So after Cusco we went to Lima, the capital of Peru. It’s a huge city, and blanketed in fog for most of the year. If you wanted to make a zombie film you couldn’t pick a better location. There’s not a whole lot of nice things we can stay about our stay there – we stayed in our only really bad hostel* of the entire trip. The owner was like a less charming version of Norman Bates. As we were only staying for one night we were willing to put up with his creepiness, the strong paint fumes, the noise of the disco underneath our room and the general dinginess of the hostel. However at midnight a large cockroach arrived to say hello so we decided to head straight for the airport.

We originally planned to get the bus from Lima to Nazca, but due to poor weather this seemed like it would be a waste of time as flights over the Nazca lines were being cancelled. Instead we went straight to our next destination – Quito, in Ecuador.

Quito / Otovalo

Quito is another high mountainy city, and we really enjoyed our time there. We stayed in the best hostel of our trip and met a lot of nice people. The hostel had a rooftop terrace with beautiful views over the city (photos later) and all round good atmosphere so it made up for the horrible experience in Lima.

In Quito, among other things, we wandered around the gorgeous old town & visited another musical instruments museum. The museum was a pretty surreal experience – it was part of a huge complex containing multiple different museums. We seemed to be the only visitors there, so the museum was not properly lit up. Instead there were automatic lights which turned on when you approached** each exhibit, so we spent our time in small pools of light inside huge dark rooms.

While still based in Quito we visited the Otovalo market, the largest indigenous market in South America. It’s pretty big, and has stalls selling all manner of thingamajigs and watchamacallits. It’s definitely the place to be on a Saturday morning if you want a wide variety of whole roast pigs, travel pants, wooden spoons, televisions or other such items.

After Quito we headed over to Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi

Cotopaxi is one of the worlds highest active volcanoes, and is only a couple of hours from Quito. The lodge we stayed in was self sufficient (no external electricity or phone lines) and had incredible views  – so it was a great place to relax for a few days.  The highlight here (aside from sitting by the fire in the evenings) was horse-riding and fishing.  The horses were pretty excitable – a gentle tap and they’d go straight from walking to galloping. Having never learned to horse ride it made for good fun. On our way back to the lodge we had to go on a bit of a detour due there being a large angry fighting bull on the road***.  The bull was new to the area and we were apparently the first to find out that it was able to jump the ditch which was supposed to keep it in. Go team!

Fishing was also good craic – the water in the rivers were very low, so the normal rod and reel approach was abandoned. Instead we fished with our hands – crouching over the banks and reaching under the overhangs to try and nab a trout. Our guide managed to catch a couple, but I failed miserably. I grabbed one but it slipped out of my hand – foolishly I only used one hand, when two was clearly required. It was good fun trying and way more active than normal fishing(photos later)

* It was also the only hostel we stayed in that offered teeth whitening on the premises…

** Sometimes you had to dance around the exhibits flailing your arms in order to get the light to come on

*** Apparently a few weeks before we arrived there had been a festival in the nearest village. The men of the village had few drinks and then got in to a ring full of bulls. According to our hosts someone would get hit every fifteen minutes or so, resulting in the rest of the participants trying to distract the bull from the man on the ground.

Right so, where were we? Ah yes . . . so we took a bus (yes another one) from Puno to Cuzco and got a room in a nice hostel, San Isidro Labrador. Cuzco, which we though would just be a convenient stop for Machu Picchu, turned out to be lovely and we ended up staying 5 or 6 days in total (split up in the middle by Machu Picchu). It´s a lovely town with two very impressive churches and lots of nice cafes and restaurants. It did however spawn a new “disease” as pretty much every restaurant/cafe that we read about in the Lonely Planet and then attempted to visit, had vanished! We started referring to this phenomenon as “cuzco-itis” (actually several places had this problem as we continued on . . . but it remains “cuzco-itis”).

