Across the Pacific

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Since the last post we have been to LA for a long weekend and had 2 weeks in Hawai'i, split between Maui and Kauai.

City of Angels
Our few days in LA were notable for a few reasons, but mainly because it was the first time we had seen a friendly face in 7 months. We stayed with a friend from IC who I used to play squash with, and he let us borrow his car to get around and see much more than we would have otherwise been able to. He's got a great apartment in Century City, right on the border with Beverley Hills, which is the next road over. From the 16th floor we could see the Hollywood sign in the distance, the downtown skyscrapers, and almost see the sea at Santa Monica.

It was a little bizarre to be so firmly back in the developed world, with an almost overwhelming choice of food, with everything coming in portion sizes undreamt of in much of Latin America. It was also a good opportunity to go shopping, and with the dollar being so weak at present it was even better value than normal. So we are now almost back up to being as fully equipped as we were before we donated some of our stuff to the needy of Peru.

Many thanks again to JC for hosting us for a few days. Phillippa had previously vowed never to go to LA but I think even she enjoyed our time there. Maybe LA gets a bad press, we only saw a very small corner of it, and quite a nice corner too, but it seemed great to us. The locals were complaining about the weather being too cold for winter, it was getting down to about 60F or 15C.

Hawai'i
The locals were also complaining about the cold in Hawaii, where it was a chilly 58F. Some people are just spoiled. Having managed to plot a route that avoids winter for most of the time we are away, these 2 weeks in the US are winter for this year. I could get used to winters like this.

The mountains in Hawaii have to be seen to be believed, especially on Kauai, where parts of Jurassic Park were filmed. The north west coast is stunning, with razor sharp ridges in the volcanic rock that are covered by very dense, lush green vegetation. The slopes are so steep it almost defies logic as to how trees can grow here. You can't get such intense green views without there being a lot of water to support them. One of the mountains on Kauai is the wettest place on earth, with about 460 inches, or about 10m of rain a year. That is more than Manchester and Bristol combined. Luckily our time there was mainly dry, so the walking we did wasn't spoiled by torrential downpours.

The only way to see parts of Kauai are from the air, and there are many helicopter operaotrs offering tours. You can't come this far and not do a helicopter trip, it really was fantastic, one of the more memorable things we have done. The company we went with flies with the doors off, one of the reasons for choosing them, and hanging out of a helicopter whilst passing over such unique countryside was great fun.

The snorkelling on both islands is also pretty good, though the visibility was a bit poor. We didn't dive there, maybe we should have done. The other water sport that Hawaii is known for is surfing, and we couldn't miss a chance for a lesson. It isn't actually as hard as people say, and within 10mins we were both standing up riding (admittedly small) waves to the shore. That's not to say that we didn't have some spectacular wipe outs too. But this early success was a slight cheat, we had a push into the wave from the instructor. When he left us and we had to paddle towards shore, with the waves, it became much harder!

The following day the north shoes of all the islands had their best waves for the last 6 years, predictions were for 50ft (15m) waves, so we headed up there. Not to surf, just as spectators. It turned out that the waves never hit those predicted 15m levels, but they were about 10-12m, as some nutters were out there making the most of it.

It was like having a holiday within a holiday. One place we stayed in on Maui had a garden that went down to the sea and a hot tub, where we sat one evening under the stars and palm trees with a bottle of bubbly. We also managed to do a fair bit of self-catering, and having the freedom to lounge around and cook for ourselves was very welcome.

We could have quite easily spent all of our time solely on either Maui or Kauai, but it is so unlikely that we will ever be back it made sense to see as much as possible.

And so now we are in NZ (after one night in Sydney). Before we went to South America it was hard to have any pre-conceived notions of what awaited us, but everyone as seen images on the US and Australia, and they didn't disappoint by not living up to stereotypes. We saw some huge people in the US, and only a British sense of propriety stopped me from taking what would have been a classic photo of a monstrous women tucking into a Whopper at Burger King. When driving around LA we were surrounded by vehicles so large and inappropriate for city use that even a Chelsea Mum would be reluctant to drive one on the SW3 school run. Then on the Qantas flight to Sydney from Honolulu the comedy channel had Dame Edna, the film channel had Guy Pearce and the music channel had a Kylie concert! Reassuring in its predictability.

People say that the Aussies and Kiwis are very friendly, and the reception we received at US immigration was entirely less welcoming than that we got from either of our Antipodean colonies. This despite the US officials having a charter that promises that you will be greeted with courtesy etc etc, and not just abruptly, almost rudely, asked for a photo and prints from both index fingers. It is also more relaxing now we have got to NZ, after Latin America and the US, since all our language problems are now behind us.

Happy Christmas to you all, wherever you may be. We will be in the Bay of Islands next weekend.

Mid Year Review

Location: Century City, Los Angeles, USA

A mid-year review. It`s time for a catch-up, for us to circle back and discuss some of the highlights of the year to date. So let`s run this up the flagpole and see if it takes shape.

Of course, we have been going for about 7 months now, but all good mid-year reviews occur late. In keeping with the usual review process, this is long on rhetoric and short on substance. It promises much but delivers little. In fact it doesn`t really contain any sensible analysis of our trip so far, instead it just concentrates on the trivial whilst overlooking the important. Those of you in the working world may be familiar with the theoretical idea of a review being a two-way conversation, a discussion. But that theory never holds true, so to conform to the "real world" review template this is a soliloquy. The only slight diversion from the normal review procedure is that the person doing the review does in fact know what has gone on in the relevant review period.

I had, at the start of the year, promised myself an increase in budget mid-year. This was to be something to look forward to. However, with startling capriciousness, I then decided that the increase I would award myself would be 0%. But this should not be looked upon as not having reviewed monetary matters, oh no, there was a review, as I had promised myself. The fact that the outcome was a rise of 0% does not mean that I was not given all that I was promised (a review), and so cannot be disappointed, feel aggrieved or misled by duplicitous claims made at the start of the year. Funny how this year is so similar to previous years.

After 6 months I have so far resisted the urge to

• grow my hair out and get either dreads or braids
• grow some ridiculous facial hair styled on Bob Geldof or Prince°
• buy, regardless of whether I can play it or not, a guitar to carry round with me...
• ... or some bongos
• get some tie-die clothes, or some indigenous Andean style clothes, which don`t fit because they don`t come in big Western sizes
• buy some cheap jewellry, made from a bit of wire by some hippie
• get a "necklace" made from leather with a wooden pendant
• quit travelling and set up my own crap jewellry business on some part of the Gringo trail near Titicaca, and just like, really get in tune with the Inca vibes of the place, coz, like, you know, this is where the Sun-God was kinda born, yeahh? Coool, man. Diggit.
• get one or more tatty bracelets made from multi-coloured fabric
• get an ankle bracelet
• renounce my UK nationality and claim, pretentiously, to be a citizen of the world*

° Indolence does not count

* Although all the people who have renounced their nationality have been either from the USA or France, so perhaps they had compelling reasons to do so.

On a slightly more serious note, what has it been like to be on the road for 6 months? (Those of you, many of you, who have done something similar can probably stop reading here.)

Every day is the same, yet every day is very different. There isn´t the routine of weekends to break up the pattern of the passing days, without this discipline every day really is the same, and it doesn´t matter what day of the week it is. But, of course, having seen and done so much no two days are the same.

It is actually surprisingly tiring all this travelling lark. That will not spark much sympathy with those of you at your desks by 7:30am 5 days a week, and it is not intended to do so. Early morning buses, overnight buses, cold hotels, poor sleep etc all take their toll. Some of the long distance buses in Argentina have been comfortable enough to get some sleep on but most buses elsewhere are designed for midgets. (Actually, so is Eurostar, but being based on the TGV it was probably designed by a Frenchman of Napoleonic stature.)

And with every day being the same we have found that we end up being busy for up to 3 weeks at a time, with no time to rest, with no break. Whilst this does maximise the stuff we can do, it is important every now and then to have a day or two of doing very little.

Tourism fatigue can also sometimes be a problem. In the Northern Andes I did find I was getting less interest in each Inca and pre-Inca site, each museum seemed to be the same (in fact in many cases they were), and at times it was hard to generate any enthusiasm for some of the places we went to. But this is rare, and has only really happened once or twice in the Andes.

In most places we have felt reasonably safe, with a few exceptions such a Rio. There have only been a few stressful incidents or locations. Most of the locals we have met have been very helpful, in particular in Argentina.

Costs It has gradually got more expensive as the months have passed. Bolivia was incredibly cheap; Peru and Ecuador a little less so, Paraguay was surprisingly expensive given there are few tourists, Brazil and Uruguay were (relatively) pricey, and Argentina, although not cheap, has standards higher than the rest, so in terms of value for money is way ahead of most places. For the most part rooms have cost from US$10 to US$16 per night, between us, for a double room with bathroom. We haven`t had too many bad hotel experiences, but we are not trawling through the very bottom price bracket so I wouldn`t expect too. Buses in the Northern Andean countries were approximately US$1 per hour of travel, about double that in Chile and Argentina, more for the better class of bus. It is generally possible to eat either very cheaply (meal for under US$1) anywhere, or pay right up to European proces in the major cities.

So have I missed the UK? Well, no not really. There have been a few weddings and babies that we have missed, which would be the case whenever you go away for a year, and that has been disappointing. But although there are things going on at home that it would be better to be a part of, and there are people who I´d like to see that was always going to be a downside. And there is nothing that can be done about it, so no point in thinking about it too much.

