Chile - Landing in Santiago
We arrived in Santiago a couple of hours later than planned due to the delayed flight from Auckland, although we still arrived before we left after crossing the international date line in the Pacific!
We arranged to stay in a house in the Vitacura area of town belonging to Steve’s brother’s friend’s sister, Athalie, who had gone away on holiday with her family! We picked up the house keys from her work and let ourselves in to camp out there for a few days and to decide what to do with the 9 weeks ahead of us in South America.
Santiago is quite a pretty city with a backdrop of the Andes looming behind the city haze. We wandered round the city in the blue sky and sunshine the day after our arrival and took in the city centre. The nicest spot in the city were Santa Lucia – a park on a small hill in the centre with great views of the city and mountains and another view point at Cerro San Cristobal where we had a local delicacy of a dried peach with wheat in a cup of syrup and honey – pretty sickly!
We got nicely scammed by a taxi driver on our way out of Santiago who managed to rip us off threateningly for a short journey to the bus terminal! We think our guard was down after so many easy weeks in New Zealand, this was a sharp reminder that we were now in South America!
Valparaiso
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| Plaza de Armas in central Santiago |
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| The pleasant central park on a hill at Cerro Santa Lucia |
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| The view of the city and mountains from the top of Cerro San Cristobal |
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| A 'Mote con huesilla' - a traditional drink of a dried peach, syrup and corn ....mmmm sickly! |
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| Athalie's place in Santiago - comfort and style for our first few days in SA |
Valparaiso
On recommendation, our next destination was the multicoloured port town of Valparaiso, 2 hours north of Santiago on the coast. A free walking tour was on offer which gave a lot of interesting information about the town and its history. The town is situated on a steep hill overlooking the harbour and all the houses are brightly painted with left over ship paint and many walls were also covered in amazing street art. The town is famous for its 'ascensors' – steep angled cable car lifts which transport people up the steep hills around Valparaiso.
We stayed in an area of the old town called Conception with windy cobbled streets and lots of little cafes, restaurants and craft shops. Although the town was so beautiful, it also had a dark and dodgy side to it. We heard more and more stories of muggings and attacks going on.
We met some good friends here and visited much of the town together including a boat trip out into the harbour where there were military ships, huge cargo ships, sunbathing sea lions and great views of the town and also to an amazingly designed house owned by a famous local poet. We ate and drank Chilean food and wine together with some very friendly locals we met.
Unfortunately one of our friends was the victim of a mugging here. She had a lot taken from her and was very shaken up but luckily she wasn’t too physically hurt.
Argentina - Mendoza and Salta
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| Plaza Sotomayor in central Valparaiso |
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| One of the 'ascensors' for transporting people up and down the steep hills in the city |
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| The sign outside the house of an old man selling delicious 'Alfajores' - chocolate covered biscuits filled with super sweet dulce de leche |
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| Caroline and our new Swiss friend Gabi sharing a sugar rush! |
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| Walls and stairs covered in street art work |
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| Famous piano stairs! |
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| Another amazing wall of art |
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| Walls, stairs .... anything they can get their hands on! |
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| Chilean wine with locals and other travellers in Valpariaso |
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| A great night on the terrace overlooking the town |
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| A sea lion chilling out in the harbour |
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| Sunshine and safety first for a boat trip round the harbour! |
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| Great views of Valpariaso with huge ships in the port |
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| Military ships and subs visiting the harbour! |
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| Stacks of shipping containers ready for loading in the busy port |
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| Plaza Sotomayor |
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| Plaza Sotomayor in the blazing midday heat |
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| Smile... we've got empanadas for lunch! |
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| Amazing vistas of the city from Cerro Artilleria |
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| Some of the pretty multicoloured houses |
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| A flowering cactus outside the La Sebastiana - the poet Pablo Neruda's house |
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| La Sebastiana |
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| Some of the older more run down multicoloured houses |
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| More street art - part of an open air museum of street art |
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| Enjoying some Chilean food in a local restaurant in Cerro Conception |
Argentina - Mendoza and Salta
The next day we took the 8 hour day bus over the Andes for a brief visit to Mendoza in Argentina. From here we took a bus ride to Maipu where we did a tour of some of the local wineries on bikes with some others we’d met in our hostel in Mendoza. We had an Argentinean style steak-heavy barbecue in the hostel later that night and the next day we embarked on an 18 hour bus journey to Salta in the north of Argentina.