Due to its proximity to Machu Picchu Cuzco is very touristy and it is impossible to walk down the street without being offered a hundred massages, manicures, and various tours from either side. You spend your time saying “no gracias” . . . but it´s all very friendly having said that. We did end up in an Irish Pub there (Paddy O´Flaherty´s . . . best shepards pie I´ve ever had!), where incidentally we met the family from Cork again (so that´s the second time since the Salt Flats, as we met them in La Paz too!), but the pub were selling tshirts that had “no gracias” printed on the front . . . classic!!

Organising Machu Picchu was slightly more complicated than previously thought but we managed on account of our fabulousness We ended up getting a bus from Cuzco to a place called Ollantaytambo and then getting the train from there to Aguas Calientes (the town you visited Machu Picchu from). However we would actually recommend this route to people over the direct Cuzco/Aguas Calientes train as there are some ruins in Ollantaytambo which are well worth the visit.

Machu Picchu itself involved a 5am start to the day (shudder!) but it was worth it as not only did we get up there when it was still all misty and mystical but we also managed to get two tickets to go up Wayna Picchu (one of the mountains you can always see in any Machu Picchu picture) . . . they only allow 400 people up per day (200 at 7am and 200 at 10.30am) so we were pretty lucky. The “walk” up Wayna Picchu (it´s really a vertical scramble) was very tough but the view at the top was well worth it, it was nice to get a different view of the ruins, and not just the typical one everyone knows. The ruins themselves we must confess, we weren´t overly impressed with (sshh!), the ones in Ollantaytambo were probably better (sshhh!), I think the real magic of Machu Picchu is arriving early in the morning when the sun is rising just in time to see the mist roll back to reveal the ruins leaving you feel as if you are discovering the lost city right then and there, which, it must be said, is a pretty special feeling.

here are some of our favourites . . . the rest can be viewed via flickr as always using the panel to the right.

enjoy!

our last stop in Brazil

best plane ever!

the train cemetery outside Uyuni

After Uyuni we head straight for La Paz, which involves another hilarious bus journey that I won´t go into in too much detail. Suffice to say that it doesn´t really matter how fancy a bus you have if you don´t have paved roads to drive on.

La Paz is an incredible looking city – it´s built on and surrounded by mountains. It feels as if we are always walking uphill or downhill. We stay in one of our more unusual accomodations here – a hotel on the top floors of a shopping centre. Just down the road from us is the Witches Market, where you can buy llama foetuses. We had no real need for one at the time so we left them alone. It´s probably good to know for future reference though.

On our first day exploring the city we decide to go for a walk down the main street and visit some travel agencies to arrange the next part of our trip. Along the way we see a small protest in the main square – there is chanting and some fireworks, but it doesn´t seem like something we have to worry about. Further along the way we pass a large group of riot police. Along with large shields, helmets with face masks and truncheons they have really big guns. Some have what look like grenade launchers, but we hope that they are for tear gas. This does seem like something to worry about so we hurry on our way down the main street.  As we are walking we start to hear loud bangs coming from the direction we came. We decide at this point that it would be best to head back to the hotel and find out what´s going on. Unfortunately we cannot get a taxi home – apparently the protests are blocking our route. After a bit of toing and froing we decide to shelter in the bar of the nearby Plaza Hotel(fancy!). We get front row seats for the protest then and discover the source of the loud bangs – the miners are throwing dynamite. I´m sure it was all in good fun, but the combination of dynamite and riot police is a little worrying. We eventually make it back to our hotel after everything has passed.

The following day we head to the Museum of Musical Instruments, where they have the best signs ever : `You can touch!´. We get to bang drums, turn wheels, pull strings and tap bottles. It´s great fun, and definitely worth a visit. Unfortunately on our way home we once again get stuck in the middle of protests, and this one seems more serious. People on top of a bridge are throwing things (sticks, bangers, dynamite?) down on to protesters below. The bridge was our main route home so we once again had to wait for things to pass. It starts to get frustrating and a little worrying so we decide to leave La Paz early and head to Copacabana the next day.