Too much travelling? We have spent what probably by now amounts to weeks on buses. We have not spent long periods in any one place at a time, seldom more than 5 days and usually 2-3 days. Eternally living from a rucksack is not as bad as some would think. Some of the places we have stayed put for a few days, where we have almost felt settled (I´m thinking of Ilha Grande in particular), have been like mini-holidays in themselves. We spent a week in Ushuaia before heading to Antarctica, but that was less of a mini-break since there is not really enough to fill a week. The variety certainly prevents any ideas of wanting to go back to the UK. Besides, 12 hours on a bus is still better than 12 hours in the office.

The music in the Andes is certainly something that I will remember, though not always fondly. A lot of their pop songs are instrumentals and sound like they were composed by GCSE music students. Repeatitive ditties that would have been rejected by the makers of Playstation arcade games. And South America is the only continent that still plays Phil Collins a lot. And Rick Astley. Say no more.

Health. So far so good... well not too bad anyway. A nasty high fever and cold sweats for a few days in Peru, that almost stopped me going up in the plane to see the Nasca lines. Some dodgy food that left me throwing up outside one of Peru´s most important churches, in Cusco. But other than the old sniffle there have been no problems. We managed to avoid the outbreak of bubonic plague in Ecuador (near to Cotopaxi). There were signs on one of the buses in Argentina to only use the onboard toilet when aboslutely necessary, to help prevent the spread of cholera. But we needed no such extra encouragement to avoid the facilities during a long, overnight journey. A lot of walking has taken its toll on one of my knees, the reoccurence of a running injury, but less severe, so not too serious.

We have, so far, met a lot of very interesting people. One French bloke was 71, had major abdominal surgery 3 years ago and was travelling around for 2 months with his trusty guide book, in a similar way to us. We also met an English chap in Ushuaia who was probably well into his 70s and could barely walk! We walked him home on 2 evenings, having bumped into him in town. The 5 minute walk home took more than half an hour, and we missed most of the second half of Argentina v Venezuela! He has been travelling overland from Brazil, 3 weeks down the Amazon, overland through the jungle in Peru then all the way down to the continent`s southern end. He doesn`t speak any Spanish and can`t seem to carry anything more than a small bag with a bottle of water! How has he managed it!

There is hope for us all yet.

The food has been generally good and interesting, but the days of bland and often cold food in Bolivia are only a distant memory. The meat in Argentina has been just as good as people say, not only the big thick steaks but some excellent lamb in Patagonia.

Books are in some ways valuable currency in these parts. With many hours to kill there is often little to do other than read, which is fine. But the choice of what you read is sometimes very limited, with swapping books at hostals the main way to replace those one has read. So as soon as something vaguely interesting appears you have to grab it while you can, even if you still have a couple waiting to be read. We have bought a few books here and there, definitely making a net contribution to the quality available in the hostals of South America. I even read what is the worst book I have ever read (The Posession of Joel Delaney). But for 20p in a bookshop in Montevideo it was still reasonable value and filled a bus journey. You won`t be able to buy it, even for curiosity, since it has been out of print for at least 20 years. No surprise there.

I could certainly get used to this nomadic lifestyle. And there are plenty more adventures to come.

Photos

Location: Los Angeles, USA

I have managed to put some more photos up on the web.

They nearly all date from the early days, Ecuador and Peru, since from 3rd July until a couple of days ago we haven't had digital cameras.

The main address for all the albums is
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/andell_n/my_photos

There are now the following individual albums

• Galapagos. There were some here before but there are a few more here now
• Huayhuash. This covers the fateful trek in the Cordillera Blanca, Northern Peru
• Mindo. A town in a cloud forest a little north of Quito. One of the main attractions here was the huge number of butterflies.
• Northern Peru. Trujillo, which served as a base for trips to the pyramids of the sun and moon, Chan Chan and ruins of other pre-Inca cultures
• Other Ecuador. The jungle near to Coca and a couple from Riobamba in the south
• A few from the last couple of days we have spent here in LA.

A few comments on the butterflies. This one has wings that are about the size of a thumb nail. This one is a similar size with transparent wings. The open wings on this one are about the size of an open palm of your hand. There is also another butterfly shot here taken in the jungle in Northern Ecuador.

Some of them are a bit smaller than others, it was a hit and miss affair when reducing the file size to something more manageable, but most seem OK. Hopefully from now on we will be able to add a few more as we go.

The White Continent

Location: Punta Arenas, southern Chile

The adventure is over and we have stepped onto the 7th continent to complete the set. It`s a long way from South America but being here represented an opportunity not to be missed since it is a lot further from Europe!

We spent 10 nights on board the M/V Ushuaia, owned an operated by Antarpply. It takes a couple of days to cross the Drake Passage (named after Sir Francis), which has some of the roughest seas in the world. Luckily for us it was very calm on the way over, not quite like the Med but certainly not what could be termed as angry seas. More like midly displeased. There were a few people who suffered from sea sickness, including Phillippa, and there really is no respite for the 2 days it takes to get near to the South Shetlands, where the water is calmer. There is nothing to look at for 2 days, so there was a lot of sitting around playing cards and backgammon.

In the afternoon of day 3 we had our first landing. Although the sea looked quite calm from the safety of a medium sized ship, once settled in a small Zodiac landing craft it appears slightly different. The weather was grey, strong winds, a light but horizontal rain. By the time we got to the beach we were all pretty wet, then stepping off into water that was deeper than the wellies we had been given ensured one cold wet foot, which then started to become painfully cold over the next 45 minutes. We got soaked on the way back too and it was looking like this would be a regular feature of the 2 daily landings. They told us to bring waterproofs, but the type of stuff you would wear for trekking in the rain is not quite up to having bucketfuls of cold water poured over you. Proper sea-going wet weather gear is needed. But it was too late for that discovery to be useful.

Weather
Generally cloudy, cold (between 0ºC and 3ºC), windy, occasional rain and sometimes heavy snow that didn`t really fall so much as move horizontally. No sunshine or blue sky, but perhaps that is not to be expected near to one of the most desolate and Godforsaken places on earth.

So what wildlife did we see?

• Lots of penguins (Adelie, chinstrap and Gentoo but sadly no king or emperor).
• Quite a few seals (Weddell, fur, elephant)
• A variety of other bird life (different types of albatrosses, petrels, gulls)
• Grass. Actually more interesting than it sounds. There are only two plants that live in Antarctica, this one being related to oats
• Minke whales, though not many and from a distance
• Orcas, briefly

P..p..p..pick up a penguin
The groups of penguins were huge. Thousands of them. I`ve seen penguins here in Argentina, in the Galapagos and near to Cape Town, but somehow it seem more authentic in Antarctica, in a blizzard with those facing you blending in to the background snow. Everywhere you look the slopes were crowded with colonies. It is nesting season so many are lying down to incubate eggs. We´ve seen lots of different types of behaviour: picking up stones to offer to potential mates (often stolen from the next door neighbour); building nests; calling out for mates, neck outstretched up to the sky; waddling along in lines along their "paths", like obedient school children on an outing; struggling up quite steep slopes and sliding back down on their tummies; fishing in the sea, often leaping out of the water, and with their black and white colouring they look like smaller versions of the dolphins we saw a month ago. Fascinating creatures that you can never tire of watching. Just as in the Galapagos, they are not too bothered by the presence of humans. Showing some signs of curiosity but then they quickly decided that we were not interesting enough to be bothered about. We were priviledged to see a group of about 12 walk right past us as we waited patiently for them. Another National Geographic documentary moment.

In many ways the scenery and geography of the region is more interesting than the wildlife. It is incredibly bleak and inhospitable. The South Shetland islands (just off the north tip of the peninsula) are part of the same string of mountains as the Andes, as is South Georgia. Black volcanic beaches and hills are partly covered by now. Very dramatic.

A dip in the Antarctic sea
Some of the islands are volcanic and one, Deception Island, is an active volcano. The remnants of a Norwegian whaling station, abandoned in the 1930s, can be seen all along the beach, including about 7 huge tanks used for boiling up the blubber. It then became a British base, and was finally abandoned in the late 60s after 2 eruptions destroyed lots of the area. A further erupton and mud slide buried lots of the buildings that had remained to that point. But the active (though dormant) nature of the volcano means that the groud is warm. Not on the surface where the weather makes sure that the beach is still cold, though with some steam rising form puddles, but dig down a bit and it is quite hot. So the staff dug a shallow hole, the sea filled it and then we were ready for a bath.

Apparently it feels warmer if you plunge into the sea first. So after stripping down I ran into the sea (about 2ºCentigrade), plunged in, a quick splash around and then headed back to the beach to get in the warm water. About 10 seconds is more than enough. I`m not sure how long you would last in water that cold, without protective gear but it can`t be very long. Very invigorating. Getting in was easy, but getting out and drying off when the air temperature is near to zero plus a strong wind is more of a problem.

Huge Icebergs
After a day of sailing we passed one or two icebergs. Much much bgger than those we had seen in the glaciar national parks. These were like small buildings. Over the next few days, as we headed further south, we saw bergs the size of very large office blocks. An amazing sight. Whilst making progress down the west side of the peninsula we saw more and more, everywhere you looked were huge masses of pale azure ice. We couldn`t land on the continent where we had planned to due to ice conditions. Not bergs but smaller flat pieces, often no more than a few metres across and maybe 0.5-1 metre deep. The wind had blown all these into ice flows. To start with there were clear gaps where the sea was still visible, but the further we progressed the more dense the ice became, until we had to turn back. At this point is seemed unlikely that we would manage to get onto the mainland itself, this was hugely disapponting.