After sleeping off our bus-hangover we explored the central area of the town and the most notorious museum there exhibiting mummified children from old times when they were sometimes buried alive. After dark, we visited a night market and Pena (live music and food venue) in a bustling area of the town for nightlife. Our second day in Salta we took the Teleferico to the top of a hill in the town and spent the day at the view point above the town and eating steak at a recommended restaurant; Veijo Jack’s.
Argentina-Chile-Bolivia via the Atacama Desert & Salar de Uyuni
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| A windy road on the way up into the Andes between Chile and Argentina |
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| Putting helmets on the right way round was challenging for some when touring wineries on bikes |
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| Inside the fermentation process area of one of the larger wineries in Maipu region |
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| Some of the fine products - it all tasted good! |
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| All smiles after a morning of wine guzzling in the sunshine! |
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| A fine selection on display inside an old fermentation tank |
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| Riding in a straight line soon became an issue! |
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| The meaty barbecue at our hostel in Mendoza! |
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| Impressive Plaza 9 de Julio, 20 hours north of Mendoza in central Salta |
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| The top of the teleferico at Cerro San Bernardo overlooking Salta |
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| Back at city level on the walk back from San Bernardo |
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| Plaza Guemes after dark |
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| Some Pena action out to the north of central Salta |
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| These friendly market fellas gave Caroline some nail-clippers as a welcome gift! |
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| Melt-in-the-mouth steak at Viejo Jack's! |
Argentina-Chile-Bolivia via the Atacama Desert & Salar de Uyuni
We crossed back into Chile with an 8 hour bus journey across the Andes to San Pedro, a desert town, where we booked a 3-day 4x4 crossing into Bolivia via the Salar de Uyuni with three Swiss guys; Mario, Samuel & Valentin. We were lucky to get on the tour as the following day the National Park was temporarily closed for the foreseeable future and tourists were unable to pass through due to locals protesting about the distribution of profits from the park fees.
After crossing the border into Bolivia an hour’s drive from San Pedro, the jeep took us to some natural hot pools, a steamy geyser, several incredible multicoloured lagoons full of feeding flamingos, past volcanoes and onto the unique landscape of the Salar de Uyuni salt flats – a vast, completely flat dried up salt lake. We called in on an old train cemetery on the outskirts of Uyuni where old freight trains that were previously used for carrying minerals end their life.
We arrived in Uyuni in the afternoon and found a hostel before going for beer and pizza in the main plaza and celebrating the end of an amazing trip with the Swiss in a local club. The next day we took a 6 hour bus trip to Potosi.
Potosi
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| The start of the stunning trans-Andean journey between Salta and San Pedro..... |
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| ...through dry and cactus-thriving landscape on the way out of Argentina... |
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| ....past weird rocky patterns in the mountain face.... |
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| ...along enthralling roads and views up and over the Andes... |
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| ...past high altitude salt flats.... |
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| ....multicoloured lakes..... |
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| ... and huge volcanoes! |
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| Pizza with our Swiss friends Mario and Samuel in San Pedro before crossing into Bolivia |
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| The Atacama Desert surrounding San Pedro |
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| The basic border crossing in Bolivia flanked by cloudy volcanoes and desert |
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| A thermal pool in a remote area inside the Bolivian border |
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| The thermal pool and small village near nothing else! |
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| A steamy geyser at 5000m |
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| Cloud sinks over a huge volcano in the distant view from our lodging |
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| Dinner in our basic hut accommodation |
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| Early morning start in the desert! |
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| Volcanoes reflecting in the mineral rich lakes - incredible scenery! |
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| Enjoying the sunshine and views! |
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| Weird formations at the tree rocks |
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| Flamingos patrolling the lakes |
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| More breathtaking landscape of crusty-edged mineral lakes full of flamingos and volcano backdrops |
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| Incredible landscape all around |
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| Wild llamas! |
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| Great tour and the sunshine made all the difference! |
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| An inquisitive local kid took a liking to Caroline in the Salt Hotel |
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| A llama stands guard on the cactus island oasis in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni |
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| HUGE ancient cacti on the island. Some were over 1000 years old! |
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| Stunning views from the island over the massive featureless white salt flat |
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| The amazing cacti infested island! |
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| A prickly embrace! |
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| Group shot with the Swiss! |
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| Playing with perspective on the salt! |
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| Steve and his toy 4x4 |
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| Caroline putting her foot down! |
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| Balancing on lollipops - why not! |
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| Salt extraction for building and eating! |
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| A salty market near Uyuni |
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| Train cemetery turned playground near Uyuni, Bolivia |
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| Swinging in style! |
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| Great trip guys.... is that a dog getting run over or something? |
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| Drinks in Uyuni to celebrate a great trip across the salt flat with the Swiss! |
Potosi
Potosi was once the richest city in South America due to the Cerro Rico Mountain (aka 'the mountain that eats men') found to contain silver and other minerals. Conditions working in these mines were and still are terrible and one of the main tourist attractions in the town is to see the workings of the mines. Many workers become ill and die young due to exposure to the toxic dust present underground alongside the risk of tunnel collapse or dynamite blasting accidents. Despite this, people (including some children) work extremely long hours – some making a decent amount of money if they find good quality minerals.