Copacabana

We arrive in Copacabana a little worried – on the advice of an English couple we met in La Paz we have not booked accomodation. They mentioned that it is a quiet town, with lots of available accomodation. What they didn’t know (presumably!) and we find out on the bus there is that we are arriving on the week of a pilgrimage. During this pilgrimage accomodation is likely to book out completely. So the bus journey is a little worrying, but the spectacular sight of the sun setting on the mountains around Lake Titicaca distracts us.

On arrival in the town we walk straight into accomodation in a lovely hotel, thanks to the quick thinking of a lovely Dutch couple we meet on the way.* Huzzah!

The fact that it is a week of pilgrimage means that the town is bustling, so we decide to stay an extra night. One of the main draws is the blessing of vehicles which takes place at the church. This happens on a daily basis, but this week the streets are clogged up with cars waiting to be blessed. The cars are decorated with confetti and brightly coloured paper. The priest blesses the engine first of all (with a little prayer beforehand) and then splashes holy water all over the car (inside and out) and it’s delighted occupants. Afterwards the drivers throw more confetti and spray beer on the outside of the car.

Inside the church there is also a chapel full of candles – inside the pilgrims pray to the candles before lighting them. The walls are black but decorated with pictures made out of the molten candle wax, so all along there are white pictures of cars and houses. We don´t know if they were asking for things, or praying for their protection.

After the church we decide to climb Calvary, the hill overlooking the town. Along with offering spectacular views of Lake Titicaca it also contains the stations the cross so it is also crowded with pilgrims.  What is most interesting about this walk is the number of fortune tellers and shamans** along the way. Along with card readers there are people who tell fortunes in far more interesting ways – we see men who melt metal in gas heated pans. When the metal hardens they read the shape to tell fortunes. We also see men with caged birds – the birds sit on top of a tray of folded cards which is pulled out when someone requests their fortune. With a little prodding from their owner the bird hops out to the front of the cage and selects a card from the tray. We see one bird pick out two cards – it then has to pickbetween them. The chosen card is the customer´s fortune.

It´s fascinating to see the Catholic rights and other*** ceremonies being performed side by side, by the same people, so arriving at pilgrimage time was really good luck.

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca was the reason we had gone to Copacabana, so it probably deserves a few words. It´s so huge that it looks like an ocean, and it is surrounded by spectacular mountains. From Copacabana we visit Isla del Sol, an island where the first Inca was supposedly born. It has a number of Inca ruins, including a spectacular staircase surrounded with greenery. After visiting Isla del Sol, we hop on a bus**** to Puno in Peru to visit more islands. We spend a morning visiting the floating islands of the Uros people, which are spectacular. The people build the islands themselves, out of reeds. They also use the reeds to build their houses & boats. Their primary income used to come from fishing, but it seems as if tourism has taken over now and we are given a warm welcome with traditional food, traditional singing (mostly, twinkle twinkle may not actually be a traditional Uros song!) & a market.

* Everyone on the bus, aside from us and the driver, was Dutch. They had booked a private bus, but the company that provided the bus realised there were free seats remaining so sold us tickets for it without telling either party. On a previous bus journey the Dutch party had discovered that the driver was smuggling a group of Bolivians under the bus in the luggage compartment. Given that the bus journeys are uncomfortable in the seats this must have been horrific.

** This is definitely the wrong word, but I don´t know a better one.

*** I´m guessing that´s what it´s called at census time

**** It´s really exciting to wake up in the morning and know you´re getting on a bus to Peru!

We arrived at the “airport” in Uyuni (the plane simply landed in a clear space beside the town) early in the morning and got talking to a family from Cork who had also been on the flight with us. As all of us wanted to visit the Salt Flats we decided to go around the tour operators together as 5 have more bargaining power than 2 or 3 people would. One of the first tour operators we spoke with said we could leave at 10.30am that morning (which was in about 20 minutes time!). As we´d all been up since 5.30am and were adjusting to the new, very high, altitude (4,000 metres!) we decided to wait till the following day. None of the operators seemed to have guides that had more than a few words of English (and all of us had limited Spanish) but we were assured by a group of Dutch girls we met returning from their trip that it was more about the landscape and that understanding the guide was not overly important.