So we had to go North again, and went through a channel at the very north of the peninsula. Here there were icebergs everywhere, a tough navigation, but very beautiful. I hadn`t expected to see quite ths density of icebergs. This took us towards the Weddell sea, where we saw pieces of the Ronne ice shelf that had broken off. We passed some real monsters, once was over a mile wide and about 80m high. It is almost too big to take in, and I`m sure the photos will not do it justice.

We did eventually get on to the peninsula, mainland Antarctica, at an Argentine base in Hope Bay. This base is not a hot-bed of scientific research, it has mainly political purposes. Should Antarctica ever be divided up, after the current treaty expires, various countries have varioues claims on the land. The peninsula is subject to claims from Argentina, Chile & the UK. For some reason the Argies believe that if the land is ever apportioned then having had 40 people (including children) living there somehow increases the strength of their claim. They aparently even flew in a woman who was 7 months pregnant so that she could give birth on Antarctica, (which would be quite cool to have on your passport as place of birth). It was very interesting to have a tour of their facilities and speak to the locals. The kids in the school were particularly friendly, it must be a fairly odd existence for them. Though the house we went into had a PC linked to the web, a playstation and TV/video, so when very long winter nights prevent them from playing outside they are entertained. In just the same way that, at home, the current crop of lazy kids slouch in front of their computer games, doing little more than waiting for the onset of childhhod diabetes.

It was a great trip overall. The highs in Antarctica were probably more memorable than those we experienced in Galapagos, in particular the massive icebergs, ice flows and the penguins. But overall I still think that the Galapagos remains the most amazing part of the trip so far.

Today, 29 Nov, is our last full day in South America, for tomorrow we are off to the US. It has been a fantastic 7 months and it is a shame to be leaving. But all good things come to an end and there are still many exciting places left to visit.

From the Centre of the Earth to the End of the World

Location: Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

We are nearing the end of the South American part of the Odyssey. Having very near to the southern mosdt part of continental South America (Punta Arenas, Chile) last week, we are no in the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia. So now that the trip south has come to an inevitable impasse, where do we go from here? Answers below...

After the trek in Torres del Paine we had a day or two doing very little in the small town of Puerto Natales, situated by fjords with mountains behind. Very attractive. We then swapped that for Punta Arenas, overlooking the Magellan Straits, the water that separates the continent from the islands to the south. Not a great place to spend any length of time. One interesting museum on the indigenous culture and heritage of the region, and many stuffed animals from Patagonia, but the town itself presents no compelling reason for a visit.

It was a long day from there to Ushuaia. Have a look on your atlas. It doesn´t look that far does it? But with a very slow border crossing and the bus company´s penchant for stopping for coffee breaks at almost every available opportunity it was a very long day: about 12.5 hours to reach the most austral city in the world. There is a town on the other side of the Beagle Channel, (named after Darwin´s ship, or really Robert Fitz Roy´s ship since he was the captain), a small Chilean settlement, but it is too small to lay claim to any title.

Although it is the most southern city it is not actually as far south as you may have thought, about the same south as Northern England is north. But since it is spring that means it is getting dark around 10pm, light at 5am, and it has even been about 20°C on a couple of days this week. So how is the weather in London?

One day was spent in the National Park, sadly it was a grey drizzly day (even worse was that the day each side was glorious sunshine), so the views were limited. Getting fairly wet for a few hours is also never much fun, even had it been good weather it would not have compared favourably to the other places we have been walking in recent weeks (but almost nowhere would).

There is one excellent museum in Ushuaia, housed in the old prison. Only a small section on the Falkland´s conflict though, which is surprising since the town has close associations with the war of 1982. There are a couple of monuments on the waterfront, including one that proclaims (Terminator fashion) "we will back". It is not clear whether they mean with the Navy or with diplomats. Quite a few cars and hostals have stickers from 2002 commemorating the 20 year anniversary, "Malvinas: Tierra del Fuego is waiting for you!". Interestingly the 2004 equivalent sticker does not say that they are still waiting.

So where are we going next? Well, we are going to continue to head south. Next stop is Antarctica for a 10 day expedition (18-28 Nov). We just hope that that Drake´s Passage, the 1,000km of sea between here and the Antarctic peninsula is not too rough, since it is known to be some of the roughest seas in the world. But we´ve just been to the chemist to stock up on sea sickness pills, so fingers crossed all will be fine, or at least bearable.

So check back here in about 2 weeks time (very end of Nov) to find out all about this very exciting side trip. It was not on the original itinerary, but this is far too good an opportunity to miss, so we have pushed back some of our flights by a bit to accomodate it. Also, once we return from Antarctica, details of where we are going once we leave South America, which will be in early December.

Heading for home

Location: Puerto Natales, Southern Chile

Heading for home indeed, though only in the sense that we have just passed the 6 month mark and so are nearer to Heathrow arrivals than we are to the departure gate. So although we have turned the corner and are now on the back 9, as it were, there are still a lot of interesting places yet to come.

We´ve been walking again, this time in Torres del Paine, just over the border from the Argentinian National Parks featured in the last post. The huge granite towers here are similar to those that can be seen in Fitz Roy. But we didn´t see them in Fitz Roy, due to bad weather. When we crossed the border into Chile the weather turned from sunshine to heavy rain and black skies.

Luckily by the time we got to the Park the following day it was sunny and, out of the shade, quite warm. We trekked for 5 days, every day we had minimal cloud, glorious sunshine and perfect views. (The day we got back to town it tanked down with rain again, so we were extremely fortunate with the conditions.)

There are 2 main treks, a W circuit, up 3 valleys, and a circular walk. The round trek cannot be done without lugging all your own stuff with you, and being slightly half-hearted about this camping lark, this was not for us. The W is the more common trek since there are refugios on the way round, providing decent shelter and food. To compromise between the full on camping, carry all the food and stoves, and the deluxe version involving staying in beds in rooms, we camped, but hired everything at each point. Meaning we didn´t have to lug it around all day.

Chile is a bit more expensive than most of its neighbours, but the cost for a tent, 2 mats and 2 sleeping bags was about US$35-40 between us. Much more than any hotel we have stayed in during the last 6 months! But the locations here are incomparable.

Over the course of 5 days we walked for 30 hours, including one long day of about 9.5hrs. Not as challenging as the Huayhuash trek in July, and the only other people we saw were tourists! But a fairly hard few days nonetheless.

The scenery verges on indescribable, especially when it is untainted by cloud or rain. The Torres themselves were mightily impressive, imperiously dwarfing the surrounding region. We saw a few more glaciars, the most readily visible being the Grey Glaciar, though none compare to the Perito Moreno. We walked in forests, besides glacial lakes, through flat grassy meadows, over huge boulders and moraine. Very varied really.

It is certainly a great time to be here in the South of Patagonia, spring is definitely in the air. Budding trees robed in new, bright green spring colours. A host of birds chirruping from the sidelines as we walked. Mating pairs of geese quietly courting. Hopefully the photos will do justice to the vivid greens against the backdrop of bright blue sky with white snow-capped mountains, with bright red flowering trees in the foreground. But I don´t want too much talk of spring to depress those of you who are heading into winter, having just put the clocks back!

It was certainly one of the best walks we have done, but that was due in a large part to the sunshine. Had it been wet and rainy, with poor views, then we would cetainly not have enjoyed it as much! It was pretty windy on a few days, one in particular was probably the strongest winds I have ever been in. And we were camping in it! We also met some great people, in particular a retired Headmaster of a primary school in Tower Hamlets, an Aussie couple, and a couple of very affable Swedes, who, of course, spoke better English than most people who live near our flat in London.

Just before finishing the W-circuit we heard a rumour that Dubya had won the election, though it was not clear if that was an outright victory or before any legal challenges by the Kerry team Only when we got back to town did we have confirmation of the result. Oh well.

Wildlife in black and white

Location: El Calafate, Southern Patagonia, Argentina (though not far from Chile)

Puerto Madryn: whales, penguins, dolphins, elephant seals, celebrity spotting and a cup of tea.
Barriloche: glorious lakes and snow capped mountains
El Calafate: stunning glaciars
Chaltén: trekking in rugged mountains near to Fitz Roy

After Buenos Aires we went to Puerto Madryn, on the Atlantic coast, the starting point for trips to Peninsula Valdez. This is one of the most diverse and important areas for marine life on the continent, and now is the right time of year to see it.

The first trip was to the peninsula itself, with the main draw being whales. But before we got to see them we stopped at a couple of places on the way. Elephant seals are massive, by any measure. Up to 4 tonnes. So named because of a trunk like nose, there is a real resemblance to elephants especially when they yawn. It is an easy life being a dominant, male elephant seal. Very little activity, chasing off the odd intruding male whilst watching over your harem of 20+ females. With such body weight it is hard to be elegant when shuffling to and from the sea. Normally they require a pause, maybe to get their breath back, after about 10 "paces". Invariably they just then slump forward as if it has all suddenly become a little too much effort. We´ve also seen some who just can´t be bothered to lift their head when moving and have ploughed a furrow in the shingle with their face.

At the moment there are pups in the groups on the shore, they are suckled for about 40 days and then left to fend for themselves. Of course this is nature, not a controlled, zoo-environment, and there was a group of giant petrels picking at the floating corpse of a pup, as it was rolled around by the surf.