A tour of the mines showed how the silver was extracted and how the people working there lived, while a museum in the centre of town had original machinery which was used for minting silver coins.
Sucre for Christmas
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| Cladding up like real miners, dynamite and all! |
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| Down the mine inside the Cerro Rico |
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| Space got tight and the air got hot and dusty |
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| Ricketty ladders up and through the layers of tunnels |
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| The Tio (devil) worshiped by the miners to protect them while underground |
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| Nasty substances lining the walls and roof of the mine in places |
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| Although a bit of an eye-opener, it was nice to be out of the mines. The view of Potosi was a good one! |
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| Rooftop view of Potosi from our hostel |
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| Ornate buildings in central Potosi |
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| A sneaky photo of a typical Bolivian 'Cholita' |
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| A local wedding taking place in central Potosi |
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| Inside the minting museum showing how silver coins were pressed. |
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| Money pressing and polishing machines in the museum |
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| Bolivian families on the street of Potosi |
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| Potosi street view |
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| Christmas markets in full swing! |
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| Christmas trees and tacky plastic decorations - just like England! |
We cracked on to Sucre in time for Christmas and struck lucky with our choice of hostel! A chef and a hairdresser were staying in the small home-like hostel. On Christmas Eve everyone got their haircut and then Christmas day we ate an amazing Christmas dinner courtesy of the chef, followed by a house party style booze-up in the hostel.
We stayed in the captivating town of Sucre for a few more days to do get some Spanish tuition (more required for Steve!) before moving on 13 hours up the road to the world’s highest altitude capital city of La Paz for new year’s eve.
La Paz
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| A fantastic fruit market in central Sucre |
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| Preparing for Christmas dinner in the hostel! |
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| Veggies for 15 hungry travelers |
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| Buen provecho! |
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| A great spread with great company! |
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| Followed by some cheesy games! |
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| Much fun and merriment! |
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| Postcard view of our lovely hostel in Sucre |
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| Whitewashed buildings of Sucre centre |
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| The mirador (viewpoint) overlooking the city |
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| A long street back down to the centre with one of many VW Beetles you see everywhere in Sucre |
La Paz
On new year's eve we befriended a Kiwi couple in our hostel and went for dinner in a nice bar and watched the fireworks at midnight from San Francisco Square close to where we were staying.
We spent new year’s day in and around La Paz exploring the Witches Markets where the shops all have dried baby llama carcasses strung up to bring them good fortune!
While in La Paz, home to the 'world’s most dangerous road', we were obviously tempted to mountain bike down it! We did it in the torrential rain, so didn't quite get to see what was (or wasn't) over the edge most of the way down but it was excellent despite the soaking!
Amazon!
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| Dried llama foetuses for good luck on the La Paz Witches Market! |
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| Caroline modelling the typical Bolivian style of a small bowler hat perched on the top of the head! |
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| Steve wanting to buy everything in this shop! |
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| La Paz street view on a grey New Year's Day |
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| Classic jumbo Ford buses chugging along all the streets |
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| Street kids mess around in the dust |
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| La Paz city-scape from the mirador |
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| Wall art in our La Paz hostel at breakfast |
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| Before biking down the world's most dangerous road, there was a ritual of everyone sipping and then sprinkling on our bikes the 96% alcohol content 'Cocoroco' to protect us on the way down! |
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| An over-confident rider from our group came a cropper |
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| Fantastic views from the top of the WMDR |
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| Beyond the point of caring about being soaked! |
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| We both looked like we'd had messy accidents by the time the sun came out! |
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| Animal sanctuary at the bottom of the world's most dangerous road |
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| Amazing multicoloured parrots at the sanctuary |
After drying all our wet gear from the biking until late that night, we took a flight to Rurrenebaque to avoid a treacherous 24 hours bus journey. Rurre, as it’s known, (probably because gringos can’t pronounce it!) is the gateway to a section of the Bolivian Amazon Basin. From here we did separate tours into the Pampas and Jungle areas.