So the next day we set off for our 3 days and 2 nights travelling on, and around, the Salt Flats. Although the scenery was indeed spectacular, and although Colm got to swim in an insanely hot thermal bath while it was -15 degrees (this resulted in parts of his hair turning to ice . . . I, sensibly, contented myself with only dipping my feet in) we agreed afterwards that it is the first thing we have done that we would not recommend. The majority of the 3 days was spent in a jeep that bounced along the non-existant roads (this resulted in me being very car sick for the last 2 days – not fun) and most “stops” were really only 10 or 15 minute photo ops and then it was back into the jeep again for another few hours of non-stop bouncing.

We do seem to be the only ones we know of, yet, who weren’t overly enamoured with the trip, which is now firmly part of the “Gringo Trail” . . . but each to their own.

We did enjoy our two days in Uyuni though (one before and one after the trip), not least because of the bustling market (which was clearly there for the inhabitants and not just the tourists as there were simply not enough tourists to justify it´s size). It was also an experience to see that the majority of woman (including the younger generation) still dress in traditional clothes - this included a bowler hat (!) perched atop two thick black plaits which hung rope like down their backs, layers of brightly coloured peasant skirts, aprons and blankets pinned around their shoulders (-15 people!). We haven´t yet discovered where the bowler hat tradition came from but we´ve got some good photos which we´ll upload as soon as we get a chance. The women seemed to run 99% of the market stalls, juggling selling their wares with either crocheting more goods, peeling potatoes for dinner or whipping meringue in large basins – all while minding two or three children – now that´s multi-tasking! Everything was carried on their backs, whether it be their children or heavy loads from the stalls, using brightly coloured blankets. The men, we assume, were the drivers on the tours and working elsewhere outside the town as it wasn´t as if they were sitting around drinking while the women worked (or at least not as far as we could see!).

The hotel we stayed in, Tonito Hotel (which was lovely), is also home to Minuteman Pizza, a restaurant started by a guy from Massachusetts and his Bolivian wife. It was not only the warmest place in Uyuni but also served the nicest pizza we´ve had since we´ve been away. They also did lovely breakfasts and crumbly chocolate chip cookies Eating there and hanging out in the coziness while reading travel books and planning our next stop was definitely more enjoyable than freezing our bums off in the Salt Hotel we stayed at the first night of our trip – novelty not withstanding – Colm even bought a Minuteman t-shirt!

So if you do head to the Salt Flats, be sure to stop by Minuteman Pizza to thaw out afterwards

We stayed for three nights in Pousada Santa Clara, a farm deep inside the Pantanal, that is surrounded with bird life.

We took a minibus from Campo Grande, a city in Brazil, to the entrance to the national park where the pousada is situated. From there it was a bumpy open backed jeep ride to the pousada itself. Along the way we saw a lot of birdlife, giant storks and beautiful parrots, and caiman (crocodiles!) and drove through a sea of cattle.*

Our first night had nothing scheduled so we spent the evening relaxing on hammocks. The next morning we went for a horseride on Pantanal horses – they are trained to respond to reins held in one hand, so using two only confuses them. The horseride was fun & along the way we saw Capybara (the world´s largest rodent) and deer. We take a break for lunch (and more hammocking) and head out pirhana fishing in the afternoon. This was great fun – we each get a bamboo rod & head out in two boats down the river. We used chunks of meat (cow?) as bait and cast into the shady areas by the edge of the water. At our first stop we got no bites, and I started to worry that we would catch nothing. We then headed to a different spot where we had better luck. We feel the pirhana nibbling at the bait, and then it is a mixture of luck and timing to get them hooked by jerking the rod up rapidly. Catching the first pirhana is great – they are smaller than I expected, but they still have big vicious teeth. We caught a good few piranha between the two boats, along with another fish that I forget the name of…

The next morning we went for a walk through the Pantanal. Along the way we see more beautiful birds (including various parrots, storks and toucans), howler monkeys (including a mother and baby) and golden coloured coaties.