The next stop was to see a small colony of Magellan penguins, but more of them later.

Then is was the whales, the main point of the day. Southern right whales are found in the New Gulf, the southern gulf of the Peninsula Valdez, since this is a sheltered area that is suitable for giving birth. There are now no more mating groups, which, opposite to the elephant seals, have one female and many males all jostling for position. But there are calves, and there were amazing to watch. There were a huge number of whales in the gulf, almost wherever you look on the horizon you can see tails silouhetted against the sky. I wasn´t quite sure just how close the boat would be able to get to them. The answer is very close. They were swimming right beside us and under us. The females are about 12-15m long, and it is a little surreal to see an animal that large. Even the calves are probably 7-8m long.

On the drive around the peninsula we even saw some armadillos. The last time I saw one of those it was on my plate in Guatemala!

The following day we had a trip south to the largest easily accessible colony of Magellan penguins, larger colonies presumably exist in Antarctica.

There was not a huge amount of movement from them, since they are currently incubating eggs. The odd one or two was heading off to, or back from, the sea, to swap duties with his/her partner. When watching penguins it is hard not to think of them as little people. They are slightly comical and ungainly when walking anyway. But watching them stagger down a shingle beach was like watching minature, drunk aristocrats tottering home after a party, like something out of a novel by Evelyn Waugh.

They have nests a long way from the beach, and 1km is a long waddle to get home after going out for lunch. They dig holes to keep the eggs partially protected, from the sun mainly since there is always one of them on guard. The coast was very beautiful, with clear blue water lapping at rugged shorelines.

Also that day we had a trip out to see dolphins. Small, black and white ones that look as though they are the product of a genetic experiment to breed orcas with dolphins. They playfully followed the boat around, we were without company for no longer than a few minutes.

Previously, in Northern Argentina, we had passed through a place called Tafi del Valle, which is not one of Argentina`s Welsh colonies. But on the way back to Puerto Madryn we did stop at such a Welsh village, Gaiman. In the late part of the 19th century, encouraged by economic aid from the Argentine government, they settled in Patagonia. They may have been fleeing to ensure the survival of their culture, after being oppressed by the English, or it could be that they were trying to avoid paying taxes. I suppose which version you believe depends on where you natural sympathies lie.

One of the gastronomic highlights of the last few months was to be found in a little Welsh tea shop, owed and run by the grand-daughter of one of the original settlers. A decent cup of tea, the first since London, and a very generous plateful of home made cakes, plus scones, home made bread and home made jam. Just lke the Sunday evenings from my childhood, and just as good. So we stuffed our faces and dranks pints of tea until sated. Very memorable, and enough of a reminder to make us miss England a little.

Another long couple of bus journeys got us to Barriloche, a sweet little town on the shores of a beautiful lake, with views all the way across to the mountains on the opposite shore. Or that is what it is like on a good day. When we arrived it was snowing, heavy, thick, wet snow. Very un spring-like. Fortunately the next couple of days we had some great weather, clear skies and sun (though still bitterly cold). There is some great walking to be done round here, there are many lakes all surrounded by snowy mountains. Forests reach down to the water, but you can get above the tree line, and on one day the snow line, for some amazing views. The mountains are littered with huge chunks of granite, left by the last ice age. Many are the size of large cars, some the size of small houses. This is some of the most amazing mountain scenery we have seen.

We then hopped on a plane to get to El Calafate, 2hr flight rather than sit on a bus for about 36 hours. This is glaciar country, and the National Park hosts more than 300 of them. The most accessible and commonly visited is Perito Moreno. We have seen glaciars in Peru, and even skied on them in Europe, but this was a "classic" glaciar. A huge sheet of ice, about 5km by 30km, stretching down to a lake, with the front face periodically falling into the lake. The upper surface is about 50-70m above the water, and the ice reaces down to the lake bed, 120-170m below the surface. The sound of massive pieces of ice shearing from the face is so much louder than you would expect. And the splash has to be seen to be believed. This is the reason why this glaciar is a tourist destination: you are almost guaranteed to see large pieces falling from it. We saw some massive lumps split off and just happening to be looking the right way at the time. So much of the time you are gazing at part of it, and by the time you hear the sound, or notice some movement you have missed it fall and just see the huge wave spread out from the base. The compacted ice refracts light is such a way to give it that pale, yet vivid blue hue. The lakes formed by glacial flows have a suspension of fine matter in them, and so appear a milky turquoise, glorious on a sunny day. This glaciar is one of the best things we have seen in the last 5 months, and that is an accolade that is becoming harder to bestow as we progress.

El Calafate is also the starting point for trips to Chaltén and the surrounding mountains. This town only exists to provide for trekkers and climbers, and the location is amazing. The huge granite towers of Fitz Roy dominate the skyline. The area here is much more rugged than in Bariloche, not quite as picture-postcard, but impressive. We had a couple of good walks of 5 & 7hrs, but the snow blowing down from the mountains meant that the jagged peaks were not visible. That is until the last day, when we saw them when leaving on an early bus. A bit disappointing to have been thwarted by the weather, but we have been lucky elsewhere, so you have to take the rough with the smooth. They say you can get all four seasons in one day here (much like Centre Court in that respect then) but we only really saw the tail end of spring.

Now that we are quite far south it has been nice to have some longer evenings, which we missed during the European summer since we were too near to the equator. Next stop is over the border in Chile.

El Rio Plata

Location: Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay

A bit more on Buenos Aires, another World Cup Qualifier, and a trip to Montevideo in Uruguay.

Buenos Aires
I said before that BsAs has a very European feel to it, it`s what all people who come here say. But it also has a latin side that sits incongruously on top. In all the big cities we have been to we have seen a lot of poverty. But it is slightly less expected here, where there are broad, sweeping, tree-lined avenues that lead from one grand building to another; where there are designer shops, with all the major labels represented; where people dress well; where most of the city is not dirty and crowded; where there are smart cafes and smart cars; where there is a decent and clean underground system.

In a city like La Paz, where there a markets on the pavements and there is a clear "developing world" aspect to the city, you expect to see a lot of poverty. And you do. So it has been quite shocking to see the after effects of the peso crisis of a few years ago. In some parts of the city, near to the hotels and shopping areas, there are many people pushing shopping trolleys filled with what appear to be worthless bits of rubbish. Every pile of bin bags has someone rooting through it, searching for anything of value.

It would have been very interesting to have been here 5 years ago, to see how things have changed. We have not really spoken to anyone about their country`s slide from being the richest place in South America, it`s a hard subject to broach. There are frequent demonstrations, both weekends we have been here. It is hard to tell exactly what their cause is, there are the usual suspects, the rent-a-mob with red banner adorned with pictures of Lenin. Much the same as the Socialist Workers who seem to be omnipresent in the UK (perhaps with the exception of the pro-hunting demos?!). There is graffiti daubed on walls with the IMF as the target, and for those who have read Globalisation and Its Discontents by Stiglitz, former big cheese in the IMF, then it is clear why they are the target.

On the subject of speach, a word on their accents. We learnt in Ecuador, where (apparently) they have very clear pronunciation, the equivalent of "BBC English". Here in Argentina they have an accent that does cause us problems. All the y and ll becomes more of a sh. So here it sounds like everybody is trying to do an impression of Sean Connery trying to shhpeak Shhpanishh.

Goooooooooooooool Argentina!!!!!!!!!
More football. After seeing Ecuador beat Colombia for the first time in ages back in May, there is now another round of World Cup qualifiers. But you all know that because you were probably busy watching us beat Wales and Azerbajhan. We haven`t managed to get the timing right with a Brazil match, but seeing Argentina is clearly the next best thing. The match against their "brother" country, Uruguay, doesn`t hold quite the appeal of a clash with Brazil or Colombia, and Uruguay are not the force they once were, but there is a certain local rivally that still makes it quite a big game.

It was held at the River Plate stadium, a capacity of about 80,000 and there were probably about 65,000 there. Argentina walked into a 3-0 halftime lead, and eventually ran out winners 4-2. Class prevalied, and even 4-2 was flattering to Uruguay. Not quite the spectacle I had expected, not much torn paper fluttering through the air, not many bog rolls diving towards the pitch, but it still had that latin feel. Not as constantly noisy as the game we saw at the Maracana in Rio, but a great event at a great stadium.

It is of course hard for any England fan to support Argentina, for ahost of reasons, but we did and were glad to do so. We had hoped to finish the day, after the football in the afternoon, with a curry. We had found an indian restaurant in BsAs and Saturday night was the ideal time to try it. Unfortunately they were shut! Saturday night! So we had to have a wonderful slab of fillet steak instead, which was very tasty, but we`d been looking forward to a curry for about 3 months! We did manage to have a Thai meal the first day we got to BsAs, which was also something that had been long anticipated. The food here is very good, as it was in Rio, but it would be nice to have a little more variety, with SE Asian and Indian food top of the list.

We took a city tour, to get to see a few places we might not otherwise have seen. La Boca, home to Boca Juniors football club, is also home to the old docks and the birthplace of tango, originally a dance between men who worked in the docks. It was only after the tango received recognition in London and Paris, 30 years afetr its birth, that it became accepted by the middle and upper classes in Argentina. La Boca is also famous for brightly coloured houses, the tradition having been started when they were painted with the leftovers of the paints used for ships.

