Trail.

Arequipa is a beautiful colonial city. On our last day Bron & I went and saw the Inca Mummy Juanita, a 12 year old girl sacrificed by the Incas to the mountain gods about 500 years ago. She is so famous because her body is almost completely preserved due to the ice on top of the volcano and for the insight she provides into Ancient Incan culture. Due to her fragile state she is only on show for half the year, the rest of the time she spends in a freezer away from damaging lights. We saw all of the artefacts that were buried along with her and the other child sacrifices that have been found from the area. It was really interesting learning about the Inca´s.

In the afternoon we went to the Monastery del Catalina. It is a really beautiful monastery that has been open to the public since the 70´s. The architecture was amazing and it is basically a city in itself, we took about 2 and half hours to get through it.

Peru: buses, desert & sand equals fun for one & all........

As the title alludes to I am in Peru at the moment. We took a 4 hour bus followed by an 8 hour bus to cross the border between Ecuador and Peru. We spent our time in Cuenca as our last city in Ecuador and it was really nice, spanish colonial buildings and Panama Hats.

I now have a new appreciation for buses and the distances travelled in Australia on them. As I go further into our Peruvian Adventures thus far you will see that buses are a feature.

Piuru was our first city in Peru. Literally built on the sand. We spent our day shopping and chillaxing around the main drag and in our hostel aptly named Hostal California. We found in the local mall a clothing brand called Doo Australia. We now have a team travel top with that spread across the front with a VW Van & a kangaroo in the background, who says that I have no national pride? Anyways we headed from Piuru to Lima on a 15 hour overnight bus. However, these buses are more like planes, in that there are classes (first and second), reclining chairs and meals served (although they are the same sub par standard plane food usually is).

Lima is a big, dirty city, but we didn´t hate it. We stayed in the suburb called Miraflores, which was nice first in a cheap hostel and then in a nicer one for a reason I will reveal shortly. For our first afternoon we wandered the streets to the sea front where there is a massive shopping centre built into the cliff, it was nice but more like the Manuka of Lima so our money stayed put. That evening we decided that the local shopping centre had some nice deli food for a cheap meal we could eat at the hostel whilst we were watching a movie.

My mistake was choosing chicken fried rice. I was up at 2am with the results of food poisoning that lasted till about 8am. This is the reason we had to relocate as the hostel we were currently at had only one bathroom. I spent the rest of that day in bed feeling horrible and sleeping. Bron & Jane were excellent nurses. It took me the next 3 or so days to start to feel ok again. We went into Central Lima the next morning when I was feeling a bit better to see the changing of the gaurd at the government building. As we were heading in we were confronted by a large demonstration that we had to navigate to continue to our destination. As a result we think when we reached the central square there were riot police everywhere and even a water cannon. We asked the Police if it was safe and they laughed a yes at us, but as there were other ¨white-ies¨(as Bron has coined) around we stayed and it was fine, the demonstration never made it to us, whatever that means...

We left Lima on a 5 hour bus heading to Ica, yet another city in the desert built ontop of the sand. We actually stayed in an oasis called Huacachina which was literally a small backpacker town built near a lake in the middle of the desert. We went out on the dunes in a buggee, taking the dunes like a rollercoaster and went sand boarding tomboggan style, it was awesome fun. Watched the sun set over the dunes, then had happy hour and dinner back at our hostel.

I am currently in Nazca. Bron & I flew over the Nazca Lines this afternoon, it was pretty cool. This one was one of my favourites.

Right now I am waiting for yet another bus, an overnight one that will take 10ish hours or so Arequipa, which is a city futher south & our last stop before Cuzco and Maccu Picchu. Again I point out my new appreciation for buses and long haul road transport.