That evening we set off on a jeep safari, which was excellent. Along the way we stopped to visit some of the caiman – they seem quite large but are actually scaredy cats. When we got into the water with them they ran away from us rather than the other way around. That is if they are bothered enough – many seem happy to ignore us and soak up the sun.

Further along the trip our excellent guide, Carlos, saw an armadillo on the far side of a large stretch of water. Someone mentions wanting a better photo and Carlos was on his feet immediately, ready to lead us in a walk through the water. Trousers wear rolled up, shoes wear taken off, and we wade through water which we could only assume had caiman and pirhana in it. Once we reached the far side of the water Carlos instructed us to be quiet. We walked barefoot and snook up on the armadillo – it is almost blind so didn´t see us coming! He walked into the middle of our group without realising it, so we got to see him very close up.
 
After this we watched the spectacular sunset, and enjoy a night safari all the way home.

On our final day we go on a boat trip in the morning – we saw more birds (including pretty kingfishers and the giant Javiru), a family of capybara, and lots of caiman. Anyone willing to get in the water got a lovely tire tube drift home. This part of the trip was my favourite – Carlos, in the boat, spots a small anteater in the trees. Apparently they are very rarely seen so he was quite excited. They could not manouever the boat in time to see him, but in my tire tube I was able to swim across to the edge of the water to see him walking through bushes. Beat that David Attenborough…

Overall we had a great time in the Pantanal, thanks to the lovely group we were with, and thanks to our guides Carlos and Trudi, a husband and wife team.
*Most of the Pantanal is privately owned, and it seems much of it is used for raising cattle.

The first bus from Puerto Madryn to Buenos Aires was actually pleasant enough despite being 18 hours long. We boarded at 11pm and so went pretty much straight asleep – after speaking to an American guy travelling with his wife who, despite being 4th generation, was still 100% Irish (he told us all his family surnames, and they actually were all Irish – impressive). We slept till around 10am so we only really had another 7 hours to go at that stage, and we stopped briefly to get some lunch so all in all it went by quite fast. Given this when we arrived in Buenos Aires we were feeling relatively fresh so we thought we´d check when the next bus to Puerto Iguazu was instead of booking into a hostel/hotel and then trying for a flight the following day. There was a bus leaving in an hour and a half, and like our first bus it was cama (the seats recline almost right back), we were also told we would get a hot dinner, breakfast and alcohol (an improvement on the first bus!). So we booked it there and then and headed downstairs for a quick bite to eat.

Our bus boarded on time (hurray!), however I was more than a little disturbed to see a small dog in a travel case being loaded in under the bus with all the bags (the poor mite whimpered for nearly the entire journey too just wouldn´t happen at home, but no one so much as batted an eyelid). Other than that the journey was pretty much the same although we didn´t sleep as well, waking at 6am. The hostess turned on the lights at 7am to serve breakfast (we were a little confused by this as there was still so long to go in the journey). For breakfast we got a packet of crackers, a tub of jam, 4 breadsticks and . . . a wagon wheel! go figure). All was revealed however when we stopped at 9am and most people got off the bus. We then stopped again about 20 minutes later (very confusing) and myself and Colm were told we needed to get off . . . and . . . yes amigos . . . we boarded our 3rd bus in 2 days! The third bus however was by far the most comfortable (great the way we kept “trading up” – wouldn´t have been so good in reverse!) and I actually slept for another 2 and a half hours (hurray!).

We arrived a short while later to see a scorching sun beating down on bright green grass and vivid red soil – now this was more like it! No more fleeces and jackets for us for a while!!

We spent a lovely 6 days in Puerto Iguazu visiting both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the falls (the Argentinian side wins hands down). The falls themselves are amazing, although not as high as Niagara Falls there are about 270 of them so the sheer quantity makes them quite a sight to behold.