Part of the old town has markets and tango dancing in the streets on Sunday. A touch touristy, but a very pleasant few hours nonetheless. The flea market had lots of old coins, banknotes (in particular those from the old regime in Iraq were prominently on show) and a lot of stamps. Given the passion for football here there is a set of stamps to commerate every World Cup, and every time they won the trophy too. A set dedicated to Maradona`s team of 1986, including some of huis first "wonder goal" against England. I was going to ask whether they had any stamps showing the "hand of God" incident, but thought better of it.

Uruguay
The day after the football we set off to Uruguay. Montevideo is, like Asuncion, a capital with the feel of a large town. Sadly the first day we were there it was a bank holiday, so nearly everything was shut. So there was nothing else for it but a couple of trips to the cinema, with a cheap haircut (80p) in between to fill the gap. (The 80p haircut is slightly uneven, and I`m still wondering whether to let Phillippa at it with the scissors on my Swiss army penknife. She`s quite keen but this is potentially the most risky thing I`ve done since we left the UK.)

The following day it was tanking down with rain, but that didn`t put us off having a wander round. A pleasant place, but not a huge amount of great note to recommend. The Mercado del Puerto is an old iron structure (similar to Smithfield market) that now contains lots of restaurants. Of course, they all offer very good steaks, so we had another big slab of meat and a bottle of Uruguayan wine.

A whole day of fairly heavy rain seemed a bit odd to us. Aside from some rainy days in the rainforest it has only rained on a handful of ocasions. A bit of drizzle in Rio, some snow in southern Bolivia and in Peru and the rest of the last 5 months has been dry. Yes, every day has been dry. I`m sure that those of you in the UK can´t lay say that for the last 5 months.

Colonia del Sacremento is the other place that the boats from BsAs go to, in addition to direct to Montevideo. A delightful small town, quite sleepy, aside from the cars with massive stereo systems that circle round the centre with propaganda for their chosen political party, the presidential elections are in about 2 weeks. Strangely these elections are not getting as much coverage as the election. We`ve managed to catch more of the election coverage than we ever would have done at home, the odd place we stay in has CNN or BBC World. We even saw the first debats, the VP debate and the final debate, though the last one was simultaneously dubbed into Spanish. In fact we have (obviously) seen more TV in the last 5 months than in the last 4 years! But I digress.

Colonia has a picture-postcard perfect old quarter, on the headland, with cobbled streets, pavement cafés and a lighthouse, which offers excellent views of the town. For anyone going to BsAs I would highly recommend a couple of days in Colonia. Of course we had a couple of decent 4cm thick slabs of steak here too.

It was a bit disappointing not to get to see the countryside at an estancia or ranch. We looked into it but it is not the tourist season here and it didn`t seem that easy to organise, and we only had a few days in Montevideo. Uruguay was well worth a week, but it is not the sort of place that you would come all the way from Europe for. It does mean that I`ve now been to all the countries that have won the World Cup!

We left Uruguay and are now leaving BsAs tonight, heading south. No more big cities now in South America, back to the countryside, trekking and to seeing some of the amazing flora and fauna here.

Yet more vineyards

Location: Buenos Aires

Continuing the boozers`tour with some wine in Mendoza, then onto to Buenos Aires, and an update on the infamous kidnap story.

Last time I left you it was before an overnight bus to Mendoza, which actually passed off OK. The long distance buses here (and in Chile & Peru) have been very good, far better than National Express in the UK, often even the cheap ones on the long routes are Semi-cama, which have reasonable leg room and OK reclining seats. Certainly much more comfortable than flying. So it has not been as bad, spending all these hours on buses, as I had anticipated. Anyway, 15 hours on a bus is certainly preferable to 15 hours in the office.

Although the vineyards we went to in Cafayate, on our cycle tour of the region, were beautiful they were small scale, one producing just 20,000 bottles a year. Mendoza is the big wine region of Argentina, so we had to go an explore here too. The books say it is a bit of an effort to get to the vineyards by local bus but this is not really true, and by about 11am we were sipping our first tastings of the day. The vineyards in the Mendoza region are not as attractive as those in the north. They are large scale operations, without the beautiful backdrop of mountains and countryside, some are near to the Mendoza Industrial estate on the edge of town.

We visited 3 places, had a very nice, long lunch and spent an afternoon with 2 great Americans, who have done pretty much the same route as us in the same time. We were talking about trekking in Peru, after comparing tales of climing Huaya Potosi, when they said that they had heard that there had been some problems near Huayhuash in early July.

"Ahh, funny you should say that, it was us..."

There were stories circulating around the backpackers that we had had all our clothes taken, not sure whether they thought that we had walked off the mountain in boots and boxer shorts. They had heard most of the details, mostly reasonably accurately too.

Then on 1 October I received an email from the British doctor who lives in Peru, our translator during our time under guard on top of the mountain pass. On 27 September, 4 Israelis, in their 20s, were attacked by 4-6 bandits in exactly the same area as we were. Reports suggest that one was shot dead, though some rumours say all 4 have been killed. It is said that all, including the Peruvian staff, were very bady injured and all needed hospital treatment.

So perhaps we were luckier than we appreciated at the time. Or maybe, after 3 years of military training, the Israelis decided not to "collaborate" as fully as we did and tried to be heroes. Maybe the fact that repeatedly assured us that we would not be shot was not just idle scare tactics but was based on the premise that they saw such action as a very possible option available to them.

The kids here seem to have slightly, to our eyes, uniforms. White lab-coats. Or brown lab-coats. This applies for ages between about 6 and 14. So sometimes on a local bus a mass of kids descends and it looks like a convention for under-age doctors (or school caretakers, or mini Arkwright impersonators, "G-g-g-g-get your c-cloth, G-g-granville").

Buenos Aires
Another fairly chunky bus journey from Mendoza, this was scheduled to be about 15hrs. Sadly, due to mechanical problems, we sat in a layby from about 1am to 5am, meaning it ended up being just short of a 20hr trip. We had the foresight to book the deluxe seats, which was a good thing. But the promise of an evening meal and breakfast were not kept to, so it was a long time without food. Luckily we had stuffed our faces that afternoon at another tenedor libre, all-you-can-eat place. We´ve seen some fairly rubbish films on buses over the last few months, and for this journey we had a Steve Martin film that we hadn`t even heard of, possibly a straight to video candidate. And whereas most films have been subtitled, this was dubbed. The dodgy DVD had a soundtrack that started at about 50% missing and ended up at about 90% missing. But this was a great relief, not only because of the language, but because they had the volume so high that even with ear plugs in it was too loud. Without ear plugs there would have been blood trickling from our ears.

BsAs itself seems, from the couple of days we have had so far to be very pleasant. As people say, it is very European, the view from our hotel balcony could almost be of a boulevard in Paris, and a whole host of the important municipal buildings appear to be heavily influenced by French styles. Lots of very attractive parks dotted throughout the city. The old docks area has been tarted up, in much the same way as it has in towns and cities in the UK. Nice apartments and decent restaurants.

We have a few more days here, including a concert at the main opera house (wrong season for opera) and then on Saturday is another big World Cup 2006 qualifier, Argentina at home to neighbours Uruguay.

More Vineyards

Location: Mendoza, Western Argentina

In which we go to Paraguay, gorge ourselves on steak, visit more vineyards, and cycle 50km across a desert in the middle of the day.

After Iguacu we hopped on a bus and went to Ascuncion in Paraguay. On the way we had to pass through the border town of Ciudad del Este, a known as the supermarket of South America, for the mass of electronic stores, and shops selling just about everything else.

We asked a few people, at the hotel and a travel agency, what we should see or do in PAraguay, and they all said that there really is not much to do. And these are the people in the tourist industry! For one day we took a tour around some of the villages surrounding the capital, seeing a few churches and the farms that abound throughout the countryside. The following morning we had a city tour of Ascuncion. Again, as we have seen elsewhere, they have slum areas very near to the heart of the city. In this case right next to the presidential building. Paraguay was interesting to a point, but I`m not sure I would recommend a visit there.

From Ascuncion it was only about 5 hours to Resistencia in Northern Argentina. This involved a fairly intense time at the border crossing. It took ages to process everyone off all the buses passing that way, which meant a lot of waiting around. There were a lot of unsavoury types just hanging around, offering to help with bags etc. The Paraguayan boder chap who dealt with our passports warned us to be extremely careful as there were lots of Argentinian thieves about. He may have been being unfair to assume they were all Argentinian, but it made for a nervous time, not helped by the fact that the immigration officials kept our everyone`s passports to be handed back by the driver. I`m never keen on letting mine out of my sight.

On the road into Argentina from the border we were greeted by a massive road sign proclaiming that the Malvinas are Argentinian. Every town we have been to has a street called Malvinas Argentinas and we`ve spotted one chap on a bus with bracelet saying the same thing (although he was probably too young to have been born in ´82). On checking the Americas section of BBC news one of the top stories is of a kid on a killing spree in a school in the south of the country, and the name of the school? Islas Malvinas. So it seems like this is still a sore point, unless these are all hangovers from the days of the Military dictatorship who invaded the Falklands.

The people we have met to date have probably been the most friendly and helpful we have encountered anywhere, which makes it much more pleasant travelling around, and there certainly isn`t the edge that we felt in Rio, which is a big plus!

Resistencia was a sleepy town with not much going on. We had thought about visiting the Chaco region but the transport was limited and virtually nothing was open over the weekend so we just left after a day of slobbing around trying to find somewhere open to eat.