The Pampas tour took us into the Selva National Park – a natural wetland area attracting many species of animal for feeding including Caimens (freshwater crocs), pink dolphins, tortoises, monkeys, many birds, fish and other animals. On the Jungle tour we were taken by boat into the Madidi National Park where we stayed in a Jungle lodge area and explored the rain forest jungle by foot finding wild boars, monkeys and many insects.
Lake Titicaca
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| Our light aircraft flight into the Amazon |
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| Suffisticated re-fuelling system! |
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| Mosquitoes were ferrocious on the shore of the river, but the location was stunning! |
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| Lots of wierd and wonderful birdlife flapping around |
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| This fella sat in his hole eating earth on the riverbank all day! |
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| A fresh water croc not making a great job of camoflauging himself! |
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| A cheeky little monkey was tempted on board our boat! |
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| Relaxing in between swatting mosquitoes in the Pampas! |
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| The six of us floating upstream on the Pampas tour |
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| A stunning sunset in the Amazon |
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| Covering up meant getting too hot ....exposed skin meant getting bitten by bugs...... or both if the mosquitos can bite through your shirt! |
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| Our guide on the search for anacondas! ....no luck though. |
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| Our basic lodging on the riverside in the Pampas |
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| A frequent visitor to our lodge! |
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| A look out over the river from the terrace of the neighbouring deserted karaoke bar! A perfect wildlife viewing spot! |
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| One of the crocodiles coming to try his luck catching birds - observed from the karaoke bar! |
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| Swimming with pink dolphins .... and crocodiles! |
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| An eagle high in the trees |
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| Curious pink dolphins playing with a football |
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| Catching pyranas with beef steak bait! |
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| Our guide with the catch of the day! |
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| Winding down with some table fussball in the bar back in Rurre |
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| The centre of Rurre in the rain before our second tour into the jungle in Madidi National Park |
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| Bananas ready for shipping downstream |
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| The view from the river on the way to Madidi National Park |
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| The edge of the jungle a couple of hours up stream from Rurre |
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| Our ecolodge in a clearing in the jungle |
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| Strange red-rooted trees! |
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| Dense green wet jungle! |
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| A huge ant colony in the ground beneath us |
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| An incredibly long line of leaf-carrying ants on the march |
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| Hard-to-spot tribes of howler monkeys making the eeriest monstrous sounds echoing around the jungle! |
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| Shadowy forms of wild boar scarpering at our slightest movements |
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| A window of sunshine makes all the leaves glimmer |
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| A rare breed of smiley monkey emerging from the trees! |
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| A group having a much needed break from trekking through the hot jungle |
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| Lots of fungi covering the wet ground |
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| The centre of Rurrenebaque after returning from the jungle |
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| Back to 4km altitude in La Paz after a memorable trip into the Amazon |
After a return flight back to La Paz, we took the road trip to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca at 4000m on the Bolivia-Peru border. We spent a day on the Isla Del Sol a couple of hour’s boat ride away where we explored some Inca ruins and wandered around the hills, mostly in the cloud and rain.
After a painstakingly slow border crossing from Copacabana into Peru, we took the night bus out of there on a last minute decision to go to Arequipa in the South of Peru.
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| An insanely packed motorboat on the way to Isla del Sol from Copacabana |
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| The view towards our beach-side hostel from a hill on the Isla del Sol |
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| An Indigenous woman and child on the island |
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| Magical views across the island and lake towards snow capped mountains |
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| A rare bit of sunshine during our couple of days on the Island of the Sun! |
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| Pathways across the island leading to Inca ruins |
 The Inca ruins on the north of the island  |
| Caroline befriended a couple of local kids who were playing amongst the ruins while looking after their llamas! |
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| Bargaining for local crafts on the hill tops of the cold island! |
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| Stunning views across to where we had to run to catch our boat! |
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| We made it, but it nearly killed us! |
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| Back in Copacabana, final stop before Peru |