We also took a jeep safari* into the jungle one evening where Colm was delighted to see a group of Capuchin monkeys leaping from branch to branch (one even leaped directly over our heads!). No jaguar sightings – but I have to say I was ok with that!!

All in all it was, dispite the hassle getting there, well worth the visit and we would definitely go back. Especially as we spent the last 2 days reading by the HI hostel´s enormous pool – ah bliss

* An aside from Colm – our guide on this safari was excellent, and very good at explaining the ecological challenges faced by the area. In particular he explained how animals were becoming endangered because their natural habitat was being taken away from them. One species in particular, the Harpy eagle, had become near extinct because its natural habitat, Rosewood trees, were chopped down to make musical instruments. I squirmed a little on hearing this – my guitar has a rosewood fretboard.

Booking the flights was easy enough, as the airline had an office in town. Booking the buses was a little more difficult – everyone wanted to sell us tickets to Buenos Aires, but we had difficulty finding anyone who would sell tickets that left from Buenos Aires. Eventually we found a company that had a bus leaving a few hours after our flight arrived, and everything seemed to line up perfectly.

Our flight wasn’t until late afternoon, so we decided to spend our last day in Puerto Madryn on the beach watching the whales. At first it seemed disappointingly quiet but then two whales started trading jumps. One would jump, making a huge splash, and then the other seemed to try to out do him. This was incredible to watch, as they were by far the biggest whales we had seen.

We arrived back in our hostel to pick up our luggage only to be told our flight had been cancelled. Apparently all flights from the area had been grounded due to a volcano in Chile. This sounded like an airline’s equivalent of the dog ate my homework excuse, as the sky seemed perfectly blue. We were a little stunned, and then started to run around frantically trying to unbook everything we had booked. First was the hotel – this was relatively easy, and they cancelled without charging us anything which was nice. We then sprinted down to the bus company to cancel our Buenos Aires – Puerto Iguazu bus. Of course when we arrived it was siesta time so we had to sit and wait for two hours while they slept through the 5 degree heat of the day.

In the end we got our flights refunded, but not the bus which we couldn’t make. We then had to get an 18 hour bus to Buenos Aires in order to get another 16 hour bus to Puerto Iguazu…

… but that’s a story for a later time.

We´ve also added two new pages (tabs above) on numbers and animals.

Enjoy and we´ll post an update on our goings on soon . . . volcanoes, bus rides and waterfalls . . . watch this space!

During our stay in Puerto Madryn (to see the awesome Whales) we decided to spend a night in nearby Gaiman, where apparently only Welsh people venture. It´s a small town in Patagonia* where a lot of Welsh settlers arrived over to set up a kind of Gaeltacht where they could preserve their language and traditions. Today it is famous for its Welsh tea houses – you can get afternoon tea with a huge amount of cakey things. We were lucky enough to stay in a room above one of the tea houses (Ty Gwyn) so we got a breakfast of tea, toast, scones, and four types of cake. This was the best breakfast ever, although I suspect the cream cake has probably cut my life span by about five years. We noted when we were signing the register that we were the only non Welsh people staying there – lots of Jones and Davies.

After the breakfast we went to a nearby paleontological park, which was also awesome. It´s less the fossils that make it interesting and more the landscape – you just wander out into a deserty landscape, and follow a path to some nearby hills. The landscape very barren and must have been terrifying for the original settlers when they arrived planning to farm. There were no guides and aside from some hawks, sheep** and a very curious grey fox we had the park to ourselves. The fox was incredibly tame, and seemed to be a bit of a poser so we got some nice pictures.

We had lunch in a small restaurant in town – there were six tables, when we walked in the occupants of five of them turned to look at us. We sat at the vacant sixth table, and proceeded to order. When we had trouble with our Spanish the waiter offered to speak Welsh. We struggled on with the Spanish, and managed to order the most delicious meal we have had in Argentina. I had Patagonian lamb, which beat the famous Argentine steak hands down, and Sarah had pasta which she claims was the nicest she has ever had (despite having lived in Italy for ages). So yey for the small restaurant which on further inspection seemed to just be someone´s front room.