So off to Salta. This put us not far from where we were a couple of months ago, just south of the Unyuni salt flats and a east of San Pedro de Atacama. But we`ve covered a lot of ground since then. Salta is a large city, but the centre has the feel of a smaller place, with a very pretty central square. We had been waiting for Argentina to get hold of some good steak and abottle of red wine. We were not disappointed here. It was a long overnight bus trip to get to Salta, so the first day was just taken up with strolling about and taking a well deserved siesta.

Cachi
Salta was really just a start point to get to Cachi, even though it was itself pleasant enough. Cachi is a very small town of about 7,000 people. They take their siesta time very seriously here too, which is something I could get used to. The countryside shows multi-coloured strata, with reds and pinks layered with yellows and dark grey-green. Lots of candelabra cacti everywhere, it is classic desert scenery. You almost expect to turn the corner and see Wily Coyote with a box of Acme dynamite. We had a very enjoyable walk to a nearby town, Cachi Adentro, about 20km there and back. Every step we were accompanied by a dog from the point where we started. A friendly little chap, who was always ready to wait for us when we had a water break, or over lunch. He looked like a cross between a golden labrador and a dachshund, so had legs that appeared to be ridiculously short for it.

Cachi was very relaxing, quiet and just what was need for a few days. Unfortunately the links between Cachi and Cafayate are very limited and it was slightly easier to get a 4.5hr bus back to Salta and take another 4.5hr bus the following day to Cafayate.

Cafayate is also a small town, also with a picturesque square, perfect for an early evening beer, whilst waiting until a suitably late hour to go off for dinner. Here people seem to go out at about 10pm, which can be difficult for us! Expecially if we had got up at 6am for an early bus. Restaurants only seem to start getting full just as we are asking for the bill.

The scenery here is also incredible, one of the most beautiful places we have been. The micro climate is suited to grapes and there is a flourishing, albeit very small scale, wine industry. One of the vineyards we visited was a family affair, with 3 hectares producing about 20,000 bottles a year.

We had bicycles for 2 days and the first was spent touring from vineyard to vineyard sampling as we went. Very similar to a great day we had in Sonoma Valley a couple of years ago, though the backdrop was more akin to the mountains you can find at Franchoek, South Africa. A more enjoyable day than that we spent touring a vineyard in Chile, since here we didn`t have to spend ages on public transport there and back, though cycling up a long steady incline on dirt tracks got a bit tiring. Both here and in Chile they are very pruod of the fact that they do not add sugar during fermentation, as some Europeans need to, and that they do not spray their vines with any chemicals, as most Europeans need to. The Chileans at Concho y Toro were also very proud of the fact that they have not been blighted by the root disease that affected the rest of the world, and they helped to re-stock French vineyards.

The second day we took an bus 50km back up the same road that we had arrived on by bus. Here the geography is red canyons, with veins of yellow and beige strata. Strange rock formations resulting from the passage of time. It is very beautiful indeed. It is a bit like Utah, but without the fat people or the Mormons.

The road back follows a wide river bed that had a mere trickle flowing through it now. Sadly we were going in the opposite direction to the water, which meant a fairly steady but gentle incline uphill for a lot of the way back. We finally set off about 10.30am, just when it was starting to warm up nicely. Again, cacti dotted both sides of the road, with some scrubby brush that was green near to the river banks. But none of this provided much shade. By the time we found somewhere to stop for lunch it was pretty hot, high 20s, and the fierce sun made it seem much worse. This is not a bike ride I would choose to do in Summer when the temperature reaches 40-45 Celsius. We nearly had a water shortage at the end, despite taking 2 litres each, and had to cut back a little on the drinking in the last 10km, but there was no crisis and it was a very enjoyable, though very tiring day. The next 2 litre bottle of water was empty within about 10 minutes of getting out of the shop door.

We hadn`t slept too well for a few days due to barking dogs and a Saturday night party next door, so were already quite tired. And what is the best way to get over such a tiring day in the heat and sun? Get up at 5am for a 6 hour bus journey, then rest in a park for a few hours before another 12 hours overnight to Mendoza. We currently in between the park and the bus to Mendoza, so the worst it yet to come....

Brazil

Location: Ascunsion, Paraguay

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand... Plus the Iguacu falls.

From Santiago we flew over to Rio de Janeiro, which is a fair way away and as far removed from the cold of the Andes as you can get. Daytime temperatures are mid to high 20s, sometimes low 30s and bikini and flipflops is the regulation uniform. But I´ve stuck to my shorts and T-shirt for now. It is all so casual that it is a bit surreal to start with. Blokes in just speedos (the 70´s retro ones are very "this season") out walking the dog, often even without flipflops, which is a risk given the amount of dogsh*t on the pavements.

As for the girls on the beaches, well it´s not like Margate here.

The Favelas
Brazil, and in particular Rio and Sao Paulo, are infamous for the favelas, slum shanty-towns that circle the cities. It is possible to go on an organised tour (and probably not advisable to just pitch up and wander around). So we went. Very interesting. There are about 600 favelas around Rio, of which abut 200 have electricity and other utilities. The houses are perched on top of each other now, with less space to build around they are building up. Most of the buildings and infrastructure, such as exists, is of a reasonable standard, since many of the locals work in civil engineering or as electricians in Rio.

Apparently it is safe for tourists to visit. The local drug baron, who has almost absolute power over the "town", does not allow any crime to be perpetrated in his territory. The punishments are usually severe. He has an interest in keeping the place safe. a) so that the other locals can go about their lives not in fear, hence he has their support, b) if it is not safe then the middle class users will not come to the favela to buy their drugs. So there may be trouble that overspills in Rio, but the favelas are safe and relatively free from crime. Much like parts of Sicily I imagine.

In the last 6 months there has been an escalation of violence between two adjacent and large favelas, with a battle for territory and control of the drugs trade. This war, and it is a war, includes nighttime invasions and fights using weapons that are more deadly than those available to the police, bazookas among them. Huge amounts of profits go on maintaining market share, much like Unilever or Nestlé really, but here that involves substantial bribes and big defense budgets.

As with many places in South America the divisions between rich and poor are substantial. The 2 favelas that we saw did not seem quite as run down as the slums we saw on the outskirts of Lima, but it did make for fairly grim viewing.

Another film recommendation: City of God, about the Rio favelas and drug barons fighting turf wars, but set in the 1970s. Not one for the faint of heart. (And for those of you who have not yet seen Touching The Void, why not?)

We went to a museum of naif art, ie art that looks like it has been drawn by talentless children. This is a style that is now being taught to kids in the favelas so that they may have another option rather than the grim set of choices that face most of them. But I wouldn`t buy it to hang on my walls at home.

We met up with a friend of a friend and had a very enjoyable evening out with him and his wife, indulging in a few caipirinhas in a part of town that we would not otherwise have gone to. We also got a few tips of places to go etc which was helpful. Unfortunately the following evening we had another spot of bother.

More Problems
My Dad was working here in 1978 for while and was pickpocketed on Copacabana beach. Like father like son, I got mugged in Copacabana too! Though rather than having a bird take off all her clothes to prove she didn´t have any stolen goods on her, we had 2 spaced out kids (probably about 10 & 14): the older one, with eyes like saucers, knew enough English to say he had a gun. I´m not sure he did, but it´s not really worth the risk.

First the little one asked for a handout then his mate appeared and grabbed my shirt before asking for cash, so, after initially refusing, I gave him a bit but he said he wanted it all. So he got it all. In the words of our Peruvian kidnappers, we collaborated with them! He only got about £20-25, so not worth a whole day in the cop shop for a police report for insurance. I´m a bit annoyed and irritated more than anything. At such times a bit of expertise in martial arts would be immensely satisfying. It was on a reasonably busy road just one block away from the beach, at about 8pm. There were a few people around but nobody did anything. Just as well we made a point of never carrying wallets or much of value when out and about.

The following afternoon, whilst on our way from the bus to another part of town we were warned by a benevolent local chap that a gang of kids were following us, and this was in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon. We had already noticed them in the square we passed through, but hadn´t recently looked over our shoulders. So we ducked out into a cinema were we saw Farenheit 911, which we had planned to see later that day anyway.

We were just starting to quite like Rio, but all this has soured it slightly.

So this all left us with a poor impression of Rio, we needed a change of scene and headed down the coast to Ilha Grande, a big island on the costa verde, about 2.5 hrs south of Rio then a 2hr ferry ride. A few days of reading, on a golden beach, with emerald green water and a forest that stretches from the beach up the hillsides. Very relaxing and a well earned rest after being busy for quite a few weeks now and after the hustle, bustle and hassle of Rio. The only problem was that we have now nearly run out of books and need to find another book exchange! Sitting on the beach in the evening enjoying some wonderful seafood is very relaxing.

We then headed back to Rio for a couple of days, one of the reasons being was to go to a football match in the Maracana stadium. Built to be the largest stadium in the world for the 1950 World Cup (which they lost to Uruguay), it did hold about 180,000 before they reduced the capacity for FIFA and it is now just 105,000. We saw Flamengo v Fluminese, one of the biggest games in domestic football featuring 2 of the biggest teams in Rio, a bit like a a north London derby. It is known as “FluFla”, and unfortunately Fla lost. I saw unfortunately since we we sitting in with the die-hard Flamengo fans. Although there were probably only 40-50,000 fans it was incredibly noisy. (I was a bit surprised that a Sunday afternon game between two such big clubs did not attract a bigger crowd, but they made up in passion what they lacked in numbers). I had a Flamengo cap back in 1978, so I could almost legitamately claim to be a Fla fan. Certainly a highlight for me of our time in Rio, Wembley may have claimed in 1996 that football was “coming home” but perhaps it´s spiritual home is really here in Brazil.

The match itself was quite a languid, lazy, latin affair. But there certainly weren`t any players with a skill level comparable to that of Carlton Palmer on show.

Watching people playing football on the beach, on the multitude of pitches in the parks, so can see why they tend to produce players with much higher levels of skill. Whilst we were running round the park, booting the ball on a full sized pitch, playing 4-a-side (learning about the long ball game), our Brazilian counterparts were busy developping close control by playing beach foot-volleyball. Same rules as beach volleyball, 2-a-side, but all done without hands.

Also during our second trip to Rio, after the beaches, we went up the Corcovado, the Christ The Redeemer statue that overlooks the city. It is the iconic representation of Rio, famous the world over. The views from the top are impressive, allegedly better than from the Sugar Loaf (which we didn`t go up), since from the Corcovado you can see the whole city around you. Coriocas (the people of Rio) say that the statue welcomes visitors with open arms, as the city does. Well, we did meet a lot of very friendly and helpful people, who were happy to tolerate our efforts to communicate in Spanish not Portuguese. However, we also we greeted by a few people who had slightly less friendly intentions.

After the football we had a 22hr bus ride to Foz do Iguacu, and it was a fairly crappy bus too. But on arrival, after minimal sleep and rest, we headed off to the Brazilian side of the Iguacu falls. The following day we went to the Argentinian side. The Brazilian side does has some large scale panoramic views, but on the Argentinian side you can get to walk on catwalks right over the top of some of the bigger falls. There are, apparently, about 270 waterfalls here, stretching for about 4.5km. It is very hard to describe just how impressive it all is, and should be on any tourist´s itinerary. We took some photos, though did succumb to what we call "Sydney Harbour Bridge Syndrome", whereby you plan not to take any more photos but end up taking at least another 10 because there always seems to be a view more deserving of a photo. There really is not much that can be said about the Iguacu falls, you have to see it to believe it, and it has certainly gone straight into our top 5 for the last 4 months.

The noticable thing about Rio and Brazil (aside from the costs which are all much higher than anywhere we have been so far) is that the food here is quite good, as a general rule. In the Andean countries you could find good food occasionally at a price, but at the cheaper end it was all deep fried XYZ + chips. Here they have nice vegetables and salads, fresh produce. And most importantly great fruit juices, many of which you cannot find in the UK and some fruits for which there isn´t even an English name. Açaí is a firm favourite and luckily can be found in the ubiquitous juice bars. In an effort to try to more unusual fruits we gambled a bit on the extensive menu list. My first pick turned out to be nothing more exotic than strawberry, which was fine. But I wasn`t to be put off trying to find something less ordinary. The choise is either to have the juice with a little water (if it is particularly thick by itself) or with milk. For my next choice I picked another unknown word. Unfortunately I received a pint of beetroot juice! it could have been worse, it could have had milk in it.

They also have restaurants where you pay by weight, with extensive cake options for pudding which rather increases the risk of reversing the accumulated benefits of having spent the first 3 months on small rations whilst doing lots of exercise. Churrascorias are a popular eating option here. A salad buffet with waiters coming round the tables with huge skewers of huge lumps of barbecued meat, to be carved at the table. Fantastic quality and a very large selection of cuts of meat.

So Brazil was a mixed bag. We could have really liked Rio, but ended up not seeing as much as we would have liked since it felt a little unsafe. The waterfalls are stunning, (but much better from the Argentinian side). We never intended to spend much time in Brazil, a huge country that could easily absorb all of our 12 months, but a small taster was interesting. We also never planned to go to Paraguay, and here we are.

War and Peace

Location: Santiago, Chile

We have travelled down through Northern Chile, through the Atacama, stopping off in La Serena on the way. We did not see much of the Atacama, since it was an overnight bus. (A reasonably comfortable bus too, not quite club class, but it compared well to Premium Economy.) The north of Chile used to belong to Bolivia, Antofogasta was Bolivia's exit to the world. But after Chile marched into the region in the War of the Pacific (1880s) the subsequent peace treaty left Bolivia landlocked. In that war Chile got as far as Lima in Peru, which is a long way north. As with many wars it was fought for economic reasons, with Chile stealing Bolivia's nitrate resources. Poor old Bolivia has had a tough time with all her neighbours over the years, losing land to Brazil and Peru too.

Now that we are in Chile things have really changed. Women have prams for their babies, rather than just bundling them in a shawl around their back. Life is much more western (ie rich) here and the people look far more European than they did in the other 3 countries.

But it isn`t just the infrastructure that is better here, or the fact that the traffic lights are exactly the same as those in the UK. The music is better too. And this matters, as anyone who has spent many hours on South American buses will tell you.

Bus drivers and their conductors (not so much conductors as someone just leaning out of the bus yelling place names) love to believe that all the passengers want some music. The problem is that the music in most places tends to be

a) pan pipes
b) very bad

not that a) cannot also be b).

Pan pipes is a cliché, but it is also true. An invariably it is some rehashed version of a classic Beatles track, or their all-time favourite that is a Simon & Garfunkel number. Not sure why they think that Western tourists would like to listen to Western songs being mauled by them, but there is no escaping from the ubiquitous sound of Yesterday or Imagine.

The "pop" songs are tragic, and would be comically so if we were not trapped on a bus. Try to imagine the worst Eurovision entries from Southern Europe. Even Stock, Aitken and Waterman would be ashamed to have these songs on their CVs. Even Sonya would have turned these tunes down. Often one tape will be replayed again and again for the whole of an 8 hour journey.

La Serena and Vicuña
About 7 hours north of Santiago is the Elqui valley, home to some of the world's largest telescopes. Still being a bit of a physicist at heart this was one place we couldn't skip´, and we took a tour of one of the few observatories that is open to the public at night. Mopst of the information was a little too basic for my liking but the views of star clusters etc were worth the trip. The valley is also home to the Pisco industry, Chile's national drink. (A slightly different version is also Peru's national drink, as in Pisco sour). Since it was my birthday, we had a little tour and taste. Not something I would order in a bar, but nice enough whilst at the distillery.

Santiago
A modern city, with a clean underground that reminds me a bit of those in Paris and Hong Kong. Glass skyscrapers, modern cars, and the hustle and bustle that did exist elsewhere, but it has a more Western look to it.

We've been up the coast to Valpairiso, where the congress is based. Formerly an important port, but less so nowadays. Surrounded by hills, parts are quite attractive, but it's not a place that I would recommend to anyone with limited time. But a nice relaxing break for us, and a great lunch at a French restaurant run by a bloke from Montpellier.

A Night at the Opera
We had done a bit of web research before arriving and knew that Rigoletto was on that day we arrived. The website showed the only available tickets at $130!! But we managed to get seats at the back of the amphitheatre for a lot less than that from the box office a few hours before curtain up. A sumptous interior to the opera house and a good performance of my favourite opera capped the end of a belated birthday celebration. The only slight irritation was that quite a few of the people in the cheap seats (ie where we were) seemed to think it was acceptable to behave in the same way as they would in a cinema, so there were some distractions to endure. But it didn't spoil a great evening.

Skiing in August!
Whilst the UK has been ending what we understand to have been a very wet August, with a bank holiday no doubt also filled with rain, we have been hitting the slopes!

Only about 90 min drive from Santiago are a few resorts so we did 2 day trips with Total Ski to Valle Nevado (all the hotels were full, and very expensive too). It does make it a long day since taking a tube, faffing around to get all the gear on the roof of a minibus plus the drive makes it nearly 3 hrs each way from hotel to slopes. But worth it anyway.

I had wanted to tell you about the wonderful powder snow we had, since apparently the snow in the Andes is not like that in the Alps, and is supposedly of a better quality. But it has been very warm here for the last few days, and probably before too, so it was all a bit mushy and soggy, which was a shame. But it was fine for 2 days and slightly surreal for an August Bank Holiday weekend.

Vineyards
There are a number of regions near to Santiago and we went to the Maipo Valley to Concha y Toro for a tour and taste. Sadly they don`t have a restaurant so we couldn`t stay for lunch.

As for War and Peace, of the literary type, rather than a reference to the local history, well I've finished it, and it is the sort of book that requires the kind of time that only really becomes available when not working! Definitely recommended. But I'm not sure I agree with Tolstoy's views on the inevitability of the progress of events and history.

So that's both books that we left London with finished and now we are into the realms of trying to swap books, and trying to find something that isn't airport trash. We've been lucky enough to find a copy of The Times here in Santiago, and The Economist so we have something to sustain us on forthcoming bus journeys.

We've been following some of the Olympics on the web, and in some hotels we've had CNN. Seems like we have had a good games this time. Pity poor old Paula couldn't match the performance that she put in when she raced against us two in the '03 London Marathon.

The big story that dominated the media here for days was Chile´s first ever Olympic gold medal, in the men`s doubles. This was then followed up by their second ever medal in the men`s singles, meaning a double gold for Nicolas Massu. We saw the latter part of the doubles and the atmosphere was great, though quite restrained for a country`s first ever gold. Most people had left the bar by the time the medals were presented and the anthem was played.

The other big story from here is that Pinochet`s immunity from prosecution has been overturned. Interesting time to be here in Chile.

Sucre, Potosi, Uyuni and the salt flats

Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile, near the Bolivian border

After leaving La Paz we flew to Sucre. (It`s certainly nice being a little more financially solvent than the Gap Year backpackers, it does enable us to skip the odd long bs journey.) Sucre, the capital, is a quaint little white town (or the colonial centre at least is white). Nice for a couple of days relaxing, but not a huge amount to do. The only thing we did, other than relax in the warm sun for the first time in almost a couple of months, was visit some 65 million year dinosaur footprints. Originally beside a lake the techtonic movements have pushed the rocks up to an angle of about 75 degrees, with tracks appearing to stretch upwards in a gravity defying manner.

From Sucre it was Potosi next. There is a hill, "Rich Hill" behind the town that sustained the Spanish Empire for many decades. Huge amounts of silver were found, extracted and shipped off to Spain. Some say that the amount of silver taken from the mine could be used to build a bridge of solid metal from Potosi to Spain, but who knows if that is true. Potosi is the highest city of its size in the world, at about 4,100m. In its heyday, in the 16th century, it was bigger than London, Paris or Seville. Its fame was widely known, and even Don Quixote referred the its wealth, in a similar way to the expression "all the tea in China".

The mine is still a working site, with about 6,000 people in it. It is possible to ake a tour of one of the mines, so we did.

Conditions have not changed much in the last few hundred years. Carts are pushed y hand along rails, there are no mechanical drills and all the ore is shifted by shovel. To make a hole for inserting dynamite in the rock face there is a blke with a long metal stake and a hammer. It can take anwhere from 3 to 10 hours to make one hole about 60cm deep. Hard work: it`s dusty, some Arsenic exists, toxic gases, risk of collapse, 10 hour days without sunlight or food. They don`t eat in the mines since anything would just get contaminated leading to ingestionof chemicals. The only thing that keeps them going is chewing coca leaves, just as the miners did 500 years ago.

It´s a brutal reminder that a lot of the world has to endure harsh working conditions, with virtually no health and safety standards. 90% of the miners said, in a survey, that they didn´t like their job but that they had no other option. They tend to start at the age of 13 or 14, and have a life expectancy of about 50, with most ending up with silicosis, a lung disease. We spent about 3 hours inside, crawling on hands and knees, walking through tunnels with low ceilings and scrabbling up and down makeshift ladders. It is hard work, partly due to the altitude, partly due to the dust, partly due to the cramped conditions. Although I never felt claustrophic it was certainly nice to get back to fresh air.

The miners here work 10-12 hour days and are paid for what they produce. They have to pay a tax to the state and pay for all their own equipment, as they are effectively self-employed. Most take home about US$4-5 per day. As the guide (an ex-miner) said, it makes you appreciate your job.

From Potosi to Uyuni, where tours to the famous salt flats start. Day one involves a short drive to the salt flat. On the way there we stopped at a salt processing "factory", really a very simple operation involving drying the salt and bagging it. 50kg for 6Bs, (about 40 pence). Not hugely profitable work. Once at the salt plain itself, white stretches all the way to the horizon, then merges, almost seamlessly, with the slightly hazy sky. This part of South America was originally in the sea, but with the creation of the region currently to the West, a massive amount of sea water was retained in lakes. Lakes bounded by mountains with no rivers leaving them.

In the middle of the expanse of white salt are a few volcanic islands, with huge cacti up to 1,000 years old. But aside from the odd place where the horizon is broken it is just blinding white salt.

After leaving the salt flat we had a couple of days driving, in a 4x4, through fairly rugged terrain, passing mountains, volcanoes and lakes of different colours. It is very bleak here, inhospitable and very cold. The last night we had a fair bit of snow, with howling winds. There was ice on the inside of the windows. We were up early and left about 7am to drive off through the snow, not knowing whether we would be able to reach the Chilean border, where we would leave rather than return to Uyuni. At times the driving wind reduced visibility to a couple of meters, which makes it even harder to follow a vague track through rocky ground. We had heard (false) rumours that the snow was about 1m deep up at about 5,000m but this turned out not to be true. We didn´t get to see some geysers, due to the weather, but other than that it just provided us with a slghtly more exciting journey, and some incredible views (when the blizzards subsided).

Of course, as is familiar to readers now, no journey here is complete with some mechanical problem. Our engine stalled and would not restart. After a bit of tinkering, involving ripping some wires out from under the dashboard, we were off again to great relief.

And now we are in Chile. They have roads with tarmac, they even have crash barriers on corners. They have road signs. They have shops like mini-supermarkets. And they have beer that is much better than the rubbish we found in Bolivia. But this ikind of luxury costs, and prices here are higher, though as a border town they are in a position to take advantage of the tourist flows that have to pass this way.

However, despite the comparison above, Bolivia was a great country. More interesting in many ways than either Peru or Ecuador, they have retained much more original Andean culture, and have been diluted less by the modern world. That can lead to problems, but does make for a fascinating time. I´d certainly recommend Bolivia over Peru (especially if a trip to Peru just involves the standard Machu Picchu, Lima, Nazca route).

The World´s Most Dangerous Road

Location: Sucre, Bolivia

La Paz and the surrounding area including Bolivia’s most important pre-Inca site, and cycling down the most dangerous road in the world.

We’ve finally left La Paz now, having been there, on and off, for quite a while. More interesting than Quito or the small amount we saw of Lima. The setting of La Paz is impressive. The flat plain (the alto Plano at about 3,900m) drops off into a bowl shaped valley, where La Paz was founded due to the weather being slightly warmer at a slightly lower altitude (3,500m). There is another city (El Alto, Bolivia`s 3rd largest) on the plateau, though it looks like La Paz overspill rather than a separate entity.

Although most of us were probably taught that La Paz is the capital, it isn’t: Sucre is. In the past Sucre was the most important city, but after a minor revolution the government was moved to La Paz, to pacify the people in that part of the country. But the capital has always remained in Sucre, although all important functions are carried out in La Paz, which is the most important administrative city. We were in La Paz for the celebrations to mark the anniversary of the birth of the Republic of Bolivia, but all the interesting stuff, along with the president and the government had moved back to Sucre for a couple of days. So, there wasn’t much celebrating to see in La Paz.

One of the slightly unsettling things about La Paz is that all the shoeshine boys (1Bs or 7 pence) wear balaclavas, which when we first arrived was a little too much like our captors in Peru. A bit weird until you get used to it. The indigenous people are much more prominent here: old women with bowler hats perched on their heads, colourful clothes, and markets that spill over off the pavements into the streets. We stayed near to the witches´ market, which offers a numbers of interesting souvenir opportunities, such as dried llama foetuses. Sadly it probably would not last the journey home over the next 9 months. Apparently they are used for good luck in association with other items that are burnt as an offering, a tradition that dates back to pre-Inca times.

The most important pre-Inca site in Bolivia is at Tiwanaku, not far from Lake Titicaca. It may well be the last archaeological site we see, no bad thing since we have been to a fair few now. The ruins themselves are not that impressive but we received a wealth of information from a knowledgeable guide. Although some of this info did contradict with other info we have previously received, so it’s not clear what the “official” version of events is. The civilisation based at Tiwanaku was technologically advanced and had an influence that stretched from Colombia to Northern Peru and Argentina. The main ruins were taken apart by the Spanish, with stones used to build churches and houses, as far afield as northern Peru. An interesting day trip, but perhaps a book is needed when we get home to sort out the tangled web of various overlapping cultures that we have encountered so far.

In another day trip from La Paz, a few days before our 6,000m climb, we walked up to 5,600m (though did only start at 5,300m). This provided us with great, though daunting, views of Huyana Potosi, which we would tackle 2 days later. As from the summit of HP the views here were amazing.

The most dangerous road in the world
It’s not clear if this road, a section between La Paz and Coroico, still holds this unofficial title. A few years ago there was reckoned to be one bus or truck over the edge every 2 weeks. Apparently now it is just once a month. So the death toll for a 40km stretch of road has dropped from about 600 to 300 a year. The road is carved out of the side of a very steep cliff in a large valley. The drop, which is near vertical in many places, is up to about 400m. So being too near to the edge, on what is an unpaved, dirty, dusty, rocky road is not a good idea. Generally in Bolivia they drive on the right. On this stretch of road however, all traffic is on the left. This means that the driver, rather than being in the centre of the “road” is much nearer the cliff edge, so is better able to get the tyres right up to the edge without slipping over. That’s the theory, but you can see the odd bit of wreckage over the edge and a lot of crosses all along the road. The left hand edge of the road, when going down, is the dangerous side. We started at about 4,700m and then dropped down to about 1,100m, a big vertical drop in only about 60km.

So we all had to cycle, on the left, about 1-2 metres from the drop off. Most of the time, since you have to concentrate on the bumpy road, you don’t think much about the potentially large fall to one side. Many of the corners are blind, and our Aussie guide frequently reminded us that we should cycle within our ability or, in his words, the corners may be a bit “more exciting for you”. It takes quite a few hours to get down, including a stretch at the top on tarmac, ideal for those of us who have not been on a bike very often in the last 15 years. It was a good day out, though the 4 hour trip back was rather a slow grind back up hill. Fortunately, we passed out of the “most dangerous” section before it was dark. We went with Gravity Assisted Mountain biking, who Ian had previously recommended, and who are touted as the best by all the books. We found them to be extremely professional and would also recommend them to anyone.

So that was the week of some more exciting, dangerous (in a controlled way), and active stuff. Luckily the legs were not too sore from the mountain climbing and had no effect on the cycling. The next few days are, hopefully, going to be more relaxing.